A Superb Visit to Khotachi Wadi Village in Mumbai

After living in Mumbai for a significant part of my life, I have understood one thing that I am not a person who is made for constant commotion of the metropolitans. However, it is also true that I cannot escape this life because I have to sustain a reasonable standard of life, which is possible only in the urban cities. One place where I love going for a weekend getaway is the Khotachi Wadi village in the city; it is a tiny settlement in the Girgaum district of South Mumbai. People know this hamlet mainly because of the Chowpatty beach, but I try to explore things beyond that whenever I go there. I have a coincidental buddy who lives in the houses constructed in Portuguese style. Most of the people here are the original inhabitants of Mumbai, the East Indian Christians who came here more than a hundred years ago.  

The bright colors of the houses and their multi-storied structures are quite rare in the central city where tall skyscrapers are a familiar sight. The high ceilings of the enormous rooms behind the long-standing verandahs are a sigh of relief when you come from the congested apartments. I do not have any choice but to live in a tiny dwelling in the city, which I do not like very much because I come from Punjab where I have been brought up in huge Haveli style houses. The quiet ambiance of this place at my friend, Mahesh's house lets me relax and spend a good time with his family. I always go there early in the morning just to be able to smell the Goan and Konkan cuisines, most of which are made of fish. I never had much of fish during my childhood, but it was a fantastic experience to experiment with various varieties of it and fall in love with it.  

Mahesh's mother and wife, both are fantastic cooks, and they prepare such mouth-watering cuisines that I cannot help but lick every bit of food in my plate. They have even trained the male folk of the house to cook brilliant dishes. So whenever, the females of the house are not in a mood to toil in the kitchen; the men bring the kitchen to the verandah and cooking becomes a household activity. My wife and I enjoy being with these people, who are not indulged in the rat race of existence and triumph like us.

I work for Self-Drive Car Rental Mumbai, and it is easy for me to take a car and reach any corner of the city. It was just by chance that I met Mahesh while walking on the streets of Khotachi Wadi; I was asking for the directions to the chapel in the village. He accompanied me to the place rather than just guiding me with the instructions. I had loved his gesture of hospitality, which is rare in Mumbai. While talking to him for a while on our way, he told me quite a few things about the chapel and showed me the scenes depicting the birth time of Jesus. I found the mural of Virgin Mary with baby Jesus particularly amazing because of its simplicity. Mahesh told me that the villagers had constructed the chapel in 1899 to express gratitude to Jesus after they persisted the plague. 

After a few years of friendship with Mahesh, I realize that even Khotachi Wadi is gradually being converted into an urban town. The springing of high rise buildings poses a threat to the austerity of this place. Anyway, until we have time to enjoy the serenity of this little hamlet, I do not want to waste a minute that I can spend here.

How It Was Worth Every Penny to Take a Self-Drive Car

Sometimes, little decisions of life consume a lot of brain and thoughts. When I used to work in Mumbai for a Japanese MNC, I always thought of flying to places like Bali, Mauritius, or London. However, I was always pressed for time when it came to making actual plans. Many of my friends would go to exotic destinations in India and abroad. They would come to office talking about the breathtaking adventures they participated in, the mesmerizing sights of the hills and beaches they saw, and the delectable food they tried. Every bit of their talk would pound my heart like I was about to die in a minute or so. 

Even though I was not jealous of none of my friends, I would still shy away from them because their talks would make me feel bad again about my helplessness. My work profile never allowed me more than a day off in a week. Even if I got free for some time, I would look for some freelance work online and keep myself engrossed in work. However, it was not too late when I realized that with the pace that I am working, I might earn a lot of money, but I will definitely lose the precious memories that I could make on vacations with friends or by spending some free time with my family.  

I was desperate to take a break from my busy life and just leave for a place where I could not receive the mobile network. Without thinking much one day, I looked up for a random date in the month of October and booked the hotel in Lavasa. Since I had already scheduled my dates to leave, now the only work left was to figure out the mode of travel. I did not want to go by bus or train as I had used them for a significant part of my life to travel to my hometown for the last seven years. After the mind-boggling search for car rentals on the Self Drive Car Rental Apps installed on my phone, I finally settled for a sedan. 

The thought of going to such a beautiful place like Lavasa was not so tempting, so the last issue that I had to sort was to find company for this trip. I asked a few friends from college and a couple of colleagues from office. Against my expectations, it was so easy to convince people for this getaway because the major things were already booked. They only had the choice to say Yes or No since I had already devoid them of adding to the confusion of deciding a destination and way of travel. If they were comfortable with both the things, they would hop in for the vacation. A few of my friends did not find the bookings according to their expectations, so they would just refuse to join. Nonetheless, three people were ready to join me on my first road trip to Lavasa. 

I would not say that I had done something unique in taking a road trip, but this getaway is close to my heart because I could manage to have the peace of mind after a long span of time. A vacation does not become special because of the destination or the exotic things we do; it becomes exceptional on account of the memories we make with our friends and family. The events and occurrences make the time special rather than the money we spend on a trip. I would never regret that I took the decision to go to Lavasa in a moment of impulse.

How My Husband Became My Best Travel Partner

Being a wife was never an easy task, and it was not so in my case as well. When I was in college, I never wanted to marry for the fear of losing my freedom. I was having a ball in my life when I started realizing that the pressure to get married was building up. Since I could not dodge the matter for too long, I began meeting guys. It was utterly unexpected from me that I would fall in love with someone so smoothly in no time. I met a person in a pub in Delhi, who had come to meet me in Pajamas. I was awestruck to meet such a person who would not care what people, especially a girl who might become his bride, would think about him. He was least bothered with his clothes, but his personality and speech spoke volumes about him.

Within half an hour, we both realized that we were heading in the right direction. He also wanted an independent female who would not depend too much on him or cling to him at all times. We found each other just perfect for each other, and I knew from Day One that I do not need to pretend anything in front of this person. He will let me be however I wanted and support me in pursuing my desires.

One of the main things that I never wanted to leave after marriage was travel. Roaming around in different cities and countries is my favorite thing to do, and I still had a lot of things to accomplish on my bucket list. After a week of talking to this amazing person I had met in my favorite city, I told him about my wish list. I was not surprised when he said to me that he also had such a similar record, and we shared many of the common interests.

We did not have to convince each other too much to do the matchless things we had thought of doing. He also wanted to live his bachelorhood after marriage just like me, so we decided to live like singles for the next 3-5 years. No doubt that he lived up to his words and he never forced me to follow the orthodox traditions of Indian society. The first trip was, of course, our honeymoon, when we went to Bali. The first naughty thing we did was to steal food from someone else's table in a restaurant. Many other such incidents happened when we fathomed that none of us had lost the freedom. By getting married, we had just found a stable life partner in each other. 

For our bi-annual fancy dinners in the  city, we would take Self-Driven Cars on Rent in Delhi and spend time at an exotic restaurant. This gave us the opportunity to drive vivid models of luxury cars and SUVs. Just by using the Car rental in Delhi, we have explored more than a dozen vehicles in the last few years. We have been to the hills, beaches, and crowded cities of India. I must confess that over the previous three years of our marriage, I have never regretted my decision to tie a knot with this person. Even though we have had our share of fights and arguments, I have never missed my single life. Just by having a right person in life changes the meaning of your existence forever. I might have accomplished fewer things in my bachelorhood had I remained unmarried for another few years. After being with my husband for a good deal of time, I look forward to many more anniversaries with him in future.