Day 1. Mumbai

Our itinerary was simple - take a train from Mumbai to Delhi, then take an overnight bus journey to Aut village, a few kms before Kullu.

To get to Mumbai I took one of the asiad buses. Normally, I travel in a 'deluxe' bus which is in fact the cheapest ticket available. Considering the heat and a wad of cash in my pocket I decided to go for an 'AC Volvo' worth 200 bucks.. but I wasn't given a Volvo.. it was a 'Sutlej'. As irritating as it was, its happened to me before. I had anticipated something like this anyways. Any luxurious bus is called a 'Volvo' and a Sutlej is not bad. But it isn't a Volvo.

I reached Bombay at 3pm, after a nonstop 2 and a half hour journey. My train was at 7.30. I had plenty of time to kill - and would have loved to explore at least some parts of Mumbai - but I was lugging around a 15kg sling back on one shoulder.

There was also the problem of my digicam - memory stick. I had with me 64+16MB of space - which would provide me with about 42 photos. I had previously decided to allocate a few hundreds from my budget for memory space, but my wallet contents stood at Rs.3800. Would it really suffice for bus tickets to Aut, a 2-day trip to Manali, bus tickets to Rohtang Pass, return ticks to Delhi, and expenses in Delhi - provided nothing goes wrong?

Oh what the hell. Memories are more valuable than souvenirs and luxuries. I decided to go for it! Destination 1: JJ Mehta Photo Supplies, Dadar (West).

In Mumbai there are so many people around you wherever you look. But hardly anyone seems to know directions to anywhere. I asked several passers-by and taxi drivers around the Dadar Railway Station, no one seemed to know the whereabouts of this place. Finally, I approached a group of traffic policemen who kindly informed me that I was in fact in Dadar (East) - and to get to my destination I had to cross a bridge over the station and walk a little in some vague direction.

It turned out to be farther than I thought, and my bag was on the verge of causing brachial plexus injuries to either shoulder of mine. My only respite was that the bag had hard wheels on one side - I couldn't drag it - but if anyone tried to brush against my bag as people often do in crowded places, they would hurt themselves nicely.

JJ Mehta was a little more than a hole in the wall. From its very comprehensive website, I had expected an airy spacious showroom of some sort. Still, there was a small crowd, always a good sign of reliable services. The salesmen were well-informed, and I acquired a SanDisk 512MB Memory Stick for 1000 bucks. Too bad I couldn't get 1GB at that price.

I went back to Dadar East, and sat down at a Coffee Day to pass time. I even chanced upon three college friends whom I hadn't seen in about 5 years. Now that's a coincidence - that can happen only in Mumbai. Two of them are off to the states while one is an editor for a magazine. It made me think of what direction my own life is headed, but thankfully those thoughts were cut short as I had a train to catch.

I met Manish for the first time at the Railway Station at about 7:15. Sumedh came running a few minutes before the arrival of the train - apparantly he was misinformed of the departure details. Oh well. Time to embark on the jouney!

Bombay Amritsar Golden Temple Express. Second Class Sleeper. It was going to be a long train journey.