A shopaholic's trip to Mumbai!

It was a beautiful evening in November ’09 when my Ammi, Abba and I were talking, while relishing on Chai and ‘garma garam’ pakodas. And ‘The’ topic sprang up. Again.“Where are we going to shop for Mehnaz’s wedding?”Needless to say, my mood sprang up too! :D  Shopping!! Wow! And that too MY wedding shopping! Soooooooper!

We had talks on this topic many times before.But they were like just two-three minutes conversations like how we decide when we need to buy daily groceries. And this was my WEDDING!!Come on people, we need to actually DISCUSS! So NOW we got talking. 

Ammi’s choice- Mumbai. Abba’s choice – Bangalore. Beti’s ‘choices’ : BOTH! You know, the beti dint want to annoy neither mum nor dad. LOL! Beti gave all the possible reasons on why we should be going to both the places and my darling parents agreed. Buhahaha! I can MADLY shop! My excitements levels reached the clouds. :D 

I began preparing my shopping list. Well, LISTS. If anyone had a look at the lists, they would have definitely thought I had been robbed of ALL my belongings. The list included every other thing a girl needs. LOL! And then the angel in me spoke – “Why do you want to buy all these stuffs AGAIN? You already have like a dozen of each of the things written down. Now be a good girl and edit (read reduce) your lists”. The devil in me ‘counter-striked’: “Naaz! You are going to be a bride soon. And a bride is supposed to have EVERYTHING new in her wardrobe! Expand your list gurl”.

Now the ‘good-shopaholic-girl’ was in a dilemma. The Angelic Naaz and the Devilish Naaz were right on their part. But what should Mehnaz do now? I decided to listen to both. I brought my lists under my sister’s eyes. In other words, I got it under a scanner and within minutes it was reduced to half. Mummmyy!! But it was a good decision. It would be wastage to buy these ‘already-have’ stuffs again. Thank you Sista :D  Angelic Naaz tapped on my back. Devilish Naaz looked at me fiercely. I said ‘Hold on buddy, have a look at the list. The bride is still going to get new clothes, jewelry, accessories, sandals, cosmetics etc. Now smile’!! I was successful in emotionally blackmailing myself too!! Wow! I must be awesome. LOL!

Chhatrapathi Shivaji Intl Airport

The tickets were booked and we left to Mumbai on December 3^rd.My lovely friend Devyani – A Mumbaikar, who was our Guide for shopping in Mumbai, had confirmed our stay at a hotel in Dadar. And we would not have got a better stay in Mumbai. Thank you so much Devu! :) We headed to the hotel straight from the airport and freshened up ourselves and started the shopping spree. What excitement! Devyani had told us over the phone where to roam in Dadar until we meet her in the evening. So as directed, we explored Dadar- The Shoppers Paradise.  We went to a store named ‘Bharatkshetra’, which is exclusively for bridal shopping. My! My! What a splendid collection they had. Imagine a shopaholic’s state when such beautiful clothes were being displayed and marketed. It was just WOW! And before we could even meet Devu, I had chosen my wedding Sharara. :D  A magenta pink sharara with golden zardosi work. I tried it out and it looked so very beautiful and at that very moment I knew i was going to wear this for the wedding. :D

My Magenta Pink Sharara ( M trying it out on the top left) Hehe

Bharatkshetra, Dadar, East Mumbai

Once the main outfit was decided, we moved on to the ‘Bharatiya Naari’s symbol’ – The Saree. My fascination for sarees would reduce my dad’s wallet’s weight by almost fifty percent. But it got the nod from the financer coz it was worth it ;) So here I was, with my wedding outfit and sarees. Devyani joined us at the store too and once she saw all my dresses, we moved to a restaurant to plan out the activities for the next day. 

After the meeting at the restaurant, we roamed around with Devyani to some more shopping streets around Dadar and picked up few dresses for me and for my cousins. By then we all were tired and called it a day. We decided that we would be meeting after a day since Devyani had to go to Delhi the next day. So the next day Abba, Ammi, Bhayya and me got ready for some heavy shopping. :D Our guide for the day was Farhan- our relative. Mumbaikars have got this amazing knowledge of every shopping area and the places where we can get the best deals. ;) Farhan took us to ALOT of stores and since I had the freedom to buy anything, I laid my hands on everything that pleased my eyes and Lo! It was mine. Alhumdulillah! :D The shopping spree was followed by a delicious lunch at Delhi Darbar. 

Mumbai is a HUGE city and I had never visited it earlier to explore it. I used to be in Mumbai only to catch connecting flights and so I never got the chance to roam around. And this time too, we had come with a purpose and all our time was spent in it. But there was one place where I reeely reely wanted to go. The Chowpatty Beach. I had heard about it so much that I was keen to visit it. But, we had no time! :( The rest of the day was spent entirely in shopping and at the end of the day we all had a yummilicious dinner and thanked Farhan for helping us with all the shopping. We got back to the hotel and had a good night’s sleep. 

Devyani came back from Delhi the next day and we planned to meet in the afternoon at Amarsons. It was a real big store and we reached on time. Devyani was on her way, so we thought of going around the shop until she comes. Minutes later I got a call from Devyani saying she is outside the shop and that  she needed change to give the auto rickshaw guy. I went out to meet her and then my mouth fell open! I saw my friend Gaurav standing with Devyani and I was so very happy to see him there. And then I realized Devyani’s plan. She and Gaurav made this plan to surprise me and they were totally successful in their plan. But bechara Gaurav, It was his first visit to Mumbai and Devyani made him wait for her outside Amitabh Bachan’s house for a good one hour and we all burst out laughing when he was telling about his experience. Hehe! Since I live in Mangalore, Devyani in Mumbai and Gaurav in Bhopal, we used to always plan to meet but our schedules never allowed us to. Now this was one time when we three got to meet and it was fantastic! So after Gaurav met my parents, we all set out again- For Shopping!!!  

Needless to say, we girls had a good time but Gaurav and my bro were getting a lil bored. Obviously. We went to Bandra and roamed around for sometime and we made plans to go for a movie. But my parents were tired so we dropped the plan. We were contemplating where to go and then I said ‘ Chowpatty’!!! And we were there. I was so glad to be at Chowpatty Beach. Walked on the Beach, clicked pics, tried the Gola’s and ate Pav Bhaji! Slurp!  A beautiful day came to an end and we bid goodbye to each other as we were leaving back to Mangalore the next day. 

This post is dedicated to my awesome friends- Devyani Jagdale and Gaurav Joshi. Thank you so much for making my Mumbai trip a memorable one. :)

The next day we woke up early and packed our bags and set out. Nah! Nah! Not to the airport. For shopping again! Lmaoo!! :D Our flight was in the evening and we dint want to waste any time. ;) Optimum utilization of time you see ;) After our shopping spree ended, We had to buy extra bags to keep the shopped stuffs in. Later in the evening we left to the airport and headed back to Mangalore with happier hearts, smiling faces, excess luggage and lighter wallets. Alhumdulillah! :)