Part 2: New Year Night

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. Finally!

The train was almost empty and the station was full. There was sound of constant announcement for arrival of train and chattering of people sitting on the benches, some moving towards their train and platform, some laid down bedsheets and were lying on the platform waiting for their train with lots of jholas next to them.

I started to move towards the exit of the station. I wanted to exit from platform 1 side as I wanted to see the iconic railway station.

I opened google map and started looking for the direction towards it. I wanted to ask people for the exit side of the station, which was shown in movies, but I didn’t know what exactly to ask for so I thought just to follow google map to find the entry side of station.

After a long train journey, I was now walking on the street. Firstly, I was going on the wrong side as there was some issue with map but then I got on the right path and started following it and after a few steps, I was able to see it from a distance. A very old building right in front of me and lots of vehicles passing by. The view of the station was amazing. Yellow lights made the yellow building more mesmerizing. I reached there and there was a small area in front of it like a triangle kind of thing. There were lots of people in that area who were clicking pictures which made me realize that yes, railway stations can also be an attractive place, and I was not the only one who was excited for it. And the BMC building came out as a surprise. I had seen that building in reels but never knew it was BMC and that it was just opposite to CSMT.

Moving ahead, I already had planned where I wanted to be at midnight, so after spending 10–15 minutes at station view and looking all around, I now set the location for my dormitory in google map and started to walk towards it. The distance of dorm was just 20 minutes away and I only had one backpack so I thought to walk rather than booking bike as I was having some loose pocket that time because my last month salary didn’t come and I was not having any savings and dorm and food were more important so I had to cut out on somethings.

I started walking towards the dorm. It was around 9.30pm and there was enough time to reach my midnight destination after getting freshened up from the dorm as I had chosen the dorm which was near to both CSMT and that location.

After travelling some distance, I had to go through some galli’s to reach my lodge. There were shops which were closed, few were about to close and some people loading and unloading stuffs from trucks. Among them, some were preparing their dinner on the roadside on the stove and the smell of the food was exactly same as the food made at my village, same masaledaar. It was night and there were very few streetlights but the lights outside the shops made it visible. As the shops were closing, it was becoming dark, I was getting slightly scared but still there were enough people on the road for me to feel safe and also, I was in Bombay so that was not much a worry.

As per google map, I was at my dorm location in the galli, and I was looking around to find the dorm exactly and I was calling on the number given on the website, but no one was answering. There were some people who looked local to that place as they were wearing lungi. In December, I was wearing jacket and people there were only in normal clothes which hinted me about the weather. I just cleared my throat a bit by coughing to ask one of them where the dorm is, he pointed at the building in front of me where there were lots of boards with multiple shops name and a small board with my dorm’s name. I thanked the guy and walked towards the building. It was very old with around 5-floor and large windows and no balconies. There was no main gate to the building, just one door, and the interior of it was also old as expected from the outside look of it. The stairs were curved with heighted steps as normally we have in our houses, and the light was very dim which made me think that whether I had chosen the right dorm or not. At the landing area of stairs, there was a board with the name of the dorm on it mentioning dorm was on the first floor.

I went to the first floor, and the board of dorm was right in front and I entered it. The reception desk was the first thing I saw on entering. 5–7 chairs in front of it, one small bench, and a folding easel with a white board on which names of people staying there were written, but I didn’t focus much on that. The reception guy was sitting right in front. I started coughing to clear my throat to tell him my name and that I had a booking over there. Me being delulu and a big-time Bollywood fan, everytime I coughed to talk to someone, it reminded me of movie ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun’, khair…!! He asked for my I’d and gave me a register to fill my details in it and meanwhile he took the xerox of my I’d.

He asked the helper guy to make my bed and asked me to wait for a while, so I sat on one of the chairs. On the whiteboard, there were also details of the dorm and the check-out time mentioned there was 8AM. As per the application from where I booked the dorm, the check-out time was 11AM, so I asked him for confirmation of it and he said it was 8AM. I told him about the application time, but he said that “Ma’am we have asked the providers to change it on their application, but they haven’t”, and I was not in the mood to fight for it, so I just agreed to it. Then he took me to show the room where there were 12–15 double storey beds and each bed with their own fans, light and sockets with 2 common ACs for the room. There was only one guy present at that time in that room so I asked the receptionist that where there are some female also who is staying and he said that yes there are females and some families also staying but right now they went outside for visit so no need to worry. I kept my bag on bed, sat and turned on the light of my bed. I was feeling relaxed after carrying my bag from the station. At that moment, there were only two bed-lights that were on and there was some light coming from the reception desk, so I was unable to see the room clearly.

Now the first thing I did was that I ordered a cough syrup and Vicks toffee packet from 10-minutes delivery app with cash on delivery. Meanwhile I went to the washroom to freshen up and later, asked the helper bhaiya to do some hot water and mix salt and give to me so that I can do gargle. Bhaiya brought the water and gave me a spoon full of salt and asked me to mix as per my requirement. But the water was boiling hot so I asked bhaiya to hold the spoon and I threw away some water and added normal water to make it lukewarm, but it became somewhere between lukewarm and cold. Bhaiya was standing there watching me do this and now (me being introvert) I couldn’t ask him to heat the water again so I just asked him the spoon of salt and mixed in water and started to gargle. After doing it I went to bed waiting for the delivery. I was checking the location of the delivery boy and it was showing nearby for a while and I thought that just like me, he was also confused about the location of dorm so I thought I will go outside and receive the order but the moment I came to door he was standing right there. I paid and received the order. I drank some water 5 minutes before taking a small sip of cough syrup and rested for a few more minutes before leaving.

