Kya Kare Yaa Naa Kare

Not much to do in Mumbai?? Is it??

So here comes a list of must-do when you are in Mumbai. 

You'd come across the 'Real' Mumbai as they say it. 

Although, this list may not be exhaustive, I guess it covers a significant bit 

1.Sit on the steps of Asiatic Society Library

2.Sit on the tetra pods at Nariman Point, lay down on the promenade and see the boats leaving for high seas at 5 in the morning

3.Count the diamonds of the Queen’s necklace from the Hanging Garden

4.Karaoke at Not Just Jazz by the Bay

5.Ride on the open deck bus Neelambri run by MTDC

6.Check the butterflies at BNHS

7.Dene ka bhow bolo at Fashion Street

8.Catch the sunrise at the Gateway of India and don’t forget to ride the ferry

9.Feed the cows at Panjrapole

10.Search the Fort Wall

11.Ride in the oldest elevator in Navsarri Building,Fort

12.Cheer for your favourite football team at Cooperage Stadium

13.The city's relation with Cricket at Wankhede, Brabourne, Oval, Azad Maidan and the innumerable gullies

14.Visit the INS Vikrant when it is set open for the public in Nov–Dec Navy Week

15.The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum and the Chatrapati Shivaji Museum offer a perfect time to those who want to dig into the history of Mumbai

16.For art lovers: Jehangir Art Gallery, National Gallery of Modern Art and the JJ School of Arts are the places to visit

17.The docks (Sasson, Bhaucha Dhaka) offer an insight into the times of British India. Keep a two minute silence for the dying mills around

18.Wall Street? That’s the Americanised Dalal Street. Hit the 'Bulls' eye!

19.Catch a glimpse of Mumbai University Convocation Hall

20.Music Festival at Banganga Tank and the KalaGhoda Festival

21.Buy books from the roadside vendors at the Fountain (they know their Pulitzers and Bookers) and pay tribute to the martyrs

22.Watch DDLJ at Maratha Mandir

23.Visit Mani Bhawan to get insights into the life of the Mahatma

24.Wake up early in the morning and head to the chor bazaar to get the best discount

25.Byculla Zoo. Don’t even dare to lock your horns with someone over there

26.Laughter Quotient? The Comedy Store at Parel

27.AER Lounge, with an amazing view of the Worli skyline, is the place if you want to groove on some music

28.Bet on the Horses at Mahalaxmi

29.Enjoy virtual star gazing at Nehru Planetarium or sleep under the stars at one of the night trips organized by Khagol Mandal

30.Visit the Haffkine Institute at Parel, and you'd get to know slimy creatures that are more venomous than the vamps of the K-serials

31.Party at HRC,Zenzi, Blue Frog,Shiro and Man-U Cafe that have sprung up in the mill-land and still give that old world feeling

32.Zip across the Bandra Worli Sealink also termed as the heavy duty beauty

33.Visit the forts of Mumbai such as the Bandra Amphitheatre, Mahim Fort, Worli Fort

34.Watch Pink Flamingos throng the Sewri mud flats in the winters.

35.Visit BARC to experience the Nuclear Reactor and get impressed by India's technical prowess. Yup, you actually go inside one.

36.Music Buff?? Head for Bandra Kurla Complex. Someone must be playing there

37.Visit Jalsa or Mananat and ask the watchmen "Abhi andar hai kya"

38.Catch the Sunset at Juhu and simply relax on the sand

39.Enjoy a Play at Prithvi Theatre, NCPA and Gujarati plays at Bhaidas Hall

40.Visit Gilbert Hill the monolith, still fighting for its place among high rises and still standing tall

41.Jump over the Garden Wall to get into the Vihar Lake, before the policeman comes and shoos you away

42.On the rocks at Versova

43.Catch a celebrity at Lokhandwala, BandStand or Juhu Beach

44.Experience the Calm at Marve Beach, ride the shortest ferry in the world from Madh to Versova and walk through the Koliwadas

45.Visit the Film City posing as a student of Whistling Woods International and visit the famous Temple where all the marriages in Bollywood films take    place, or the court where the “Kannon is Andha”

46.Head to the Aarey Milk Colony and enjoy boating at Chotta Kashmir, if its fresh air that you seek

46.Visit the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. If lucky you may spot a leopard. Get to the highest point and see a different Mumbai. Very different

47.The Glory of Indian rock-cut architecture at the Elephanta and Kanheri caves, and the Mahakali caves (very much in the city)

