After a good sleep last night, our energy was fully restored and we’re ready for another day of shopping marathon.
First, we took them to a couple of shops that sold steel utensils and appliances in Vashi. At one of the shops, Salmah bought a Sumeet all-in-one stainless steel blender (meaning, it can be used as juice mixer, spice grinder and meat mincer) and a Prestige pressure cooker while Jalil bought a pressure cooker of the same brand and a set of forks and spoons. As for me, hmmm… an oven would suffice for the time being.
… then to Himalaya Herbal Healthcare Drug store which was also in Vashi. The said company specialises in Ayurvedic herbal health care products focussing on developing, safe and natural remedies for healthier plus richer lives. You can get almost anything under the sun here, from hair care to skin care, supplements to nutrients, slimming tea to weight gainer, baby products to cosmetics, anything you name it, dudes! And all are made from fine herbal ingredients.
… and lastly, to the wholesale market in Vashi where they could shop for some basmati rice, spices and tea leaves.
… and then we needed something that we could quench our thirst without drowning ourselves. Perhaps, some ice-cream at Natural would do fine!
I wanted so much to have some beriyani at Paramount Restaurant for lunch but since the road we took did not go that way, I just had to make do with the beriyani at Bostan Restaurant, located infront of Jama’ Masjid in Bandra.
We checked out Shah Rukh Khan’s huge bungalow – Mannat – in Bandra after lunch. Pressing my luck, I asked the guard if there’s a possibility we could see and a take a photo with him. But to my disappointment, the guard simply said “Shah Rukh Khan nahi hei. He’s out of India!” Mana pulak la mamat sorang nih pegi… cuba la duduk kat rumah dendiam!
Next, we checked out Aishwarya Rai‘s former apartment in Bandra. She used to live here before she got married to Abhishek Bachchan and moved into the Bachchan’s home.
Next destination was Filmcity in Goregaon, a place that serves as the venue for shooting of many Bollywood movies, I can say almost similar to Universal Studio. We tried to enter the area but we were stopped at the entrance gate by the guards who later informed us that we needed to get a special pass to be able to get in. We tried many tricks and approaches (we even tried to bribe them), in the attempt to get in, but dreadfully, we had no luck that day.
I just couldn’t understand why they kept this place close for visitors. They should have at least opened a ticket booth at the gate and charged the visitors who wish to go in. The should have opened the area to public and make money out of it. In a way, this will promote the area as part of the tourist attaractions! Why do they have to make it harder than entering a war refugee camp? It’s really upsetting!
Ayesha had invited us over to her place at Pali Hill, Bandra to have dinner tonight. As it was still early, we stopped by at Oberoi Mall, Bandra just to kill the time.
On the way up to Pali Hill, we stopped by at Punjab Sweet House to buy some barfi. Barfi is a scrumptious Indian dessert made of either mango, cashewnuts or almond nuts mixed in pure butter ghee, sugar, cardamom powder and the finest quality fresh channel milk that will give you a wonderful sweet creamy lip-smacking sensation. Barfi, without being refrigerated, can last for about 3 to 4 days.
At one corner of the shop, I saw a guy making sweet jelabi. I had tasted this one before but I don’t really like it. So, I just bought myself some plain milk barfi and some mango barfi! Yummy…
As we reached Ayesha’s apartment, we were greeted by her and her cocker spaniel, Velvet at the door. Ayesha later then took us for a tour around her apartment and showed us where the gymnasium and the swimming pool were. As we strolled around, Velvet walked a few steps ahead of us and it’s like she was the one giving us the tour, not Ayesha.
The Ferrari you can see in one of the photos belongs to a famous actor, Sanjay Dutt. In fact, the whole building where Ayesha lives belongs to him and his family. He even has his own private gym, separated from the common one Ayesha had shown us a few minutes ago.
From Ayesha’s balcony, we could see a huge white van which also belongs to Sanjay. And the two white structures, a bungalow and an apartment building, standing behind Sanjay’s white van, belong to a famous senior actor, Dilip Kumar.
Dinner was served at about 9 p.m. It was a lovely dinner indeed. Ayesha’s adorable Velvet that kept pacing under the table while we were eating suddenly came to me and licked my foot. Startled, I gave a loud yelp(couldn’t help it!) and poor friendly Velvet got scared of the sound I made so, she scurried away.
On the way home, we stopped by at a construction site near our apartment to get some fresh clean soil which we intended to use it for the samak later. As soon as we got into the house, kitorang cepat-cepat samak apa-apa yang patut before everyone went to bed.
The Sweet Talker 
