powai: now and then

i came to bombay first time in my life in june 1999. the purpose of the visit was the iit counselling and other formalities. though i din't stay in iit hostels during that trip (was put up in some remote part of mumbai known as bhivandi) but still managed to catch a glimpse of powai and hiranandani (located in powai but famous by its own name). hiranandani had just started to grow around that time and the buidlings and ongoing construction were simply awesome. watching the beautiful carved and painted tall complex (which i saw first in the Dilbar-Dilbar song) in reality was a breathtaking experience for me. anyways so i left mumbai with the dreams of returning back shortly and visiting the much hallowed lands of powai. i came back in july and on the weekend paid a trip to hiranandani with my friends. as adviced by seniors, we went to Hakone (a gaming zone in Galleria) and Go-Karting site. 6 years back those were the only two places for doing timepass as i remember now. things changed fast soon..
over the next 4 years during my iit stay, there were some additions to the HN area. a host of eating joints opened in the ever crowded galleries of Galleria. one just had to take a seat there and in no time, he was surrounded by the waiters from every eating joint, each trying to thrust his menu-card into the face of the visitor. but i was a brand loyal guy ordering mostly from Nutan Snacks (chamad, i hope u remember our order, 2 plate parantha: 1 aloo and 1 cheese, 1 bhel puri, 1 dahi puri). most of all i liked Baskin Robbins there. shortly Planet M store also opened there followed by the so called environment friendly e-cotel Rodas which became the favorite hang out place during the nights. a shopping mall Haiko also opened next to Planet M. a bad thing that happened to HN was the prolific growth of call-centers in that area. that was one reason for the house-full show at galleria whenever we went there. but i think these were just indicative of what was to follow..
in no particular chronological order, i will try to list the changing scene of HN. Haiko has shifted to the complex housing Planet M and Rodas. with the changing taste of people, they have opened Bowling facility also (i scored 133 there this weekend, jat beware !). the famous coffee-cum-hukka joint of Bandra, Mocha has replaced the old Haiko place. but inspite of its popularity it doesn't host the kind of crowd one gets to see at the bandra one. it looks like the designers & builders hadn't ignored the varying tastes of people. for those interested in food and drinks, places like Pizza Hut, Saffron Spice and many more have opened. for the literary kind, there is Crosswords around the corner and i am quite sure that Landmark would be eyeing some other corner of the locality. last but not the least, how can you forget the multiplexes. yes, finally apna powai is opening multiplex also and not one but two. i really feel sad about this because this may reduce the popularity of Shreyas which still remains my favorite theatre in mumbai :)..
all this leaves no doubt in the mind that powai area has undergone mass commercialization at a much faster pace during the last 2 years when compared with the 4 year period of my iit stay. but some things never change. one of them being the Bhayaji Tea center serving the most energizing tea in the locality. i visited the place this weekend and to my surprise found that the old man has been replaced by probably his son but the tea still tastes very sweat. another one is Shri Ganesh Rasvanti Grah located just outside the y-point gate serving the most refreshing and thirst quenching ganne-ka-jucie. i used to visit the place daily during the summers and it was the place where our cse batch used to celebrate our victories in games of football and cricket during the final year. what is most amazing is that despite the inflation and other factors, the price has remained Rs 5 per glass for the last 6 years (defying the quote "nothing is permanent except change") without any deterioration in the taste. another thing which hasn't changed at all, though on a negative side, is the horrendous traffic outside the main gate despite the opening up of flyovers at gandhinagar and seepz..
finally i would like to end this long post hoping that the BMC takes some quick steps to save the beautiful Powai Lake from drying up..