Travel o travel o travel - Part 1 - Bombay

After a frenetic journey over the past weekend it's time to take stock in the hottest of all seasons in a place with just 3 seasons (which reads hot, hotter and hottest! ) . The temperature hasn't been spectacularly high in the places I've been to but the humidity has been the killer. 30+ deg C and nearly 90% humidity in some places has been fun.

So the journey started rather uneventfully till I got to India -  decided to be self-reliant, adventurous and think like a local again ! This meant giving up on the hyper expensive but comfortable AC pre-paid cab from inside the terminal which was 3X the cost of getting an air-conditioned coolcab. Ofcourse the cool-cabs are a bit of a hit and a miss and despite my earnest appeals got a 40-50 year old Premier Padmini which had an air-conditioning system that seemed to work in fits and starts (when the engine ran) . The first initiation to the heat of the day was when the car engine decided to splutter and stop somewhere in the middle of Ghatkopar and hence you had to get down to push and jump-start the cab. Ofcourse despite the attempts of the powerful AC had just kept me on the borderline from sweating buckets ; however this effort repeated thrice more in various busy intersections made sure that I ended up sweating a good bucket or 2 inside the cab. I am sure watching a portly man pushing a cool-cab from behind and then running to the seat to jump in once the car had started after going through some fits and starts would have provided entertainment to a few and much deserved exercise to yours truly. If there is a city full of Premier Padminis it is this, it is this, it is this ! There was one point at which I did decide that if there was one more breakdown I would get out and take an auto-rickshaw ! In the middle of all this the conversation ranged around the cricket, how many taxis he owned, the world-cup win, Tendlya, Dhoni, the traffic, the pace of the new metro , Anna Hazare and his anti-corruption drive and what the taxi-wallah thought about it etc. etc. etc. Time to catch up on all the gossip . Reaching home after that meant that I could enjoy a nice lunch, a nice nap and then a good dinner with family before the next part of the travel kicked in.