Sea-Link And The Turn Of Events

Ok before you go ahead and start reading, this is again going to be a long post.I just cant seem to keep it short, not my cup of tea.

Well as we all know the Indian Media of hyping things up, this time it was the turn of Mumbai's Latest Landmark "Bandra Worli Sea Link". I too was caught up with the whole ga-ga behind it and couldn't resist going on it as soon as possible.

It was Aditya's Birthday,1st July, we wished him late night and decided lets go and explore the sea-link and soon everyone was game.But no sooner did we reach there than we saw close to 50 cars already honking and waiting to get a ride on the 1600 crore bridge built in a time span of almost a decade.We were very nicely shoo-ed away by the cops(pandu - mumbai slang).He was shouting on top his voice that the sea link is going to be open by 7am in the morning.

Disappointed we went back.But I had this thing, I somehow convinced and lured everyone to get up 6 in the morning and lets be one of the 50 cars to travel first on the sea-link.

So there we were, it was only me,aditya and vyas. Not 6 am but 8 am.. and not amongst the first 50 but I am sure about the first 500.

The Aaj taks and the india tvs and the blah blahs.. were already on the bridge covering the so called " breaking news" which was..

" aur hamaare saamne ye pehli gaadi jo iss adbhut aur hairat angez sea link ka maza uthane ke liye iski savari par nikal chuki hai. kaisa mehsoos ho raha hai aapko"

And I was cursing if only all of us would have woken up on time it would have been our car.

Anyway..we touched the sea-link and started or i thought so we started because as soon as we started we had to stop and we started again and we stopped.

No there was no problem with the car but the traffic was moving at a snail speed.

Now I'll tell you the reason behind it. You give to the people of India anything that comes without a cost (free) and they will accept it with open more than willing hands and well I cant blame anyone because who doesnt like free stuff...I do...

There wasnt going to be toll charge for 4 days. So the Sea-Link that claimed to make commuting faster by taking the commuters from bandra to worli in just 7 mins.. it took us 37 minutes to cross the sea-link.

I was happy in a way that happened. Because I wanted to apprecitae its beauty and seven minutes are just not enough.

That was because the Sea-Link is just marvellous,you actually feel that you are somehwere abroad and even your normal Zen that you are sitting in makes you feel that you are driving in a BMW.

The very feeling of being right on the top of the arabian sea is amazing. The air was cooler , the sound of the waves hitting the base of the bridge, everything was just awesome.

Since the traffic was moving real slow we decided to get down of the car and walk on the bridge itself..o it was wonderful. I started clicking pictures and saw outside the corner of the bridge the waves gettin wilder. The architectural wonder was an absolute spectacle. Although only 4 lanes are open for traffic till now and the other side of the bridge is not built at all.

But the smooth roads and the sophisticated one lane to each driving was witnessed first time in Mumbai by myself.

Since this wasnt enough to quench my thirst we decided to come back from worli to bandra via the same SEA-LINK and that is where the turn of events started.

When we were still enjoying the view and our car moving at a greater speed this time we suddenly heard a squeak and started wondering what happened and where the noise came from.

After that, the car stopped right in middle of the sea link and till now when I was thinking I was in a BMW i finally realized i was actually in a ZEN.

The car had the momentum to cross the entire sea-link but finally we had to get down and push it from bandra reclamation to all the way till the nearest petrol pump which wasnt so near.

To top it all in the rainy season the sun was shining right on top of my head.

We reached there and tried all the possible things to start the car but all in vain.

Aditya decided to leave the car there and we called for a MERU( the new taxi service if you havent heard about) its nice and fast.

We finally saw a green LOGAN coming towards us and stopped right in front. We got inside finally all exhausted, saturated and worn out.

That is when my friend gets a call from the MERU driver who was actually supposed to pick us up and he said " guys we are in the wrong car"

I was like wow..icing on the cake it seems.

So when i started from my place at 7.30 in the morning i never thought, to enjoy a 7 min drive on the picturesque new landmark i would come back home 2 in the afternoon.

Aditya compensated for all the turn of events by throwing the most wonderful party and we enjoyed like crazy on the new roof top restaurant in andheri forgetting the back ache by pushing the car for almost 5 kms.

At last it was all in the fun and in the name of experience.

I wanted to be the first one to drive on the sea link and I was infact the first one to even walk on it.