Marine Drive after endsem - Part 1 !
The last paper of our endsem was over - and on a slightly sad note of not having performed up to the mark in the exams overall ... we were walking out towards our hostel ... thinking of what should be done later that evening ? Initial plan was to go to Marine Drive and have a nice evening and be back by the last train to IIT ... then decide what to do ! After much discussion though ... we finally decided upon the plan for the night ... going to Marine Drive and coming back till the next morning on bicycles. So there we were - Shantanu (pretty much the brain behind it!), Sushant, Cheema, Sudeep, Kartik and me - getting ready to drive the bicycle for around 70 Kms. in the night on Mumbai roads.
We started off a bit late from IIT ... as Sudeep was at home and was going to join us in sometime. Meanwhile we had to arrange for cycles as none of us had ours in working condition ! Finally, at around 9:15, we were all ready to leave ... time for some departing time photographs and off we went !
Not all of us knew the road till the very end ... so we had decided to take it in stages ... first goal was to reach the Eastern Express Highway ... then keep goign along that road for a long long time ... reach Matunga ... then take the appropriate road from King's Circle ... keep going along and finally try and reach the bridge (fly-over) on Mohammad Ali road (I guess its called JJ college bridge) which will take us to VT (CST) directly.
The first couple of stages were a piece of cake ... we made it very casually till the highway ... then kept going on and on .. stopping to see some aeroplanes in the way (the airport is quite close by ... so we had a chance to look at some really low flying planes). We were stopping here and there ... with Cheema tiring the most apparently ... and it was expected to be so ! He was also a bit skeptical about the whole plan at the time it was being decided ... but somehow agreed to go ahead with it. AFAIR, over the bridge near Sion was the only real stop due to exhaustion we took. While we were on our way ... again Debanjan met us close to KEM College ... again planned by Shantanu ! It was nice to see him ... had last met him near Diwali ... he's always a nice person to meet and talk to ! They have their exams from 28th ... so to minimize our RG effext on him and also to reach our target as per schedule ... we decided to hurry and get along ! Then I remember at around 11:15, just after meeting Debanjan ... we stopped at a juice stall to get some soft drinks and Kartik took that chance to get hold of his staple diet - a large packet of Kurkure ... jisme sabne geese maara ... but he still managed to get enough for himself :) At that point, there was a sort-of challenge from Boss that we cannot make it before 12 to Marine Drive, as a group ... and it was accpeted by Kartik, me and some others. From there on ... we kept going .. re-energised after some drinks. As we were reaching the JJ flyover ... we missed our road and took a wrong turn ... fortunately, realised it early enough and turned back to get onto the right way. And there we were ... on the JJ Flyover at last ... everyone very much enthu to get to VT as fast as we can ... unfortunately, we ran into the cops. Cheema and me were a little behind the others .. so we joined a bit late into the conversation ... but nothing too serious ... we were just warned to keep left and go safely ... nice cops they were :) It was only later in the night that I found out cycles were actually not allowed on that road - and it was one of the most accident prone regions in Mumbai !
WE crossed it safely though and reached VT and then the final stage of our onward journey began ... to go from VT to Marine Drive - and we did that in style ... to reach the flyover overlooking the Marine Drive sharp at 0000 hrs ! And we had DONE IT was the feeling we got !!!
Time for some grub at the chowpatty .. just reached there and had some pav bhaji quickly ... the cops didn't give us much time ... they were shutting things down in a hurry. But we had a nice short meal ... followed by amazing kulfi ... and then were deciding what next to be done !
As it turned out .. we had varied opinions about it ... some of us felt we should leave immediately and return back taking the last train. The second group felt we should roam around, now that we were there and then take the first train back to Kanjur. The third group was of the opinion we should roam around for some time and then ride back on cycle .. obviously this idea didn't have too many takers ! :p
Finally ... Sudeep's opinion of going back by the last train was honoured and we rushed back to VT, only to find out that the last train had left at around 12:40 a.m. and we were there at 1:15 a.m. Then clueless as we were ... we desparately rushed to Churchgate station, hoping against hope that we get a train there ... but instead we met a couple of really nice police hawaldars - who instilled in us some fundae about life and got us going on our way again. Then it was decided ... we would roam around that area for some time and then leave back on cycle ... unless it got really bad .. we will not resort to trains .. this was partly because we came to know that the cycle luggage would cost us Rs. 50 per cycle ... which we felt was too much !
