Oops! We just missed the last local

A couple of days back i was feeling the urge to get some fresh air ( a rare commodity in mumbai :p) ...not knowing what to do, i asked my flatmates if they would be interested in travelling to south mumbai at 11 in the night in a mumbai local...2 of them (anant and karthik) agreed...pranshu as always was busy gtalking (in his defence he says he was workin on a project...but i know better ;))

Anant wasn't very keen but seeing our enthu he decided to come along. We took a 11:30 pm local to churchgate, not knowing where to ultimately get down. And although there was space to sit (yes yes there are seats...u probably cudnt see them during day time ;) , karthik and i decided to stand at the gate to enjoy the cool breeze...

At marine lines (this is the second last station on the western line), we decided that it was better to get down at churchgate...so we got down and just to be on the safe side, enquired about the last local which we were told leaves at 1 am.

So we had approx 45 mins to watch the sea...all this while we discussed our placement anxieties and also our plan to have a lavish dinner at the revolving restaurant that we had just passed, on gettin placed...(there is no service tax on planning as of yet in India...pls dont remind the govt ;)

Now this is where the fun begins :) ...although we knew that the last train would leave at 1, it wasn't until 12:50 am that we made up our minds to start walking back to churchgate station.
All this while anant kept pleading that we take a cab...lest we miss the last train. The reason y we never felt any urgency was probably bcos, somewhere at the back of our minds we (I) felt that 1 am is too early for trains in mumbai to stop running and also the torcher of Neha Dhupia's movie - Ek Chaalis (1:40 am)ki Last local was still fresh in our minds.

So on our way back we kept making fun of Anant, calling him lazy and pulling his leg; we reached the station at 1:02. Guess what?...The 1am train was actually the last one and obviously it had left(Indian trains will always be on time...when u dont want them to). Our jaws dropped, the look on Anant's face was definitely a Kodak moment. Thankfully all that he had in his hands was his newly purchased canon camera...nobody throws a 20K camera...no matter how angry he is...:p

Now came the big question...what do we do? How do we get back?should we wait for the next local at 4 am?

No one had any answers...so we decided to implement what we had learnt at our b-school for making quick decisions....
1. Search an eatery,
2. Grab a bite and
3. then worry bout the return journey
(i kno u xpected some mgmt theory...lol...all misconceptions bout MBA). Unfortunately, the vendors had already called it a day :(

The streets were deserted but this part of mumbai is completely different...its so beautiful...the British architecture is really breathtaking....at Flora fountain we found a coffee vendor on a bicycle...we all had a cup of coffee, clicked some pics and then decided to walk all the way to Gateway of India...

It took us approximately 45 mins to reach there...now overlooking the sea is TAJ, on seeing it, we cudnt resist the idea of including it in the list of the places where we were to have a dinner post placement (this list also includes Mariott, Leela, Sun n Sand and the remaining 5 & 7star hotels in mumbai :p)

It was 2am and we still had 2 hrs at hand....so next we decided to go back to marine drive and chat away the rest of the time...but anant wanted to visit Chowpatty...i think that was the only place left in this part of mumbai & we didnt want chowpatty to feel let down :p

So the taxi driver was given the coordinates to the new location ;)...it cost us 55 bucks to cover this short distance (at one point we were considering the idea of taking a cab to go all the way back to santacruz...lol)

The beach was absolutely empty and it was being cleaned at that time....so we picked up a clean spot and spent the remaining two hours chatting on nonsensical topics....

On our return journey the local was absolutely jam packed (since it is the 1st local after 3 hrs)...

Thanks to a misconception created by bollywood, the mumbai that I saw that nite was the best that i can remember...i think i've begun loving this city after midnight....Now that's some progress...;)