Mumbai Meri Jaan #GoLocal

I live in Pondicherry currently as I had been transferred here in December last week. It took me almost two months to settle down. Finding a house fullfilling my requirements was tough and above all, it being a Tamil speaking place, finding a cook was the toughest. Although after much hustle, I found a maid and a small 1 bhk flat as well, so all is well now.

As soon as I got settled, next thing I did was looking at my holiday calendar. As it's been almost a year since I travelled anywhere apart from going to Agra, my home town. After checking out my calendar I got to know that if I will apply one day leave during Holi's holiday, I will have around 4 days which for me is sufficient to travel to a nearby place. Initially I planned to go to Kerala but suddenly there were 2 cases of Covid-19 in Kerala, so I had to change my plans. After looking for nearby travelling destinations, I finally decided to go to Mumbai and there were 3 prominent reasons for that.

1- The cheapest flights were of Mumbai

2- I had my company's guest house near Airport only.

And the most important one was

3- Mumbai is one of the most popular photographic destination. From streets to archaic buildings, you will find everything.

So once I was done with my bookings and all, I started searching about the places I needed to visit in Mumbai. I searched on tripoto, google, Instagram and what not. In the last 2 years my perception towards travelling is somehow changed, reason being, I now travel a place for my photographic expeditions and since I have to take photos I need to travel the not so popular areas and so I started travelling solo. And I really liked this way of travelling.

Coming to my day of travelling. My flight was from Chennai, from Pondicherry you have to take that Dhamaal wali flight so I was scared. I booked mine from Chennai around 200kms from here. I reached Chennai in night, my flight was next morning at 7:00. I stayed at my friend's place. He is my college friend and is currently working in Chennai. I reached there by ten at night , we had dinner by eleven and then suddenly he wanted to smoke weed, knowing that I don't do all these things. Anyway he smoked and then we sat till three in the morning. He booked cab for me before he was HIGH. Yeah he had some sense. So my cab was supposed to arrive at 4:15 and there we were sitting all night. So at 3:00 he slept unknowingly. So I also decided to take some rest but somehow mosquitoes had other plans. They kept me up as we were sleeping in Hall. So I woke up and got ready. Still the cab was half an hour away, I passed my time somehow. In the meantime my friend also got up, we chatted for sometime and then I left for the airport.

I reached airport by 5 :15 and since my flight was delayed by an hour so I grabbed a seat, plugged in my charger and went into half sleep mode for an hour. So fast forward me reaching the guest house. I reached there by around 11:00. By 12:00 I was ready to go outside. One of my college friend was studying in Mumbai so he guided me for the places I should visit. I had forwarded him my list a week ago, before my travel. He sorted it as per my convenience and other things. So lets start my itinerary

Day 1- Started from Andheri railway station. My first stop of the day was CST Station. I took some photos there and then took a bus to the Gateway of India, spent almost 3 hours taking photos there. Around 4 in the evening, took an auto to Marine drive which is some 5 kms from there. Spent my time there taking pictures, waiting for sunset to take pictures. Well that was the thing to do in this trip. Take pictures. So I left for my guest house at around 8 because I was very tired and hadn't slept properly for almost 24 hours. Though I had plans to go to other places but called my day early because of fatigue.

Note - Got to meet Ayan Mukherjee on the first day itself. Such a lovely guy. He almost talked to me for about 5 minutes. Asked me about my job, why I am here in Mumbai and yeah I did told him about my obsession with YJHD. I asked him if I can click one photo of his. He agreed and wished me all the best and I did the same. Yeah he also talked about Brahmastra.

First day was good, took some good pictures, walked almost 10km and so slept well.

