1. Stores are charging for plastic bags now.
2. Taxi’s have e-meters now. Dadar Station has prepaid taxi stand, minimum fare for pre-paid taxi is Rs 60.
3. The size and number of cars on road seems to be increasing day by day. Property and food prices seem to be going up as well.
4. Personalized gifts/items seems to be the newest trend – you can get anything and everything personalized with names, pictures – be it toys, gift articles, pencils, t-shirts, compass box, bags, envelopes, blankets etc etc.
5. Skywalk in Santacruz is nice (just got a chance to walk on that one !) – covered, clean and no shopping opportunities there. Also heard people using it for morning walk during rainy seasons. Was wondering if they could have given escalators instead of stairs everywhere.
6. The Malls show a completely different image of mumbai – i.e no shabbiness, poverty, dirtiness etc.
Malls have become a good place to hangout, shop, dine, fun and also maybe to beat the mumbai heat as well. Even saw college students with laptops having project discussions.
7. Road side Mehendi wala’s using color/chemicals instead of mehendi. One will find them near each train station etc.
Restaurants –
CPK has ample choices for vegetarians, loved their pizzas as well. And they also have eggless desserts.
Quattro is a Vegetarian Italian Restaurant in Phoenix Mills Mall. I didn’t get a chance to eat there but heard good reviews of it from various folks including Jayesh.
Mainland China (Bandra Shoppers Stop building) – had a buffet menu for Sunday lunch. Loved the choices for chinese dining, food was little oily but tasty and lots of varieties (appetizers, main course, desserts) to choose from. Do visit this place if you like chinese food and also to experience the buffet setting in Mumbai !
I always get lots of personalized gifts from India for Nivriti and Nirvaan. Have got shawls, towels, bags, jewelry kits, name frames. Really love it and cannot say no to them when gifted!!!
They are expensive as its Personalised!!
On our last visit to India we also enjoyed lot of international cuisines in India as one it lots of veggie varieties and two indianized to some extent!!!
Waiting to hear about your London trip Bhavini!!!
We have also gotten personalized stuff done in the past few years, but this time it felt more common these days now.
Most malls have these but Shivaji Park has a Mad Over Donuts store. So one can get many eggless varieties from there.
And London trip details is work in progress. Will be out soon 🙂
More and more rickshaws also have e-meters. Somehow we dont have that many personalized stuff for K and S. In fact none with their names on it. Skywalk of scruz is definitely nice to avoid the station crowd.