The crowd

You cannot escape the crowd in Mumbai. You get off at your station and find yourself in a sea of bodies, pushing, shoving from all sides. You climb up the stairs, trying not to look at the posterior of the person ahead of you, and hope that the man behind you is not leching at yours. On a weekend, you want to unwind, and end up at this party place that turns out to be as crowded as the trains. New Year's Eve - I'm staying at home.

Cafe Mondegar

Mondy's - my most favourite haunt in Mumbai. I have no clue as to how old the place really is. It is crowded, smoky, cluttered, but simply amazing. Good food, great prices, and good music playing out of a really beautiful jukebox. You can spend a few hours there, reading a book, sipping a coffee while looking at the Mario Miranda cartoons on the side of your cup, or watching life float by on the streets of South Bombay.

Good Arabian food

A friend took me to Fanoos at Lokhandwala - great food, yummy chicken. Their showarma rolls are simple amazing. Follow it up with a hookah in strawberry, peach, apricot, cappuccino, mint, and apple flavours. And you still wont burn a hole in your pocket.

First look

Mumbai - The financial capital of India, the city of stars and dreams, the city with the largest slum in Asia, the city of fast trains and slow traffic, the city of jostling crowds and desperate solitude, the city with no time to stop and stare, the city that lets you live by your own rules. I have been in Mumbai for exactly 8 months, and I LOVE the place.