Interesting....

On the way to Bandra reclaimation, when you are going on the highway, there is this wonderful stretch of road which is wide and smooth and faces the backwaters of the Arabian sea. If you look below, you can see another road going into the suburb and then there is another road that takes a steep sort of curve which is reall beautiful. And beyond the railing at the end of the road, the dark waters swirl by in the moonlight or whatever.
There is a very unique way that this shoulder is used by my fellow city-zens.
Its a lover's meeting point.
The entire stretch of this railing has bikes parked at a uniform interval of a metre or so. I am sure if you measure the distance, it will be uniform. There are even cars parked along this railing. These also adhere to the distance between vehicles. These vehicles - all of them - have a couple either talking to each other, or coochi coo-ing. Not many coochie coo though - with due respect to these guys. Its the most decent lovers meet that I have seen. I guess there is another strange thing about this lovers rail - none of the couples seem to be really evesdropping on the others. I have never really seen any bored couples.They are always talking facing each other or looking at the sea or something, but never at the other vehicles parked around them. Likes its some unspoken protocol or something.
But this may also be that I am not able to see them at their ardous best because I always notice this stretch when I am whizzing past the highway. So I only notice that there are couples and that the entire stretch of this amazing sea line along the beautiful highway is lined with bikes and cars with lovers meeting up and catching up after a long day.
Its amazing how lovers in Mumbai end up finding the most wierdest yet most practical spaces to spend time together.
With no disturbance. Nobody really spying on them. Even if someone is going to be spying on them, they would know
because this highway is real broad and vehicles practically whizz past them.
Besides, the view is spectacular. Beyond the railing, you can see the dark waters of the sea swirling by and if the
moon is full, the reflection is beautiful. The breeze is wonderful and exhilarating. Its a rejuvenating place. If you are bored of your partner, all you need to do is look at the backwaters of the Arabian Sea or the traffic that whizzes past. :-)
Interesting city I live in ;-)

Books....

I Love books. A little fussy about it because I love fiction. The masala and the mindblowingly impossible things like....O well! like the CIA planning an assassination of some one to prevent another assassination, the adventures of a guy who manages to lose his memory yet retain his skills and O my! what skills they are! shooting jumping, sky diving etc etc....
For a bibliophile like me, I miss books. I miss the variety and spice that books bring in my life.
In a city like Mumbai that's teeming with life, movies rule. But books, alas! these are so scarce!
I miss buying books from the street. I miss buying and selling books. If a book is trash I can read it once, and resell it, too!
An amazing concept. Its a moving library. Buy, sell, resell....buy another one...Hmmm, sounds like my heaven. I can keep the books for as long as I want. I can also sell them if I am tired of them or if i deem them completely unreadable.
Mumbai, for a city that proclaims to cater to everybody's likes and dislikes, unfortunately, puts the bibliophile aside :(
There is one street in Fort which has the book bazaar on the street but it is so faar away from the suburbs! Also, it is a little on the expensive side. Reading, as a habit, is quite an expensive hobby in this city.
I wish I could get some books with more varied authors...different titles, a place near by that will allow me to exchange books, read them, savour them and talk to other people who love books. I miss talking to people who know where to get books, the libraries the places to go read in peace....
In a city where space is premium, this kind of luxury is not only unheard of, but unthought of!
I actually miss London where the bibliophile is pampered with choices. The number of different authors, the variety of literature, its something I miss about that city. It has a classic collection of books that keep getting churned out every year and surprise a reader and help you get out of your comfort zone in reading genres. On the other hand, it also helps you to read more in the genres that you are comfortable in. Works both ways!
For, the number of bookshops are more. So the variety of books are also more.
So does that mean that Mumbai has less nuber of readers? And is it that most of them reside only in the town side? Aah well, my bad that lesser mortals like me reside in the far away suburbs :'(