Sunday 26th August, 2007: It almost didn't HAPPEN!

After an initial exchange of emails with a lot of people who were interested in the idea, I got busy with work and just wasn’t able to organize the first Super Sunday. After this minor fiasco, I decided that we’d definitely do something the following week. One hectic week later, I finally sent out an email to the group on Friday night. And late on Saturday evening, a decision was finally taken… we were going to spend the morning at the fishing village at Cuffe Parade, perhaps finding an old-timer to talk to, taking photographs and generally walking around.

Waking up at 4 am had never felt so good! One hour later, I was boarding the train to VT station. I was all excited at the thought that it was finally happening. We didn’t have any real agenda. The idea was simple… to challenge ourselves at different levels. The first was, of course, to use part of our Sundays more productively instead of sitting at home passively watching TV. At another level, it was about coming face to face with ideas, people, places that had somehow eluded entering our circle of understanding until now.

At 6 am, I met Shirin and Anurima at VT station and they exchanged introductions. Soon we were in a cab heading towards Cuffe Parade. As we arrived there, I think we were all a bit unsure about what exactly we were going to do there, though this didn’t come up openly. The first thought that ran through my mind was “Oh, this is a really small place! We may just end up finishing early”. The mind was up to its usual tricks! After having decided that Super Sundays would be all about exploration, about flowing with what was happening in the present moment, I was once again looking for the comfort of known outcomes. As I realized this, I became calmer. Images of fishing boats bobbing up and down in the water, long conversations with old time residents and a beautiful sunrise filled my mind. I was definitely feeling better now. Meanwhile, as all this was going on in my mind, we had arrived at the village itself. After looking around uncertainly, we walked up a stretch of sand in between some boats and suddenly Shirin said something and turned away almost immediately. I hadn’t even seen what she had seen. As I looked, I was greeted with a wondrous sight… practically the whole village was out there, squatting on the sands, communing with nature… or rather, answering its call! So much for a beautiful sunrise at the fishing village! :)

We immediately turned away, laughing, and started walking away from the village. After discussing this unexpected development, we decided to walk around Navy Nagar which was just up ahead. None of us had really explored the place before… it’s a quiet green locality with some old heritage buildings and that sounded interesting. We spent the next one hour walking around, looking at some really old and beautiful structures like the Naval Headquarters (for Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat) and St. John’s (The Evangelist) Church. Unfortunately the latter wasn’t open yet. But the watchman let us walk around the building. We made the most of it, of course… out came the cameras! The watchman didn’t catch on for a while but he soon noticed us and started getting a bit nervous. Finally, he nervously asked us to come back when it was open. Thanking him for letting us in, we made our way ahead. After walking a little while, we decided we wouldn’t walk any further and headed back to the bus-stop we had seen behind us a little earlier. As a BEST bus passed us, Shirin excitedly suggested going up to Kamla Nehru Park at Walkeshwar since it was only 7 am. Both Anu and I instantly agreed. After a bit of excitement with the bus (we waited until after it had started to get in… Anu’s frenzied banging on the bus really worked! :) … only to realize it wasn’t going to where we wanted, at which point the conductor unceremoniously dumped us at the next stop), we were finally on our way to Walkeshwar. Talking all along, we got there pretty soon and walked into the park.

The last time I’d been there was more than 20 years ago… it was certainly very nostalgic. Sharing tales of childhood memories and early dates at the park with each other, we took more pictures… of the Mumbai skyline along with the beach below us… and of the Shoe House, straight out of an Enid Blyton novel, that many generations have played in. After an unsuccessful search for a stone dial (which Shirin remembered from earlier visits), we walked down to Chowpatty where a hearty breakfast was awaiting us at New Yorker’s. Anu had already left by then and Shirin and I, with contented looks on our faces that only a good meal can bring, headed towards Grant Road station. Instead, we ended up in front of Mani Bhavan, the old heritage building where Mahatma Gandhi had lived for a while. Unfortunately, it was closed.

However, it was a fitting conclusion to what I hope is the first of many Super Sundays… standing quietly in front of the building that housed a man whose sole purpose in life was the search for truth that resides within each one of us… an exploration of mammoth proportions, of infinite depth. But the inner can only be known when the outer has been recognized and studied. And that process has found a starting point in many of us… the collective search for what is alive and real around us has only just begun!

Welcome to Super Sundays!