Well, for all of you who’re wondering… the ride over the Bandra-Worli sea link is wonderful! As wonderful as it’s looked these past few nights all lit up! It may have been a bit of a slow drive this morning what with there being as many OB vans as cars, but driving down a good road and watching the sea on both sides on a cloudy morning was a pleasant change from the claustrophobic lanes of Mahim. One was actually hoping it would take a little longer — I couldn’t  even finish reading one newspaper and I barely listened to three songs on the radio. But I enjoyed the drive feeling somewhat guilty about having packed off my daughter to school in an auto.

For all those who predicted a traffic snarl at the Worli end in the morning… well, sorry to disappoint you but I took less than five minutes to get from the sea face to Annie Besant Road. I may have been in early — I was off the bridge by 8.25 — and it could  get worse at Worli in the coming days but today I just zipped through. My colleagues tell me there was absolutely no traffic on the Bandra-Mahim-Prabhadevi route which means the sea link has made a difference. Like all Bombayites I too am thrilled that the city now has a sea link. Perhaps, a little more thrilled than many others because I happen to live in Bandra and work in Worli — it doesn’t get much better that that.

For the last eight years I have watched the sea link coming up  living, as I do, a stone’s throw away from the point where one gets on to the bridge. With every visit to the promenade, we would try and gauge how much further the bridge had inched over the water. Well it’s finally made it to Worli and it’s a pity the local administration isn’t more efficient — this could have happened four years back and by now the second stretch between Worli and Haji Ali should have been complete. I came to Bombay exactly 20 years back — the city was less congested, the streets less crowded, the air fresher. Now the city stinks, you can’t think of driving anywhere because of the horrible traffic. Except on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.