Day-2 Planned to start my day early but overslept due to fatigue. I started my day at 10:00 in the morning and the first place I went to was Dhobhi ghat. I was supposed to cover dhobhi ghat on day 1 itself and did go as well but since some shooting of a Marathi movie was going on, so we weren't allowed. Luckily I covered it on day 2. The standout thing for me about that place was it's architecture,how beautifully it was designed. But then again you got to know about the people living there, there lifestyle and all. One surprising thing was most of them were from Gorakhpur, a place I graduated from, a place which is always special to me. So I told them I studied from Gorakhpur itself and we chatted, discussed few stories and I took some lovely shots. That's the beauty of a conversation. Once they get to to know you, they will gladly accept your requests and suggestions. They also offered me tea. After spending almost 2 hours there and exhausting my gopro's half battery I headed towards Bandra Bandstand. One of the best things about Mumbai is, the less travelling cost means literally in 50 rs you can cover almost everything. But then again, the places are far away from each other so the travelling time is more. I reached Bandra bandstand at around three, grabbed a spot under shades, had some fruits and rested for some 15 minutes and after that I clicked and clicked. There were a bunch of guys playing volleyball there, that gave me some good shots. Also some people there were fishing, some couples there were enjoying, since it was Sunday the place was heavily crowded. I talked to some of the locals about a place named Bandra reclamation, they told me its near and guided me. It was around 3 kms from there, shortest distance and for them it was near. Anyway I left Bandstand around 4:30 and reached Bandra reclamation around 5:30 all tired but it was a beautiful spot. Old, young, children everyone was there. This place is like morning walk place, also there is an open gym. So people were enjoying. Some children were doing stunts with cycle, so took some action shots. Left that place at around six and planned to go to my guest house. But since I had only 2 days left out of which only 1 night I would have been here, I had to go to CST station again because night shots there are so lovely. Pushing my self again, I took a train to CST station. The worst thing is my guest house and CST station are in opposite direction. I reached there at around eight in night and on that day there was a match between Sachin's team and Lara's team at Wankhede. So there was a lot of rush. I spent almost 2 hours there, took some 200 photos of that place. And before you ask why 200, hardly 20 photos will be of use from that. Harsh truth, you will hardly get what you want in one shot but then again, more you practice the better you become. Almost sleepy I headed towards my guest house. I reached there by 11:00 and was hungry but the canteen was closed and after asking about any restaurants, the only place which might have been open was around 1km from there. So had to walk again but luckily had my dinner. Finally reached my room at around 12:30 and transferred my photos, plugged in gopro for charging and slept by 1:00.

Note- Special thanks to my junior Abhishek. He gave me his gopro for the trip and it was much needed.

Day 3- Again woke up late, started late

covered some places like Nana Chowk, Jogeshwari east, Kumbharwada and Kurla. All these places just for one shot, wasn't lucky enough to get the shot I wanted in Kurla but rest was good. So in the evening I planned to meet my college seniors and juniors. There is hardly any place in India where you couldn't find Malviyans. I went to Powai lake met my junior Harsh and he showed me around, went to a place named Hirannandani square, had some dosa and coffee and waited for our seniors. It's so lovely if you meet someone from your college days, specially those who ragged you and whom you ragged. Hahaha

So that night was literally the highlight of my Mumbai trip. We roamed for around 3 hours, revisited college days, discussed some old stories and yeah ate a lot. We called off our day at around 12:00 in night.

Note- I never ragged anyone. Also thanks to seniors Rituraj Singh and Love Malani for paying bills that night. Yeah you know just senior things. Also Love sir is opening a restaurant so if you hope to come, do pay a visit. I will share the location in this blog.

Day - 4 I had almost half day since my flight was at around 10:00 in night and I woke up late. I started my day and it was Holi that day, so wasn't sure if I should step outside or not. But anyway I went CST Station again, from there to Dadar chowpatty and finally to Marine drive. You could see the Holi madness all over the beach. Some were drunk, some were fighting while some were swimming. The reason I went to marine drive was to take pictures of sunset which I had missed in former days. It was surreal, the sunset, you would also love the pictures. So after finishing my shots I left for my room, though I was in no hurry because I had already packed and the airport was hardly 10 minutes from my place, reached my room by 7:00 had dinner and left by 8:00.

Note- As they say about Mumbai, " A city of dreams, a city that never sleeps". My experience wasn't different.I covered all the places on my list except Dombivali since it was very far from my place. Last day was easy, hardly any place was to covered

Also since I had to attend office next day I planned accordingly and kept minimum things for last day covering some 60kms on foot, clicked some 1200 photos.

Reached Chennai at around 12:00 and was lucky enough to get a shared Taxi to Pondi from Airport itself and finally reached my place at around 3:00 in the morning.

This was my first trip for the purpose of photography and I really learnt a lot. Hopefully you guys will also like the shots I clicked. If you plan to go to Mumbai and specially for the purpose of photography, feel free to drop a message or comment.

Expense - 4000 flight

500 local mumbai

500 food

1000 chennai to pondicherry to and fro