Juhu Beach -an extract from upcoming Novel "MY RIDES WITH SAHEB"

Both of us start walking towards the beach

Juhu beach in Mumbai is considered one of the beautiful beaches, however I was not sure why they consider it so. Over the years as the population increased the serenity of the beach is lost and the human animal has raped the beauty I thought. Years before when I was young I used to see the sand crispy and clean without any dead material like a plastic or any other non degradables. Now the sand is woven with such dead material ravaging the scenic sense which one used to enjoy. When we were kids we could just allow to flow the sand from the hand, which in a small breeze would start flowing down giving an amazing look, there was such a happy feeling doing so while it was so mundane. Now the kids who come here do not seem to be enjoying the way we did perhaps because of the intrusion of the man made foreign materials which hardly decompose and stay put spoiling the beauty of the sand at the shore. May be the beach has still retained its celebrity status because of a few filmy shoots or maybe because of the greatest star of this decade being near to the beach.

Juhu beach is still one of the Itinerary places for any tourist coming to Mumbai along with the House of Amitabh Bachhan. As people pass by that lane invariably the guide will point out to Bacchan’s house and the eyes and ears of any traveller get curious to have a glimpse. Everyone knows its not possible to see Mr.Bachhan just like that as most of the times the mammoth gates are always closed, yet everyone has a ray of hope to probably have a look at the star. One good thing about this beach is it long stretch which sometime permits one to have a good horse ride too for a fee. While there are a very few who enjoy nature and take long walks along the shore, the trained monkeys relish the association of the human population doing their own acrobats or sometime carrying a plate on their head with both their hands as instructed by their master perhaps depicting the plight of the poverty ridden population in Mumbai which get concealed in the business of the city. For foodies, this is an amazing place giving all the street food, which any Mumbaikars tongue would relish of. With the Chinese economic invasion of the globe now we do see a few appealing foodstuffs like Chinese fried rice. During Ganapthi festival it is a great scene to watch with lakhs of people carrying the Idol of various dimensions colours etc., from different economic strata all immersing their deity in the same water of the Arabian Sea depicting the typical Indian openness of embracing anything and everything which comes by as their own.