48.Essel World Mein rahoonga mein ghar nahi nahi jaaonga mein. Enjoy a day at Essel World and Water Kingdom. You must visit the Pagoda, next to it

49.Head to the Vasai fort, and experience East Indian culture

50.Sneak into the PandavKhada Waterfall at Kharghar

51.Visit the Buddhist Temple, the Chinese Temple, the Jewish Synagogue, Siddhivinayak Temple, Haji Ali, Mumbai Devi Temple, Mahalakshmi Temple, BAPS Swaminarayan  Mandir, Mother Mary Church, and the Gorai Pagoda. Truly the world in one city

52.Govinda aala re during Dahi Handi and Pudcha varshi lokarya during Ganpati utsav

53.Pray for the incessant rains to stop or head to any of the promenades to see the waves crashing (Marine drive, Priyadarshini Park (BWSL looks amazing in the morning from here), Worli Sea face, Bandstand or Carter Road

54.Pav Bhaji at Sardars, Green Chilli Ice cream at Bachelors, Naturals Ice cream, Thali at Friends Union Joshi Club, Haji Ali Juice Center, Falooda at Chowpatty, Gola at Juhu, Lassi at Malad, Kheer and Fruit Cream at Crystal, Paan at Muchhad Paanwala at Breach Candy, Cafe Mondegar and Leopold, Fererro Rochers Milk shake& Sandwiches at Ice and Rolls, Early morning Bun Maska at Ideal Bakery

55.Dabbawalas – Dude, they are into Harvard and have met Prince Charles

56.Spunky?? Try and get into the Virar Fast in the evenings

57.Find out what bar-coding system do they use at Dhobi Ghat

58.Lose your weight, run the Mumbai Marathon 

     

Hope you have a good time in Mumbai

Well, on later thoughts the title of this blog means 

What to do and what not to do ? I leave it to your own Shakespearean interpretation :-) :-)

P.S. I have tried to arrange them in a geographical order (South to North)

P.P.S. However, some of the things like forts and food-joints have been clubbed together

This P.P.S was highly irrelevant

    

Till then,Blogtey Raho !!

Sleep Under The Stars- KHAGOL MANDAL

Khagol Mandal .....FEBRUARY SKY

It's zub who wanted brought out the idea of going to this place...

must tell you i really loved this outing,,,,,,,always wanted to have this kind of over night adventure....

so finally its decided...zub, pulkit, me, vatsal and kartik(extc.) and wait,,,,,srikanth -- who is zubeen's school friend are going for this trip.... the place is vangani---- its the station after badlapur on the central line.... and must say how far away is this place....( now can truly understand the plight of my classmates( ref...abhinav mehrotra)..who travels all the way from thane....

so we are leaving at 2 from andheri station.,,,,,,after doing all those search on the trains for karjat....we head on from andheri...

and i prepare myself welll ..i must say.....starting with torch, nashta( thepla...the best food), towels, jacket.....( intially i thought it would be cold...i was imagining that the place would be on top of a mountain....romaticizing ( although i dont have a gf..bas bracket ni andar bracket...bahu thai gayu)....) so i was fully prepared for this visit...i think its the adventure freak in me,,,,,always game for somekinda experince,,,,,be it going to gilbert hill, pavagadh, matheran, the purana killa in delhi( by far the best place in delhi.....must see akshardham from this place) or risking my life by going on the top floor of mpstme( yaa , its under construction) in the midst of a internship interview( that was crazy )....

so i am this all prepared ...with a bag.....and then i meet pulkit and zub on station....they arent carrying anything ( chalo..chaltein hain)......

so we take a train from here to dadar.... and then to thane...

and i forgot ...vatsal was with us .,,,,,so timepass pakka,,,,,,he can start of a debate on any topic,,,,( must say would be really helpful to you ,,,in cat for gd...)..and then will argue till the end... and most of the time its ( atheism....v/s god..i in support of the latter)////

so from dadar to thane ..i dont know how time flies by.....we are debating on it( in a 2nd class compartment....and the people also seemed interested in our debate ...some of them were hearing us so keenly...)..basically i was alone in this,,,,pulkit( though he says he isnt a atheist )...vatsal , obviously and zubeen having a nonchalant approach and kartik remaining quiet for the major part of it .....so finally thane arrives...

we get down,,,,there zub recommends the nimbu pani wala opposite thane station....( i must say that is the best nimbu paani in mumbai .....never ever have had such a nimbu paani)

but recently i read an article in a mail which said that nimbu paani wala across mumbai use the ice from mortuary in their nimbu paani ( yeah i am feeling disgusted now for drinking that ...and have since stopped drinking all those nimbu paani's on railway station.....)

