Mathuradas Vasanji Road

After the cricket match at Snehasadan and before dinner I decided to take myself for a walk. (Should have taken Rowlf's advice about what to do next.) And the action's all by the station, so.

It's not a reckless generalization to dismiss Andheri East as so much industrial wasteland. Saki Naka, Marol, SEEPZ, ick. But it is undergoing a certain lumpen gentrification. Cinemax Chakala is a perfect example: a multiplex for the downtrodden. The Brijwasi sweets on the road from the station is another such.

Chaat off the street is one thing. Chaat by a little garden by a shady arcade is getting tray play-zant, as my parents might joke. A few exchanges of coins and tokens later, I was in possession of both a vada pav and a sev puri sprinkled with raw mango.

I sat down on a plastic stool and rubbed elbows with some sort of political clique, a group of acolytes attending on a round, sunglassed, white-Safari-suited man they addressed as Babuji. He reminded me of candidates I'd seen painted on walls in the South, not of anyone who'd show his face on a poster around here. There were several levels of hierarchy involved, but it amounted to one very busy boy fetching the puris.