"Such a big school! My Anu is very smart, I knew it. She might have been a little late while taking her first steps or uttering her first words, she got admission in a big school at first shot," Ammamma beamed. I don't know what's up with these big people, they like to come to the house, unannounced. I had a faint remembrance of their faces. By 'their' I mean Ammamma and Arun Uncle.

Mummy waved at a yellow-black vehicle that was passing near her. Hmph! She tells me to not wave my hand near the vehicles but she is doing the same. After many failed attempts, the vehicle stopped. Everybody crammed inside a small vehicle.

"Kya madam! How can five people fit in an auto?" he asked.

"Bhaiyya, don't count this small child. I told you I will pay twenty rupees extra on meter charge. Now, go fast, we have to reach Thane," Mummy instructed.

After a bumpy ride, we reached a place that was more crowded. There we were waiting for something. Apparently, these big people had an idea but I didn't. They screamed excitedly when they saw a bus arriving. Are we going in this? Surely, we were for the minute it stopped, we climbed it.

Ammamma pushed everyone and grabbed some seats in the middle rows. The bus started moving within a few minutes where a man, wearing a black cap, started shouting on top of his voice. While I didn't understand what he was saying, I could easily vouch that he repeated the word, 'Bombay Darshan' at least a hundred times. Yawning, I decided to take a nap on Daddy's lap as the cool breeze was hitting my face.

I was woken up, fed by Mummy. I noticed that the cap man had stopped speaking. This time, while rubbing my back to make me burp, I still felt drowsy. So I slept on Arun Mama's lap but woke up quickly, feeling sweaty. Within minutes the bus halted, and I saw the familiar scene. The cap man announced, "This is the Gateway of India and almost opposite to it is the Taj Hotel. Now, we are giving one hour here, so do not go for the Elephanta Caves ferry. That ferry will take at least two hours. If you're going there then meet us at the Hanging Gardens but you will be missing darshan at Siddhivinayak Temple."

Someone from the back row asked, "How will we reach Hanging Garden then? You will pay for the extra ride?"

The cap man thundered, "Pay for an extra ride? Tujha azoba chi gaadi ahe ka hi? You missed it; you pay for it."

As instructed, we went for a normal ferry and came back. Yet the big people felt there was time, so we must click photos. What a logic! The thing I hate about it is that the flash blinds my eyes. Yet who can argue with them? They keep arguing amongst themselves. I got a good view of their verbal battle for I was sitting on top of Daddy's shoulder. I had gripped my hands on his forehead, very tightly.

"Anu, can you see a fairly clear area for clicking photos?"

I looked around. I remembered how big people narrow their eyes to search so I did that but ended up closing my eyes. I found a spot, I pointed but Arun Mama was already leading the family to the opposite side. What are those? I saw not one, not two but at least a hundred birds, pecking on the ground to eat grains.

"The famous pigeons will be captured by my camera," grinned Arun Mama. I looked fine in the photos until I saw a boy, a little bigger than me, running towards the birds, like a maniac. In that process, the birds got scared and most of them flew away. But many flew so low that I got scared and I started crying.

It took them a bus ride to Siddhivinayak Temple to calm me down. I see a huge white structure but most importantly, a huge line that was coming out of the temple. Daddy, surprisingly, went and caught the place. The line moved at medium pace. As we moved inside the temple, I felt the heat rising. After a long wait, we reached the yellow hall. The centre of one of the walls were adorned with different flowers and in the centre was the red idol. Everyone bowed their heads and prayed. I was in a dilemma because I was sitting on Daddy's shoulder.

If I leave my hands to bring them together to pray, I might lose my balance. I decided that for a split second, I will pray. Before I could do that, the line started moving. Never mind! But Mummy already saw me in the confusion and then to her dismay, we had to walk out. I knew from her face that she looked angry but before she could tell anything, we got pushed to the same place from where we had started.

The bus ride seemed hot; my clothes started sticking to my body. I had no idea why it was happening but it was because someone or something called 'sweat'. Who knows what it means, I heard Daddy speaking. The bus halted all of sudden. Why am I even surprised? He has been stopping this bus like this.

The place he had stopped was beautiful as there was greenery everywhere. This time I sat on Arun Mama's shoulders and we entered. I felt a cool breeze hitting my face. We have come to a garden! I hope they have got a ball for me to play with. Noticing that there are no toys to play with, I looked upset.

Ammamma looked around surprised. "Who knew that there might be a garden in the middle of Mumbai? It feels cool here though I can clearly see the Arabian Sea."

Daddy explained, "This is a very old garden, from what I have heard. This place is located on Malabar Hills. If I remember what my colleagues told me, the west side of these hills. It was built by a Parsi man . . . what was his name . . . ah! Pherozshah Mehta! That man built it."

