Friday, March 21, 2008

Nightlife in Mumbai - taking friends around

- by Deepa Krishnan
.
Suba and Lankesh, our Srilankan friends, were here for a couple of days. Lankesh is an easy-going guy, and his wife Suba is a very interesting woman who speaks her mind. We've always gotten along famously. Since the two of them wanted to party, we decided to show them the city's nightlife.
.
"I've heard so much about Enigma", said Lankesh on Day One. "Why don't we start with that?"
.i
"Yes", said my equally easy-going husband. "Let's go to Enigma".
.
I was running a temperature after the day's shopping (Suba and I spent a small fortune on shoes, belts and bags at Linking Road). So I dropped out of the Enigma trip, and the three of them went.
.
Suba being Suba, was dressed to her eyebrows. Lankesh is a pretty natty dresser as well, so I coaxed my husband into looking presentable. After the three of them left, I went to bed with an aspirin. I didn't regret it one bit. I'm a thorough Enigma-hater, so in any case, I would have spoilt it for them. At breakfast next morning, Suba was scathing. "No class", she pronounced. "What weird creeps we met! And the music! Terrible!"
.
It was time to salvage the city's reputation. "Let me show you some different places tonight", I said. "Maybe we can go bar-hopping". So at nine p.m. on Day Two, we went to Shiro for drinks. The minute we stepped in, Suba said "This is more like it!". And I knew the evening was off to a good start. The bartender was attentive, the service brilliant. The starters were excellent. From Shiro, we went to the Dome at the Intercontinental, because I wanted to show them Marine Drive at night. No disappointments there either. The red bar had a nice little buzz to it, the views were outstanding, and the outdoor seating fabulous.
.
And then we took them to see Mumbai at night - the Gateway of India, the heritage district...and ended up at Indigo for dinner. We got ourselves a table at Indigo, but the menu didn't work for us that night. After all the drinking, everyone wanted something spicy! So we bid goodbye to the still smiling waiter at Indigo, and went off to find Bade Miya.
.
"You mean we can go walking?", asked Suba, when we left the car behind. "It's quite late, you know."
.
"It's just the next street from here", I said, "Besides, there will be a lot of people there even at this time."
.
So we went there on foot, and of course, Bade Miya was a hive of activity even at midnight. See for yourself.
.
Crowd outside, eating off car bonnet at midnight. One family had a 3 year old sitting on top the car.
The "Miya" of Bade Miya, counting cash. He gave me a dirty look when he saw the camera, but didn't say anything.

A closer look at the kebabs


The roomali rotis that the kebabs are folded into

My dashing husband, with Suba. Bade Miya has now expanded into the building across the street. So while you can eat standing outside, you can also have a sit down meal. We didn't want to stand, not on high heels!

Lankesh and me

Waiter Number 5, our Man at Bademiya. This little card, by the way, is ALSO the menu.

Ta-da! Flip the card around, and this is what Bademiya offers! No prices listed. None needed.


Service is quick, and the chutneys that the roomali comes with are just heavenly.

On the way home, we rounded things off nicely with the legendary strawberries-and-cream at Haji Ali. Suba was all praise for it.

We got back home at 2:00 in the morning, happy and full. I realised that seeing Mumbai through the eyes of a close friend, a first time visitor, is real fun.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

the lady with the black dress and big earrings looks sexy. if i was a casting agent she would be modelling. is somebody hearing

Liz

Deepa said...

I'll tell her, Liz, I'm sure she'll like hearing that!

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Next time I'm in Mumbai, I'm hanging out with you! :)

- Beth at desicritics

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, Mumbai transforms into something else in the night. I remember going on Long drives at night with friends when I was in college, that was 10 years ago (OMG it has been 10 Yrs ). We would start in Juhu, Have our dinner somewhere in between, then sometimes even go uptill Colaba .... That was fun. At night the absence of crowd/traffic make it look more clean and developed in some kinda way and ofcourse peacefull. Although being a Mumbaikar you love crowd too.
I miss my city sooo much.

Anonymous said...

All my favorites covered here! Can't wait to be back in Mumbai at these places. Thanks for the pictures.

suba palani said...

Deeps, its been what almost three years and I am reading this now, brings back a lot of memories of our good times in Chennai and Mumbai. Btw I never thought i would recieve such a compliment! c u soon.

Matrimonials said...

I'm always in the Punjab region every time I'm in India. I think next time I will be landing in Mumbai and stay a few months there just to check everything out. You should be my tourist guide!

Anonymous said...

Totally great blog! It's very hard to find good place to party in India but had an awesome time Goa Fest!!! Check out some of the amazing Rain Dance snaps @ http://www.spiritzandmore.com/whyte-and-mackay-goafest! I also write in this site, so it will be great if your could give your comments on it. I will look out for your next post.. catch u later.

hopsocrk said...

bademiya yummy paradise for non-veg