Joggers’ Park, Bandra West, Mumbai

This is the first park that I came across whose name is not in the memory of a person or a real estate company, its named after its users, the joggers. This is my friend’s discovery, the one who did a big ‘O’. I saw her giggling under her breath as we walked in. Like an earnest salesman she was showing us around giving apt descriptions.

I had heard that you can do some star gazing here, not real stars mind you, I meant celebrity watching. You can catch them in real action, walking, jogging, etc. My mother-in-law tells me that she once saw actor Dilip Kumar. The first time I was there I saw singer Sunita Rao. Is it worth talking about? But what should I be expecting on a tuesday afternoon, I tell myself. We, mothers and babies go park hopping during working hours on weekdays so we get to see people who believe in our time frame. Anyhow, more about the park….

There isn’t much to say its all in the pictures, so I am glad to be writing my shortest blog. But first of all the location map.

Its super easy to get here, the park is on Carter Road and a rickshaw/taxi driver can get you here in a jiffy. The amazing thing about this park is its location. It is stretched out on the sea face. Watching the sun set here is a pleasure, it takes you away from the tantrum filled day. Its quite relaxing to stand there and feel the breeze while the kiddies are let loose for a while. The benches on the side tempt you to park yourself on them. There aren’t too many huge trees but the whole park is filled with wonderful flora.

The play equipments are not elaborate but in good condition. The other thing that I have looked for everywhere but found only here is washrooms, that too in usable condition.

The main feature of this park is its walking tracks. There are three of them all concentric and separated from each other by a thin lane of shrubs.

First one looks like a hair line, thick bushes on either side, it is a narrow stone paved track. Usually, I have seen mothers riding their babies in strollers. The center one is a wide mud packed walking track which I guess is meant for serious joggers. Jogging on hard paved floor is known to cause knee damages, which is avoided by this shock absorbing floor. People who walk on this lane look determined. They are here to dump their fat and not take them back home! With their ears plugged and branded tights they seem paddling away. The inner one is a wide interlocked track meant for general category. We usually walk here as it fits our walking style. Our movement if looked from top would look like a brownian motion, sometimes we sit down digging and sometimes we run like we are chasing the chickens.

There’s a large water body in the center of the park. As we approached it, the kids became ecstatic and this is when I did a ‘WOW’. We saw a pen. Say what??? Yes thats what its called and I google searched it to confirm. We saw ducks, geese, turkeys, hens, chickens, love-birds and rabbits. All of them put together they looked like an army, quacking and chirping. To add to their cacophony, all the mothers (which is me and my friends) burst out singing “Six little ducks”, “Goosey goosey gander” and “Old Mcdonald had a farm”. We proved that we are urban dwellers and are overwhelmed by looking at creatures unlike us.