The cap man came over to us and joked, "Kya Sir, you want to take my guide job?"

Everybody guffawed. I looked at the grass beneath my shoes. Apparently, Arun Mama had put me down after he felt that he couldn't lift me. He covered it up saying that I should get a chance to walk in a relatively less crowded area. As if I would believe that!

The guide added, "This was built on top of one of Bombay's main water reservoirs to protect its water from being polluted. That man had this vision in 1881."

The cap man rushed to tell the same thing to others. Arun Mama lifted me again and showed me a huge water body lined with apartments. "Anu, do you recognize it? It's the same Arabian Sea on which we went for a ferry ride."

I heard screaming noises of children. When I looked at the source of the din, it was a very strange structure. Covered with yellow and red paint, it was not the usual structure that I was accustomed to seeing.

"Woah! That building is shaped as a boot! A boot with a roof on top! How cool is that!" Arun Mama exclaimed.

Mummy admonished, "Arun, that's just two floors high and you're speaking as if it were a tall building!"

I ran to the boot when a kid running there almost pushed me. Before I could touch the ground, Mummy caught hold of my chest. Taking slow steps, I reached at the door. Few big kids were going in and climbing the stairs. The whole building looked very dark. I decided not to go inside. On Ammamma's idea, Mummy fed me the cold food that she had got from the house.

After sometime, we boarded the bus. Meanwhile, Daddy and Arun Mama had munched on some food. They had got some in plastic covers for Ammamma and Mummy. The cap man threw a tantrum but Daddy scolded him. We stopped at the next place which had an overturned cup shape thing on top of the building. What's with these places and their weird shapes?

The cap man had stepped down already. He came in a minute and announced, "The Nehru Planetarium is closed from afternoon. We have no choice but to skip it."

Everybody groaned. Including Arun Mama. The bus started moving again. So, we are not getting down again? Good. I will take a nap. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted to sleep. It felt like a minute of nap when I woke up due to the loud chants.

"Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Hare Rama Hare Krishna . . . "

Groggily, I closed my eyes. I absolutely had no idea that we had followed the same procedure in the temple we had visited in the morning. This time a thunder woke me up. I heard a loud noise of raindrops falling. I was completely awake by now.

The whole place was covered with white colour. In a matter of a few minutes, we reached the place where the idols were decorated with bright colours. Everybody bowed their heads. This time since I was not sitting on Daddy's shoulders, I brought my palms together and bowed my head.

As we headed, the rain had almost stopped. We boarded the bus and this time before I could fathom that the bus had started moving, it halted. We got down again. This time, I saw brown sand and a long stretch of water. The cap man shouted, "What you see in front of you is Juhu Beach. Since it has rained, please be careful, don't go too inside the water. Assemble here after forty-five minutes. This is the last place in Bombay Darshan."

In the next few minutes, we were near the beach. My shoes were removed; the sand felt warm. Ammamma was left in charge of all the footwear since she refused to step in. Mummy and Daddy held each of my hands. They slowly walked me into the waters. A wave of shock surged in me as the cool waves hit my feet. I looked at them with glee. Arun Mama had ventured furthermore, with his camera to click photos.

We stayed in water for some more time before heading out to the food vendors. Daddy confidently walked to one of them and spoke. In a matter of no time, the delicious smell of red curry wafted into my nose. Into that curry, on a very big black metal plate kind of thing, the vendor added water. I saw fumes arising from it.

He had a metal stick in his hand which Mummy uses when making dosas. He was making swift motions on the metal plate and occasionally hitting it. The fumes started increasing, I turned my face towards the sea. I noticed an orangish yellow ball going down into the sea.

"Look! The sun is setting!" Arun Mama exclaimed. Nobody seemed to pay attention as they started handing out plates to each other. Everybody started devouring their plates. Also, everybody fed two bites from their plates. The food was very spicy.

"Don't give Anu more Pav Bhaji. Her eyes are already watering," Ammamma declared as soon as she noticed. After the eating session, we headed to the bus. I didn't realise that I had slept on Mummy's lap out of exhaustion. I had a faint memory of getting up in our house to eat and then sleeping again.

*

Translations:

Tujha azoba chi gaadi ahe ka hi?: In Marathi, it means, 'Is this bus owned by your grandfather?'

***

Hope you all are safe! So, for this chapter, I have used the standard places that are shown for Bombay/Mumbai Darshan. Since Hanging  Gardens are on Malabar Hills, there are chances of landslides leading it not allowed for general public. It is sometimes replaced by Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Zoo. I could be wrong too, please feel free to correct me. The name of the zoo is from my very faint memory and Google Search.

Thank you for reading.