I took the fanny pack, put my earphone, wallet and some vicks toffee in it to eat in between as I had to call my parents in midnight to wish for new year and I should sound better as compared to our last night talk in train otherwise I will be scolded for not gargling 4–5 times a day as per their suggestion.

The time now was around 10.30pm and I left for my midnight destination. Receptionist told me that I can ask the helper guy to make some food for me on paid basis if I wanted but I did not wanted to disturb him at late night so instead I asked him if there is any place nearby where I can get full-fledged food as I was very hungry and wanted to eat something very badly. He told me about one location just nearby so when I went outside, I looked for that place, but it was closed so I just moved forward. Almost every shop in that lane was closed but it had good street lighting and people were there, so it was not feeling like it was very late at night. I saw one shop which was selling vadapav but I wanted rice and chapati. I asked that guy if I can get it somewhere nearby, he told one shop but that place was in opposite direction of where I was going so I skipped it and started to move ahead. There was a shop which had chakli and I thought that ok, let’s buy it, atleast I will have something to eat. I purchased 2 diff chakli, opened one on the way and started to munch and kept the other one in the pocket of my jacket.

I was going as per google map and I always get confused whenever there is a flyover. I was going straight and now there was flyover and adjacent to it was stairs which I did not knew where it was leading to but people were going through it so I thought that stairs is the way for pedestrians and I went above only to find out that it was the way to some railway station. So, I came back again and started to walk on the flyover adjacent to guardrail staying away from fast moving vehicles. Just a few steps ahead, the flyover had a right turn from the top. As I was approaching the turn, there was nothing in front of the flyover expect for the moving vehicles and building which was only on the side of flyover. When I reached the top end of flyover, if we looked straight from a height, it was only dark and empty space in front and some weird feeling started to get inside me because I knew what those empty spaces from a height meant. It was the ‘Bombay ki wahi ek jagah’ where Sid took to Aisha in WAKEUPSID.

MARINE DRIVE!!

After getting down from the flyover, I was looking for a way to get off the road and get on the pathway of marine drive because it was barricaded. From the flyover view I knew that I was at the middle length of drive and didn’t knew the way for drive, so I asked one of the nearby person about the way. He asked me to go a little ahead on the left side for the entry and he himself jumped across the barricading 🤦‍♀️. I just walked to the left side for a while and got the entry point. I entered and saw lots of people sitting on the promenade with their partner, friends and family along with pets. I just stood there for a while realizing that I was breathing in Mumbai. Then I found a place and sat to look at the water, the waves hitting the tetrapods and to feel the breeze. Also, it was nighttime, so the water and sky got mixed as a single thing with stars on top and boats at the bottom.

While sitting there, I was recollecting how this place has been romanticized in different ways in movies. The place where the time feels to be stopped, where the sound of people and vehicles moving behind is completely overtaken by the sound of waves striking the stones. The place which can be felt better when we close our eyes and just enjoy the sound of waves and breeze making our hairs fly. The place which itself is a company even if we are alone. Just like we have our go-to-people, to who we go whenever there is good or bad thing happening in life, to me, that place felt like a go-to-place and I never thought that I will be seeing this place in real and not only seeing but also feeling the energy which made me realize that nothing shown in movies about this place was wrong, it was all true.

Coming back to the story, I don’t know if that was the case every night or not, but on that night, there were many boats in the sea. Maybe people were celebrating new year under the stars and in the middle of water. But what I knew was that if I had seen this scene at the place where I was living, I would have felt different. I would have been thinking about those people enjoying more than me over there rather than me being in the moment, but right now the situation was different. I was completely into my zone just thinking about how I came here alone, out of my comfort zone and enjoying my own company at such an amazing place. The special New Year night when people are with their friends and family, here I am ALONE at a new place jo ab ‘apna’ lag raha tha. The place which I have heard of and seen on-screen only. The place jahan log chal rahe the, samundar chal raha tha, par waqt ruk sa gaya tha.

After a few minutes, as the length of the marine drive was long, I had to decide which side to go, left or right as I wanted to roam a bit more. I walked a bit on the left but there was a place on the other side where there was lots of light and it attracted me because I thought that there might be something going-on on the occasion of new year so I turned back and started moving towards other direction. Now facing the drive pathway, the left side had water, and the other side was fast moving vehicles and then an underground road. But my eyes were stuck on the water side. Constantly looking at it with little attention on that pathway where some people were walking their dogs. While moving, I took out my phone and earphone from fanny pack and played songs which reminded me of Mumbai so that I can really feel those songs while being there.

