Year: 2001

This morning, for the first time, I saw what the waves crash over the rocks on Marine Drive. I did see some spray on Friday as we were walking along Marine Drive, but nothing like this. It was raining, and torrentially. The previous evening, my umbrella broke. I was walking out of office, which is directly in front of the sea. The breeze blows towards office. There’s no way for the wind to go except through the door. So when I walked out of the door and opened my umbrella, the breeze inverted it, and broke a couple of the rods. It’s still usable, but won’t stand another strong wind.

Anyway, we’d been working late last night, and I had to deliver some documents to a partner who lived at Malabar Hill. I took a taxi and sat at the front, as he drove along Marine drive to Malabar hill. It was raining, when waves crashed over the wall along the sea, and splashed all over the road, including the car, with tremendous force. I jerked backwards, but the driver hardly noticed anything, pausing only to adjust the speed of the wiper.They’re used to it, I guess.

Vishnu and I tried out Indian Summer, opposite to Gaylord. It looked like one of those ‘classier’ places, so I wasn’t expecting the meal to be any good. The variety was impressive though, so sticking to my policy of ordering dishes I never had, we tried Shahi shorba (soup), methi tikki and simla mirch besan ke sath, with makai roti and reshmi paratha. For Rs. 550. I recommend every single dish — especially the soup. The service was good, too, and I’d rate it as excellent, except for the fact that the waiter walked up to us and asked us if we’d ordered Shahi Shorba. True to my form, I stared at him cluelessly, looked around, and said, “Who me?”

The poor waiter was understandably embarrassed. He walked to the next table to confirm that they hadn’t ordered it. They hadn’t. He walked back, and in the middle of all this walking up and down, almost spilt a bit of soup on Vishnu. Then he comes back, after checking the register, informing us that we had, indeed, ordered Shahi shorba. Fine by me…

The good part is, now I know how to drink soup — move the spoon away from yourself when collecting the soup on the spoon. Thanks, Vishnu!

Crystal is opposite to Chowpatti beach. I didn’t know that, so when Bhura suggested we take a cab there from Churchgate, I boldly said, “Let’s walk down the beach.” It’s not that long a walk, but longer than I’m normally used to. At the end of the walk, I nearly collapsed. Crystal is apparantly pretty famous for its value-for-money. We ordered 2 alu parathas with malai kofta and paneer masala and dahi. The food was quite tasty, but filling. Neither of us had space for many more rotis. The bill came to about Rs. 100.