Bandra !

One Sunday in the month of March 2010 along with my friends Sarita and Sridhari went for a long walk through the length of Bandra Band Stand. The Bandra Band Stand near by residents were playing a role of vigilance for quitesome time for a unique reason!

We later went to a tabela (a slum) in the west side. Sarita is associated with an NGO and she suggested me to drop a few of my old clothes at a community hall where she took us. We spent some time with the children and few elders over there up till eve.

Three of us are all engineers and today we are into different set of activities with more or less the same frequency and concerns with a different approach or route. When Sarita was sharing a lot of information about her works and the swindles of the Bandra area; it was getting unfolded right in front of our eyes. On one side it’s a posh locality and on the other side it’s a ….!!!!!!

Sarita recognized my thought processes and said “For the same reason baby, I am taking you down with me today”. More or less every area across the length and breadth of the lively city Mumbai you can find the two sides of the population density.

Before visiting this place, I had a bird’s view at few “Chal” places and slums just behind our college and almost a slum between our collegein Kandivali and the Lokhandvala. I had seen from the high raised window of colleague Anjali’s house. My first visit to Mumbai was by flight. En routing to my house from the airport my hubby showed a part of Dharavi!

If you visit Mumbai its not just sufficient visiting Gateway of India, Taj, Chaupatis, and the Necklace bend…; it’s equally important that you go through these “galis”!