Dreamland - The Bachelors' Pad!

Dreamland, Sherley Rajan Road, off carter road was a bachelors's haven for many years from late 80s to mid 90s. A one BHK place on the ground floor opening out to a open car park space (devoid of cars then) located in the quaint surroundings of Bandra. The fear of losing a flat due to rent control act was high and the landlady kept one room locked and all you had was the large living/bedroom room, bath and kitchen - fine for two bachelors to live and open enough for parties.

Me,Vidya,Susheela, Chotu, Ajay(kid), Ramya, Amruthlalji,Vandan
This is a photo post moving out of dreamland when they came over for dinner

A big asset with this place was this friendly neighbour Susheela and her family. They had a grocery store managed by Amruthlalji(now a mini mart). She was god sent to all who stayed there and took care of us as an extended family. She knew most people who went through PMG then and till date keeps track of all. Absolutely selfless and simple a very rare set that God creates. Managing the maid, stocking grocery, friends in an out all depended on her. She had 2 sons Vandan, Hiten (Chotu) and the third son Ajay was born when we were there. While Vandan was bindaas and has taken to business Chotu and Ajay have both gone to become doctors. Whenever she feeds us for lunch it is divine, no comparisons! At times her mother would come to visit her from Borivali and it was a bonus. Once we got locked out and the key was in. While in any other place we would have got a locksmith to fix or break the lock, here that was not an option as if the lock is broken the landlady would have thrown us out. We were advised to see if somebody can get in through the louvre in the bathroom - the funda was if the head and shoulder can squueze in, you can get in- didn't know that reality till then. Chotu said he can do it and it was a 'believe it or not experience' where he went in and opened the door from inside.

weekend bash- me, vivek,mouli,.............mou;li,.sri, bobby,me, vijay

I moved here first with Vijay Simha. Simha and I had our own extended circle of friends and for almost the entire set if they needed a all bachelor pad dreamland was there - weekends were mostly houseful. Vijay was a fitness conscious and I learnt a lot about fitness diets and workouts. He also was a great fan of music especially western and truly raised the TRPs of MTV then. The P&G chummery was nearby on turner road and maximum exchanges happened with them. We had this maid Pushpa who was a good cook and very efficient and we seldom saw her. If anything specific for menu we would write on a slate, but we soon gave it up as she managed the menu well and we would write only 1 or 2 to let her know how many people she had to cook for. Soon we realised if we write 3 or more we got special dishes, as she figured out we were having guests!! So when we needed great food we just wrote 3.

a New year bash @ dreamland

Pictionary session

Vijay got transferred and then Mouli moved in. Mouli would regularly get into diet and exercise regimen. It was around this time that Jogger's park opened in Bandra and we had the funny routine of going in Mouli's bike in the morning to joggers park, having the jog/ walk and then getting back. The mix of people who had a link with dreamland got eclectic with every get together / party at the place. Any long weekend break had a party. Christmas/ New year parties were elaborate. I think we even hosted a party for couples with barbecue on the grill etc.! Dumb charades and Pictionary were very popular and occasionally card games.

The 3+ years at dreamland whizzed past... 1992 riots, Bombay blasts all went by while there. I got my passport for the first time here. In the wake of the Bombay blasts one was not sure how rough it will be, but I just applied, waited out and it glided in some 2 months later. There was I guess something about dreamland, things just happened without much fuss. 

Bandra was well located, connected and had variety to feed us bachelors - Karachiwala (not there now) served the best pani pooris, Camy wafers was there for sandwiches and farsans, Totos garage as a pub, gondola- tawaa-balaji- daawat-mot-mahal-gazebo restaurants for variety of food. The paanwala near Otters' club made great paans and sold Chetna's pot kulfi. Well carter road then did not have the promenade it has now!!

The place has since got sold, Susheela didi has moved out and somewhere from late 90s ceased being the bachelor pad...but as bachelors, Dreamland was just the ideal pad...