It was our second day in Mumbai, when we decided to explore this enticing site of Mumbai - Marine Drive. Popularly known as the Queen's Necklace, Marine Drive is the most popular tourist spot giving an enchanting view of the sun set over the Arabian. Since me and my friends had a heard a lot about the place, there was a natural anxiety and great expectations. Seen in Hindi movies, the beach had already developed many beautiful images in our mind. Somewhat like what we see in Bay watch, the famous soap opera.
Marine Drive located in the central Mumbai, on land reclaimed from the sea, is Mumbai's most famous thoroughfare. Recently it has come to known as Netaji Subhashchandra Bose Road with Nariman Point on one end to Babulnath, at the foot of Walkeshwar on the other.
It was 5 pm, in the morning, we hurriedly took an auto-rickshaw to Marine drive. All four of us were very excited as we had lot of hopes from this place as we had from Mumbai. No doubt! Mumbai is a nice place to visit but its narrow lanes and congested traffic damages the beauty.
"Chowpatty aa gaya" said the driver. Chowpatty is another name of Marine Drive. " what this is marine drive" we all exclaimed! Soon our imagination about the place laid farce.
It was nothing like movie. The beach was crowded and had many stalls. May be the time we chose was wrong. It was evening and people were out to stroll on the beach. Whatever! It was disastrous at first sight!
But as we stayed there we became the part of the crowd and started enjoying the evening with others. Filled romantic and aged couples, the site was a rich amalgam of young and old thoughts. This expanse of sand and sea is the place where pleasure seekers come to relax after dusk in the cool sea breeze.
The best was the tanga ride. It charged us Rs 20 per head and helped us in exploring the beach. oh! yes then the bhel puri we had and the coconut water.. all added a new taste to our trip to Marine Drive. We also explored statues of Lokmanya Tilak and Vithalbhai Patel that stand quietly on the beach.
As it was getting dark, the activities at beach gained new momentum. Evenings at Marine Drive is filled with vigour, joy and fun. It appeared like a huge fair with shooting galleries, snake charmers, monkey trainers, balloon sellers and even masseurs and eating stalls.
Now we all were pepped up, and were ready to grove in night. The first thing we did was off course we tried the various eatables. Spicy Chaat, Gol Gappas and many other delectable were a total retreat to our taste buds.
" Hey! It not that bad!" said my friend. " Ya! it's not scenic like Baywatch but definitely has all the fun that one wants from a picnic spot" I added . And everybody nodded as we all enjoyed the evening that started from 5pm and ended at 10 pm.
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