Life in Ghatkopar

Ok I have now been in the US for about 3 and a half months and if there's something I miss a lot, it is the city of Bombay( i still call it that)..I have spent my whole life in that city and everytime I see an image of Bandstand or Worli seaface or CST or Marine Drive, my heart yearns to go back there. I have a lot of memories attached to Bombay ,most of them happy and some that were equally sad...
I grew up in Ghatkopar,a prosperous suburb in the north-east of the city;part of the Central line railway network which contributes a sizeable portion (including myself , till August this year) to the city's bustling and overcrowded trains. Ghatkopar is known for its Gujarati population,most of them being involved in the Stockmarket someway or the other ;or having their own business.
The area I grewup in had a healthy mix of the Gujju crowd and the south-indian community,most of the latter crwod living in the housing societies setup by the nationalized banks in the late 60s and 70s. In fact when my grandparents bought our house about 40 years ago,barring our housing society and a couple more,Ghatkopar was actually a salt-pan land.Over time a certain Garodia family(who also run the school that I went to) started developing the area and Garodia Nagar as that locality is called today is an example of the suburban framework that is seen in middle class Bombay . I went to a Marwari family run school which had a 95% south indian faculty and an almost 100% Gujarati student population( I learnt Gujarati faster than I could learn Kannada and my Ajji used to remark that my mannerisms were also like them).The best memories i have of Ghatkopar were when I would hang out with my school buddies and play cricket with them in cramped building front yards or going to eat Laxman's Wada-pav and Bhajjis opposite Rita stores or when we would go around our localities during Diwali time to admire the bright lights and lanterns in every home ,smell the burnt firecrackers in the air and feel the atmosphere of joy and happiness around us..( I found that kind of atmosphere in Thane(west)as well near the station and near my friends' Priyanka and Sandip's houses as well).
Ghatkopar (esp the eastern side) was also the happening Garba-Dandiya place with the Somaiya grounds being the venue for people to spend nights dancing away during the navartri season to the music of Phalguni Patak and the so -called "XYZ"-Satellite Bands(never figured why they were called "satellite bands")
Ghatkopar railway station was a place where I must spent many mornings cursing my college
faculty for scheduling 8 AM classes(which meant i had to leave home at 7 to reach on time;it used to take me about 45 minutes from my doorstep to class on a fine day;bad days were when there would be no rickshaw outside my gate and the announcer at the platform would say"Platform kramak don chi local daha they pandra minuteen ushirane chalat aahe"(the train arriving on platform number 2 is running late by 10-15 minutes) and i used to groan because that not only meant reaching late but also having to bear the additional crowd that would accumulate from all stations en route to ghatkopar..but in retrospect i really miss those days when I used to wait for my friends from Thane (who would be invariably late!)and go with them to college in those overcrowded compartments(even though we traveled first class) and discuss happening events,curse the college till we ran out of swear words or read page 36 of the Mumbai Mirror...man I could just go on and on,but this post is about Ghatkopar and I will reserve a post just for my local train experiences.
Going back to Ghatkopar after a year in the US would be something i can look forward to.A chance to meet my school chums and eat Sardar ka gola at the entrance to Khau Galli or bite into the Dabeli sold on every available space on Valabaugh lane and of course taste Achija's mouth watering ,butter dripping Pau Bhaji( im a big foodie)..I know things will change and Ghatkopar is no exception to that.I already saw old buildings and the Odeon Theater being demolished to make way for swanky shopping malls and multiplexes(a phenomenon that has hit the city over the last couple of years)..Whether this will work out well for Ghatkopar is something that only time can answer