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Mystique of the Bombay waters…

Posted by Yashika Totlani Khanna on 4:57 AM in , ,



There’s something about Bombay that draws me to it…
3:30 at night, sifting through my albums, looking for snaps to pass on to a friend… I’m reminded of the two wonderful days that I spent recently in the maximum city. Reflecting on what enthralled my senses the most, the answer emerges almost effortlessly when I think of the sea. From carter road to marine drive… the sea held my attention for unusually long spells, much to the dismay of my Bombay relations who loathed the idea of even setting foot on the beach. So while the world was busy shunning away the waters, I rolled up my jeans and stepped in without any inhibition.
Two tranquil evenings in Bombay, both spent on the beaches, pondering over the vagaries of the everyday world. Standing on the shoreline, I had the hustle-bustle of a very busy metro city on one end… and the comfort of a serene endless sea on the other. Why am I going gaga over the waters? Well for one, having spent almost my entire life shuttling between Jaipur and Delhi, the absence of beaches or any other form of water-body made its presence felt early in my existence. Second, and this realization is relatively new, I recently discovered my love for Mother Nature.
Standing at the shore with the water hitting my legs and then retreating gently while slowly taking away with it the sand from beneath my feet, I shift my weight from foot to foot… staring aimlessly at the seams of the sea blending subtly with the blues of the sky at the horizon. Marine drive, famous as the queen’s necklace, affords the most scenic pleasures that the eyes could ask for. While progressing from evening to night, watching the sun disappear behind the high-risers and skyscrapers that define the Bombay skyline… I pat my back for having reserved an isolated spot on marine drive for soaking in the view that I knew I wouldn’t be seeing again in a very long time. While my friends grumble from behind that Goa has all the real beaches and this place hardly qualifies as even hygienic… I ignore the ranting and continue to revel in the moment. I think about Dharavi, and I think about the Taj. I think about gloominess, and I think about delightedness. I think about what lay buried deep inside the Arabian Sea waters, and I think about the untold secrets that the endless skies held up there for us. I feel like a free bird for whom the entire ocean spread ahead, while simultaneously I also feel like an insignificant speck in contrast to the spread of the whole wide universe. The senses betray each other. While the ears are engaged by the stillness of the sea, occasionally stirred by the sound of the waters hitting the shores… the eyes see the moving cars and constant motion in a city that is touted as never being asleep. There’s something about Bombay that draws me to it… the compounding of two polar fantasies here on the beach might have something to do with it…







8 Comments


mumbai dear not Bombay! Do you want the Thackerays to be running after you with their iron ords?? :P
Nice pics and nice texts....u do have an eye for nature...and just to close off i will quote a line i once said in a stress management session in a CA training - relief from stress will not come from that week long annual holiday taken in goa; appreciate the little beauties of life....a relaxed city sunset, an ice cream shared with your folks, a movie in the middle of stressful period in work, a evening out drinking with friends, a satisfying phone call with someone close at midnight....live these moments and they would lighten up your mind...keep fantasizing about the Goa holiday and life would just be confined to that one week of the year... :) more gyaan as usual from a charlatan :)


'rods' dear not 'ords' :P
yeah yeah, am just hitting back at you for your mumbai-bombay bit. bombay just sounds more right than the former... hence you'll catch me using it often. as for the thackerays... i'll take my chances :p

thanks n thanks. fyi, i do enjoy the little beauties of life. remember this line from my english textbook in the 12th-
"...and beauty in small measures may perfect be."
dont remember the author, n dont remember the poem. just remember the line. all the moments you mentioned... i do all of that(you would know) and they do manage to lighten my mind. just that nothing even comes close to what a beach can do to you...

keep visiting, and keep dispelling more gyaan :)


You're beautiful..


beautiful post... ever go that feeling that u have the words at teh tip of your tongue... you are trying to express somethin but just dont knwo where to begin... and then someone does it so effortlessly, says exactly what u wanted to say.... thats how i felt when i read teh post...

i know how u feel abt water, having spent all my life in delhi. when i cam eto mumbai, the only thing which intrigued me more than anything was the sea. and i agree.. i too find it mesmerising to become one with the sea and its surroundings, find peace, solitude, security in its vastness... and think of it as beautiful... teh same sea teh mumbaikars find dirty and disgusting, the sea they take for granted. i guess its true... u value those things a lot which u have never had, and dont care abt things u always had :)

now that i am pretty much settled permenently in mumbai, i hope that day doesnt come when i take the offerings of this ity for granted!


In your case, blogspot is becoming more and more 'orkuttish' [ If you are e-smart enough, you shall get what i mean ] I shall accentuate this comment of mine with a =))
You also need to thank me for the 'bombay trip rocked'. Had there been someone not as good as me, you might never have had the 'bombay trip rocked' moment :D I don't mind being immodest 8)
Ofcourse, about the post- Bomb-hai

Anonymous says:

now i know why does people concieve this prenotion about jaipur (or rajasthan as a whole
) that there is a situation of severe water crisis as in like a drought, all thanks to some crazy heads like you who behave so totally insane after watching any waterbody (eventhough its as unhygenic as it possibly can be) and act as if they saw an alien or something... =D
caution: people, never ever fall prey to her and make the mistake of going out with her to any place even 5km closeby to any sort of waterbody because she then is gonna give you her N72 and will very politely ask you to click pictures from all the different angles possible in all the different poses untill she gets her perfect snap and makes you frustrated like hell!!

PS: well, if any of you dumbos haven't yet guessed - i was the one who was grumbling from the back!!


Lovely pics and great reflection there! :)


@ravi: why, thank you :d

@sugar&spice/aditi: great to know that you endorse my views! keep visiting darling :)
p.s. never ever take the beaches for granted! amen!

@arunabh: accentuating your comment with a =))
immodest you are :P
thanks for that witty "bomb-hai" n need i say, keep visiting :)
p.s. that day at the beach WAS fun!

@mum'bahi'/gaurav: oye stop disclosing idiosyncrasies on blogger!
p.s. even to a critic like you, keep visiting :)
p.p.s. i AM 'dumb' :p

@sameera: thanks for dropping by!

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