a walk through bandstand

We were locked out of office, thanks to our greedy chai buds, Farzin (a colleague) and i left for a walk to bandstand in the evening. sea-breeze is on and i am trying to look for Salman and Shah Rukh khans residence, thinking of what they might be thinking being residents of this queen of suburbs, Bandra! well these are thoughts that one should keep to themselves.
Bandstand- a beautiful waterfront !?, with a good promenade, a small park for the kids (mind it, 10:00 am to 9:00 pm only!), swanky apartments and bungalows, and couples all over the place- it has it all. Well, it indeed is a pristine place that invites a lot of people to come and spend some time out there!

A Little History:
In its old glory the bandstand culture, was a popular attraction since the 17th century where different bands (army, navy, colleges etc.) play to the open sky for the entertainment of the visitors which at one point were the British. It was only due to this culture that these stretches came to be known as 'Bandstands'.
Around the 1950's there was a huge old wall at the Bandra Bandstand to which the sea waves use to crash, which eventually became a dump yard, untill around 1998 the Bandra Bandstand Residents (who have a trust by the same name BBRT for future ref.) along with the MP's fund decided to clean the dump and construct the Bandstand Promenade. It was the first of it kind promenade made for the citizens in a suburb by the residents initiative which included the Carter Road promenade too.

The promenade with the Mumbai skyline.

The pedestrian foot over path is a boon for the city revelers and the health conscious. During sunsets and there after the promenade is full of joggers, family, kids, the young and of course the couples who devoid of any obvious attention have a peaceful time on the rocks. Towards the end of the promenade we saw that the waterfront being encroached by slum dwellers.
Though i was quite impressed by the efforts of the BBRT to keep the place clean, with signage and notices everywhere notifying the people about the same, but it was disheartening to see the lack of or no dustbins on the paved walk way! the visitors/citizens have no choice but to dump the garbage around as there is no provision for the same. From the looks of it i am sure there were bins installed, but vandalized by someone who needed them more. Maybe some solutions in terms of the material used to make the bins should be sought, which cannot be salvaged or vandalized or flicked!

An interesting discussion that erupted in between Farzin and me was a little concerns for the views people enjoy, thanks to the high rises there. Well no one is against development, but a sensible one is what we should demand. All the sky rocketing buildings have grabbed the sea view aways from the residents who had a ground floor construction right behind them. Not that these buildings were very pleasing to look at either. just a little planning would have kept everyones views intact.

The Amphitheatre at towards the lands end side of the promenade, where a lot of community activities take place.