Living In Andheri West Part One
As part of our initiative to highlight the best and most interesting, lively and livable residential neighbourhoods in Mumbai, we are kicking off with the Oshiwara area in Andheri West where our offices are! Content writers living in the area are sent around their neighbourhoods taking pics of the area on their Iphones and also writing about the unique features of each locality. This will not only serve to paint a real non-airbrushed picture of Mumbai’s much in-demand residential areas but also give a feel of the city to out-of-towners and NRI’s living abroad and help them to gauge the quality and standard of life that one can have in these neighbourhoods before they think about buying a property or moving in. (All pictures were taken with an Iphone 6 Plus)
Oshiwara
The Megamall corner of Oshiwara is where the residences actually begin. This fashionable and reasonably large shopping mall that was fully operational with high fashion brands until a few years ago has now fallen to ruin (evident by the un-repaired signage!) and is now almost empty due to lack of tenants. The mall is partially open due to the presence of a few die hard fashion outlets and a Premium International Gym – Fitness First that counts the area’s many fitness conscious citizens consisting of business folks, corporate executives, film and television actors, directors and producers as it’s members.
As you move ahead down the road, you encounter a glaring anomaly. An upscale luxury residential project – Windsor Realty consisting of two towers and an adjoining commercial office complex built two years ago has been unoccupied and in limbo ever since. Construction magnates Rajan Raheja and Gopal Narang who have jointly developed this project are fighting each other in court with the result that further sales of the project have been stalled and buyers who have already been sold are unable to move in! And now while the human beings including Bollywood and now Hollywood actor Priyanka Chopra are being kept out, ghosts have moved in and are enjoying the premium homes and the many amenities that come with it 😛 Read more about the dispute over Windsor Realty here.
The Cafe Coffee Day corner at the end of the road opposite Windor Residences starts off a buzzing and vibrant district consisting of cafes, restaurants and bars serving Indian and world cuisine, Salons and Beauty Stores. We will desist in naming all the outlets because in the world of restaurants and bars, by the time you read this, one of the outlets would have shut shop and a new one would have opened in it’s place! But one of the ever popular bars would have to be the Bar Stock Exchange and Mexican Restaurant Sammy Sosa for it’s delectable Mexican food and beverages. At the salons Lemon and Mookh, you could just as easily bump into a popular television actress or a reality show star!
Further down the road, the Windermere Residential Block of Apartments heralds the beginning of a very nice, upscale and eminently livable part of the Andheri West neighbourhood. There are a myriad number of small and large apartment complexes that blend in harmoniously with peaceful and well planned gardens and open spaces which are often the location for Bollywood film shoots and television productions.
As we move towards the popular Lokhandwala Circle, the apartment buildings get taller, the narrow roads get busier and the people trendier! Coffee shops like Love and Latte, Barista and Cafe Coffee Day abound here because this is where business folks, film and television industry executives, established as well as emerging actors and models come to discuss work, relax and network. Supermarkets like Godrej Nature’s Basket is also a hit here with the locals due to the assortment of Indian and Global foods, condiments and ingredients that one can shop for at reasonable prices. Local gyms like Sykz Fitness rub shoulders with Nutrition & Protein Supplement Stores and Sports Goods Stores that whet the appetite of the young and fitness-crazy guy and girls who live, work and play in the vicinity. A multitude of new restaurants, banquet halls, bistros, fast food outlets and retail stores are springing up here all the time because there is one thing that this locality is never short of – customers!
The Celebration Sports Club in Lokhandwala is a popular clubhouse and sports club for the members of the Lokhandwala Complex of Housing Societies. It hosts facilities for Karate, Tennis, Badminton and Squash Courts. It has a Bridge Room and also facilities for Cricket, Football and Box Cricket. Along with a spa, gymnasium and swimming, the club also has grounds for hosting wedding functions, events and shows.
A little distance ahead lies a wonderful ring road simply called ‘The Back Road’ that adjoins a marshy green cover and where one can find another popular park for nature lovers and runners to exercise amidst some greenery and fresh air.
We end our little journey at the Heera Panna Mall which is close to the Gupta and Sen office. The mall is an erstwhile shopping mall converted into an office complex where small and medium enterprises have their offices. Real estate agents, detective agencies, travel agencies, television production houses, event management companies, media buying agencies, casting agents, executive search firms as well as an increasingly large number of Internet start-ups have their offices in this area due to the relatively affordable rent that this area provides and also because of the existence of a wide variety of cheap and affordable restaurants and drinking holes that help the employees buzzing about in this area to keep their mind and spirits high and their tummies full!
Andheri West is a vast suburb and we will be covering more residential localities every week apart from the other suburbs of Mumbai where living a pleasant and happy life is the norm rather than the exception!
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