I walked for a while; there were some small snacks shop on the left side and then reached a place where the left side was very crowded and police were also there to manage the crowd. I wanted to see what exactly was there. I paused the song, unplugged my earphone to get complete awareness of nearby. There was a small temporary gate to that area and cops were standing there. So, I asked the cops for entering but they said that it was exit and entry is little ahead, so I moved for it. Then I reached entry and went through security check for entering.

It was Marine Drive Beach, which I didn’t even knew existed. I started to walk between groups of people who were sitting on the beach. There were many families. Children were shouting, running towards each other while their families were sitting on a mat and just talking to each other and enjoying themselves. They brought tiffins and some special food for the midnight celebration. Some vendors were also roaming and selling small toys. Couples were enjoying their moment of togetherness and many group of friends were also there who were clicking each other’s pictures and talking and laughing. Then I reached at the boundary of the beach where waves were coming. People were clicking pictures, making reels and videos of the view. I also wanted to click lots of pictures and save the memory but in my mind something else was going on. I did not click any picture. I was thinking that if I do, it will become memory and I will be satisfied by looking at pictures only when I get back to my real life thinking about the good time I spent here. But I did not wanted Bombay to be a memory for me. When we are at home, we don’t click pictures of everything because we know that we will see it everyday and same way, I wanted that place to be my home someday. I was manifesting Bombay while being in Bombay itself. Just not coming here for trip but staying and calling it my home. Some day. Some day sooner 🤞. So, I just stayed in that moment and enjoyed it.

Before today, I had been to beach only twice, both times in Kerala but never entered into water. One of the two times, I kept my slippers very near to the point where waves could reach and suddenly a strong wave came and took away my slippers. So, taking a lesson from that, this time I took off my crocs a little more behind, rolled up the jeans from bottom length upto knee and went forward towards water. I stood at the last point where waves could reach. I only wanted water to touch me, so I was at the edge. But slowly gathered some courage from nearby people who were already into the water and went a little forward so when the waves come, it can only reach upto my shin level. I held my fanny pack tightly as if holding it tightly will protect the stuffs from water in case I fall down and get dripped in water but I was tightening my fist only to get out of the fear of water as I didn’t knew anyone over there whose hand I can hold to get myself comfortable. I anchored myself there for a while, feeling the incoming waves and waves going back and tightening my fist everytime waves touched me.

Now it was nearing midnight, and the crowd will start moving in a bit and it will be difficult to get out, so I decided to go back to the drive. So everytime the waves went back into the water, I took little steps by dragging my feet behind, facing the sea only to get out of it so I was prepared for incoming waves. My feet was wet and sand got sticked to it when I took steps to reach for my crocs and when I wore it, it became heavy because of sand and walking on the beach for my way out also collected some more sand into it. I dragged myself out of the beach and started to walk towards the drive.

I reached drive and it was 12:00 AM now. New Year 2026!

Although they sleep by this time, but usually the first thing I do at new year, or any special occasion is that I call my parents and wish them but right now I was at a crowded place so decided to call them when I reach dorm.

The crackers started bursting and people started shouting Happy New Year. I sat at the promenade seeing everyone around me and again feeling that I was in Bombay realizing that the plan to come here was sudden and how afraid I was for this trip. But here I was. My first solo trip and a step towards achieving my dreams, maybe.

People around me mostly came with their families and I overheard them discussing their plans for next day and what special will be made in their homes, and I was hoping my home was also nearby so I could go home in just 10–15 minutes rather than going to a dorm. And on that new year night, I added a new wish to my wishlist, and that was to have my own home in Bombay someday. I just sat in between random people, felt the vibe, looked at water and whispered, “HAPPY NEW YEAR MUMBAI”. I sat there for around 30 minutes, played 2–3 songs, and then started to go back. I wanted to stay a little longer but earlier I reach dorm, earlier I will be able to call my parents.

I looked at the map and chose a different route this time which was parallel to the earlier one. I saw a small general store which was about to close so I ran towards it and asked uncle for two small chocolates. I had chakli but I wanted to eat something sweet first thing after midnight. So, I ate one on the way and kept the other one in pocket for the start of the next day. I reached the dorm after 15–20 minutes of walk. After reaching, I changed my clothes and put myself down on the bed. By this time, the family which stayed at the dorm had arrived and they were talking slowly among themselves. I was relaxed after seeing them. I called my parents at around 1AM and wished them a new year and texted the same to my siblings.

Now the final and main task was to book a place to stay the next day so I can freshen up there, keep my bagpack and roam around at the only 2–3 places which were pre-decided. I opened the application from where I had booked this dorm. Zoomed in and out, did visual calculations to look for the dorm which was near from the only itinerary which I had in mind for that day and found one which was 2km from my current location. I booked it and the payment was to be made when I arrive at the dorm.

All the tasks for the day were done and now I took out cough syrup, had a small amount of it. I kept my bag aside and phone inside it, took blanket and started to think about marine drive for a while.

After marine drive, I started to plan next day also in my mind. I did that for 5–10 minutes and suddenly got reminded that the check-out time was 8AM and needed to take proper rest before visiting new places. So i just paused, wished myself HAPPY NEW YEAR and went to sleep.

To be continued!!!