Day 16 (08.01.2015) It was really hard to wake up with a feel that, this journey is coming to an end. Having only a few hours to spend in the train which was our home for last 15 days, A feeling of emptiness creeped in. After spending some time packing my stuffs, I went around to bid farewell to my friends on board and click some pics with them. One best thing about yatra is, you get introduced to Yatris even on the last day of the journey, 15 days are not enough at least to meet those 450 on the board. While roaming in the train, I noticed Mr. Kishore Mandhyan who spoke to us yesterday at Ahmedabad, talking to few fellow Yatris on board, Again a good opportunity to listen and interact with an enlightened person like him.
Our train being a low priority train, it halted several times and ran slow as we near the busy lines of Mumbai. When train halted in a suburban station for a long time, our Chennai gang decided to get down in the midway and reach our boarding place by taxi. While I was waiting for their final confirmation, the train started moving and later realized that everyone got down except me. Again our train halted for a long time somewhere near Ghatkopar station, As it would take a long time for the train to train to reach LTT (Lokmanya Tilak Terminus), few yatris including me decided to jump down the train with our luggage. Reaching the main road was bit painful with heavy luggages and few metres of walk, Then I hired a taxi to Dongri, our boarding place.
Got down the train and walking with heavy luggage and heavy heart,
The 1st thing I did after reaching the room was to take a hot water bath, one thing I missed lot while on board. After getting freshen up, the gang decided to roam around. As it has ever been, our top priority was to find a better place to eat. We were craving for some non-veg food, as it’s been veg food for last 15 days on board. After a swift search, we narrowed it to nearby Shalimar Hotel which is famous for its Biryani. After having a sumptuous meal there, we decided to visit the famous Juhu beach. It wasn’t as good as I imagined, the water was brackish and the sand was dark. Will those stop us from having fun, definitely not. We had Panipuris and Gola Ice, I had Kalakatta flavor, which made my mouth look like a blood sucking vampire. Then, some time passed blowing bubbles and clicking all our footmarks on the sand, It turned out to be a fun evening. It was already midnight by then and the cops nearby requested us to kindly vacate the beach. On our way back we went via Worli Sea Link Road and stopped by Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s home ( $1 Billion worth World’s most expensive residential property). By the time we reached our room, I was sleepy and tired to death, this time I slept on a bed, not on a train berth and it felt very strange.
To Be Continued…
Gokoulane Ravi 