This is what I could write in short about the first part of our journey ... I hope I write the next part soon too !
We started off a bit late from IIT ... as Sudeep was at home and was going to join us in sometime. Meanwhile we had to arrange for cycles as none of us had ours in working condition ! Finally, at around 9:15, we were all ready to leave ... time for some departing time photographs and off we went !
Not all of us knew the road till the very end ... so we had decided to take it in stages ... first goal was to reach the Eastern Express Highway ... then keep goign along that road for a long long time ... reach Matunga ... then take the appropriate road from King's Circle ... keep going along and finally try and reach the bridge (fly-over) on Mohammad Ali road (I guess its called JJ college bridge) which will take us to VT (CST) directly.
The first couple of stages were a piece of cake ... we made it very casually till the highway ... then kept going on and on .. stopping to see some aeroplanes in the way (the airport is quite close by ... so we had a chance to look at some really low flying planes). We were stopping here and there ... with Cheema tiring the most apparently ... and it was expected to be so ! He was also a bit skeptical about the whole plan at the time it was being decided ... but somehow agreed to go ahead with it. AFAIR, over the bridge near Sion was the only real stop due to exhaustion we took. While we were on our way ... again Debanjan met us close to KEM College ... again planned by Shantanu ! It was nice to see him ... had last met him near Diwali ... he's always a nice person to meet and talk to ! They have their exams from 28th ... so to minimize our RG effext on him and also to reach our target as per schedule ... we decided to hurry and get along ! Then I remember at around 11:15, just after meeting Debanjan ... we stopped at a juice stall to get some soft drinks and Kartik took that chance to get hold of his staple diet - a large packet of Kurkure ... jisme sabne geese maara ... but he still managed to get enough for himself :) At that point, there was a sort-of challenge from Boss that we cannot make it before 12 to Marine Drive, as a group ... and it was accpeted by Kartik, me and some others. From there on ... we kept going .. re-energised after some drinks. As we were reaching the JJ flyover ... we missed our road and took a wrong turn ... fortunately, realised it early enough and turned back to get onto the right way. And there we were ... on the JJ Flyover at last ... everyone very much enthu to get to VT as fast as we can ... unfortunately, we ran into the cops. Cheema and me were a little behind the others .. so we joined a bit late into the conversation ... but nothing too serious ... we were just warned to keep left and go safely ... nice cops they were :) It was only later in the night that I found out cycles were actually not allowed on that road - and it was one of the most accident prone regions in Mumbai !
WE crossed it safely though and reached VT and then the final stage of our onward journey began ... to go from VT to Marine Drive - and we did that in style ... to reach the flyover overlooking the Marine Drive sharp at 0000 hrs ! And we had DONE IT was the feeling we got !!!
Time for some grub at the chowpatty .. just reached there and had some pav bhaji quickly ... the cops didn't give us much time ... they were shutting things down in a hurry. But we had a nice short meal ... followed by amazing kulfi ... and then were deciding what next to be done !
As it turned out .. we had varied opinions about it ... some of us felt we should leave immediately and return back taking the last train. The second group felt we should roam around, now that we were there and then take the first train back to Kanjur. The third group was of the opinion we should roam around for some time and then ride back on cycle .. obviously this idea didn't have too many takers ! :p
Finally ... Sudeep's opinion of going back by the last train was honoured and we rushed back to VT, only to find out that the last train had left at around 12:40 a.m. and we were there at 1:15 a.m. Then clueless as we were ... we desparately rushed to Churchgate station, hoping against hope that we get a train there ... but instead we met a couple of really nice police hawaldars - who instilled in us some fundae about life and got us going on our way again. Then it was decided ... we would roam around that area for some time and then leave back on cycle ... unless it got really bad .. we will not resort to trains .. this was partly because we came to know that the cycle luggage would cost us Rs. 50 per cycle ... which we felt was too much !
This is what I could write in short about the first part of our journey ... I hope I write the next part soon too !
posted by Sangram @ 11:23 AM
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