i knew bombay was going to be a whirlwind, but it took even me by surprise.

i got to town on a saturday morning [7 years, 7 months, and 29 days after my last visit] and hit the ground running. i covered a lot of miles in my 5 days in town, catching up with friends, revisiting old haunts, and uncovering new experiences. i think the easiest way to recap from here is to go day by day, so prepare yourselves now. and as an added bonus, if you listen along to the ranga and ryan show playlist while reading, songs 1-8 are from bombay.

saturday.

after an hourlong wait for my bag [seriously, air india?] i finally made it to priyanka and deboo’s place and hugged them both. since my last time in town they moved into a beautiful place in mahim and i immediately made myself at home. we went to dadar to spend some time with deboo’s parents who are two of my favorite humans, and after a lovely snack of sabudana khichdi [made by papa guruji himself!] it was time to go back home and get ready for the evening.

my saturday night request was toto’s, my favorite bar in bombay. i was nervous that the servers wouldn’t remember me [7.5 years, remember], but the moment i walked in deepak saw me and said “madam, where have you been!” and it was wonderful. we got ourselves a table and waited for the people to roll in. over the course of the evening we had abi and mayanka, norten, indrasish, ashu, priyanka’s cousin chotu, and anandi and rheanne all stop by. we had lots of drinks and some peanut masala and these delicious chicken kebabs and i loved getting a chance to catch up with my bombay people. pro tip: get there early if you want a table. and maybe show them my photo hehe 🙂

from there we all went back to norten’s to hang while he and indrasish broke out the guitars and kept us entertained for the rest of the night. 10/10 first night back in town, no notes.

sunday.

sunday morning was nice and relaxed. norten and i chilled with the cats, listened to some music, and chatted until it was time for me to go back to priyanka and deboo’s. they had made a delicious lunch for mayanka and me, after which we went for a drive along the newly opened trans harbour link bridge — it was a beautiful day, and we thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and the views.

while we were driving steph and i were texting about bombay and toto’s, and she mentioned a place called gupta chat in matunga that serves a sev puri cheese sandwich. now, sev puri is my favorite indian snack, and i also love cheese, so this felt like a genius invention. the rest were also game to try it, so off we went to gobble up some sandwiches and my goodness were they worth it.

sunday evening i spent back at norten’s, where we ordered sushi and watched soccer and video called our friend tet which was good fun.

monday.

monday morning was another relaxing morning filled with music and couch naps and a late lunch before heading back to priyanka and deboo’s. they were both at work, so i spent the afternoon snacking and reading. once they were home we had dinner and caught up on the rest of the weekend’s shenanigans until it was time to pick up sarah from the airport. her flight was quite delayed, but it meant traffic was much lighter and getting to the airport was much easier.

once we had her it was back home for all of us to get some much-needed sleep.

tuesday.

we all slept in on tuesday and took our time getting ready for the day. we had a late breakfast on the balcony and got sarah oriented to bombay by day and also taught her how to eat with her hands. eventually priyanka and deboo left for work, and then sarah and i left for town.

the only thing i had booked for us ahead of time was a street food tour with reality tours & travel. steph was the ceo of reality for two years, and over the years i had done the dharavi tour, the early morning bicyle tour of south bombay, and the midnight bicycle tour. steph designed this street food tour when she was at reality, but schedules had never allowed me to participate and i wanted to make sure to get to it this time. i didn’t properly think through taking sarah on a street food tour less than 24 hours into her time in india, but luckily my girl has an iron stomach and all was well.

the food tour was fantastic. we started at chowpatty beach where we got to enjoy the sunset while snacking on pani puri, sev puri, dahi batata puri, pav bhaji, mysore masala dosa, and kulfi. from there we went to bhuleshwar to wash everything down with ukala before continuing on for sabudana vada and pakoras. after that we went to mohammed ali road to enjoy chicken lollipops and egg dosa and wrap up our evening with gulab jamun. in truth i’m leaving out a few dishes because i was so full by the end i had to skip out on one or two, but believe me when i say this tour is fantastic. pro tip: you prepay for the tour but make sure you have some cash on hand to tip your guides!

i wanted sarah to see marine drive at night, so after the tour wrapped we made our way there to sit on the sea wall and enjoy the view and the breeze. we did some great people-watching, we discussed our favorite parts of the food tour, and we drank some chai.

our final stop of the night was deboo’s grandmum’s place so we could say hi to her and his uncle and catch a ride home with priyanka and deboo. we regaled them with our evening adventures before calling it a night.

wednesday.

one of my favorite places in bombay to take people is britannia — the combination of atmosphere and food is unmatched and it’s such an experience. britannia is a parsi restaurant in south bombay, known as much for its delicious iranian dishes of berry pulao and sali boti as it is for its rundown interior and often surly waiters. i miss seeing boman uncle there, but the food continues to be amazing. pro tips: be prepared to wait and i promise it’s worth it; cash only

we both wanted a walk after lunch, so our next stop was the gateway of india. it’s another of my favorite places in the city, and we had fun taking photos and observing other people’s photo shoots.

from there it was a walk back to the train and on to bandra for a return visit to toto’s. i knew i wanted sarah to see it, and she was appropriately awed by all of it. different people stopped by over the course of the evening, and eventually we found ourselves back at norten’s for another jam session.

thursday.

thursday was a chill day as both sarah and i had to pack and prepare for our next stop. we caught an overnight train from bombay to goa, so we’ll pick up from there in our next post.

xx