then after a bit of yes-no-no- yes we decide to go to zub's place...we still had time ...were early...

so we visit his place.,,,,,,do some pet-pooja and head off back for vangani; srikanth joins in from here...

now i must sa

y the real journey begins,,,,,,,the train for karjat arrives....very crowded....( i was expecting that the train will be empty by the time kalyan arrives ....but it doesnt happen ....this was the 1st time i was goin beyond thane....ahh wait once i did travel from vasai to diva and then to thane....that was one of my escapades in the 2nd year...)

but the train gets filled and filled ,,,and here again we have sumthing to keep us goin.....the debate of melatonin ( the night hormone ...which i studied in biology in 12th and had a long debate with IP( Ipsit) in the 2nd year)( It was during this debate i opened my 12th standard biology textbook ...didnt care much about it when i was in 12th ...ha ha )

the debate was: is

melatonin secreted in the night or is it secreted in the dark ...

i mean i remember studying that melatonin is secreted in the night,,,,,,

now the confusion was( we all are awake till 1-2 am )...so is melatonin secreted when the it becomes dark or is it secreted when there is physically no light present ...irrespective of the fact that it is night or day ....u sleep in a dark room in the day without any light and melatonin will secrete,,,,,

so this debate occupies us till we reach vangani ,,,,and by that time its 7 ..so its already dark ( melatonin secret hona chalu ho gaya hoga....)and i must congratualte srikanth ...he is a commerce student ,,but still the way he participated in the debate ....arguing and throwing valid points..

so we reach vangaani ..the volunteers of khagol mandal are alr

eady there......i must say what a unfrequented place it is .....

we have to walk down towards the west ....after walking for 10 minutes we reach this farm.....

here we all are made to sit after the registration.....( we were asked to carry some bed sheets or chhatai...none of us brought..thx to zubeen...)

and the lights are off....and then the presentation starts ...actually its in an open field,,,,,

around 200 must be there... there is another ..field on the side of this .,....where there is a separate section for marathi ....\

so the presenatation starts ...it tells all abt the night stars ......half an hour into the presenatation...the guy suddenly remarks.....look there ,...that is an artificial satellite....must say what a site it was....i was seeing it for the 1st time......it was moving

so fast,....but i managed to grasp its view....a bright light ...moving fast .....

( those of you who would have seen the movie ---october sky would be able to relate easily with this ...)

Then he talks about the crash between two satellites lately ( the iridium and the russian on 11th feb 2009).

so after this we get back to our presenatation........he shows us stars with a laser...and the beam makes it possible to identify exactly which one he is pointing at ...( how many stars could i see from this place....being in mumbai ...or any other city for that matter ...we are so much deprived of stars ...natures beauty ...ma grandpa was a very good at reading the night sky...,,,he could easily point out the common stars....)

he pointed out that the brightest star was sirius...and there was some log sclae attached to the brightness of the stars.....we do see that star.....later via a telescope/////

also at this pointi cant remember what else we did there...but must say was a gr8 experince,,,,

we also saw saturn and jupiter,,,,..the rings of saturn wer

e awesome,,,, also he pointed out vega...ursa major....ursa minor,.....pole star ...saptarishi ,,,,,

my mind raced back toward 10th standard ... the last time i studied all this things...ws so fascinating then ,,,,now all i do is roting and puking at in xams ,,,,that is mpstme....( naah i shud nt be so harsh to my college ...its not that bad afteralll.....)

in between the breaks ,,,,,we ventured out of the farm....the road from farm to the main road ..hardly 50 mts ...was creepy ....and plus there were dogs ....

so we were standing at the gate ....and far i see on the top of a hill a fire( (beacon) to be more Specific for the GRE/GMAT/CAT Junta......man again this was an awesome moment....after the artifical satellite ...( my mind raced back towards the movie AUSTRALIA ) which i had recently seen ...the old man lighting fire on the top of that hill and in the night ....looked awesome,,,,,

so this was all about that trip .....and yaa the tharki inside me also said ....

( next time i come, i am having a gf with me ,..ha ha ....for all those who already have one , what are you waiting for .,,heres the link for Khagol Mandal,,,,,do visit it next time...)

so finally i came back home....we were sleeping in the train ...but then it was one of the best times i spent in 3 yrs in mumbai....and yeah while goin back we rated the trip ...i as usual gave it a 10....others gave 8 , 6 ,,,,but for me ..anything which is out of the convention is a bingo...)