Fresh from the mental alertness tasks in the morning, driver and navigator set off to conquer the Great Shopping Challenge. We hopped into a passing Cedia (very new, very shiny, very nice ), TGDC team member Rupesh hitched a ride too. Our share-a-mitsu was soon on its way to Linking Road, Bandra.

To give our visitors from Hyderabad and Jamshedpur a flavor of the suburbs, we ditched the quicker Western Express Highway and waded through some heavy afternoon traffic instead. Driving past some famous, infamous and not-yet-famous places, the radio was our constant companion with regular traffic updates and some groovy music.

The leafy lanes and clean air of the Aarey Milk Colony in Goregaon soon gave way to the narrow lanes of Jogeshwari, this area is famous for its cane furniture and is the place to hunt for some good deals. Oshiwara, always a bottle-neck, has new constructions like the Infiniti & Mega Malls, Citi Mall, Fame Adlabs, Fun Republic, Star Bazaar all along a 1 km stretch to thank.

Cane furniture shops of Oshiwara

Juhu’s Gulmohar lanes, home to quite a few birds and bollywood chicks, are notorious for shady activities too. Uniformed guards are quick to chase suspicious-looking cars away, especially if they have some heavily tinted glasses or a bunch of college kids looking for some quiet corners.

Amitabh Bachchan & his family reside in the vicinity, as do Hrithik & Susanne (at the JW Marriott Hotel– ever since their family residence became infested with ‘white ants’ called Barbara Mori ). JW Marriott, known for some good music at its popular nightclub ‘Enigma’ as well as a sumptuous mid-night buffet spread, is also the Bachchans’ favorite spot for parking their expensive wheels during the monsoons, when their low-lying bungalow ‘Prateeksha’ is often flooded. Juhu, once upon a time a peaceful locality, was rocked by a shocking incident last December, when two women, exiting the JW Marriott, were molested by a crowd of 70-80 men on New Year’s eve.

Coasting along the curves of Juhu Beach, much cleaner thanks to Ms.Hema Malini’s untiring efforts (you can actually see the sea now as you drive past), we quickly drove through Santacruz and Khar to reach our final destination – Bandra – the Queen of the Suburbs.

Let the games begin!

Signboards along our way