Juhu Beach

I don’t know what it is but I love Juhu Beach in Mumbai.  It’s crowded, dirty, smelly, and you can’t walk more than two feet without seeing feces (dog and human) yet for some reason there is a certain charm which brings me back there each time I’m in Mumbai. 

I was in Mumbai for a few days last week and woke up early one of the days to go for a nice run and yoga session on Juhu Beach.  While running I watched the hundreds of people that populated the beach at 7:30am on a Thursday morning all engaged in some activity: cricket, football, fishing, eating Pav Bhaji or letting go of last night’s Pav Bhaji in public, etc…

One of the thoughts which entered my mind was how charming it is to see people on a beach who don’t really care how they look to others.  I grew up in a place called Huntington Beach in Southern California and the beach was a place where you are only truly comfortable to frequent if your body and style are at their peak.  At Juhu Beach, nobody cared about their bodies or their style, they cared about having fun and spending time with loved ones.  So although my local beach in California is a much more pleasant beach to visit, it’s easy for me to communicate that Juhu Beach is by far more comfortable.

Oh, and because this is a football blog, I must say that I loved the number of kids I saw playing football on the beach.  Almost matched the number of kids playing cricket which is a positive sign in my book. 





Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 30, 2015 at 2:12 AM

    Bright lights, excited vendors and a mesmerising aura describes Juhu beach the best. Be it the alluring food stalls, the loud, blaring bollywood music, the beach is one of the most popular attraction in Mumbai city. For accommodation, check out these hotels in Mumbai.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Cities, 3 Football Academies

Image
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a few of the top youth football Academies in India.  It’s always interesting to see first-hand some of the blood, sweat and tears football administrators are investing into the future of the sport in the country.  Not to mention, I love experiencing different cultures, norms and idiosyncrasies in each place I visit (there are many).  I won't get too deep into my personal adventures and challenges of traveling through West Bengal and Punjab in the insanely hot month of May.  I'll need to save those for another blog.   I've included the places I’ve visited with some pictures. Pailan World School (Kolkata) http://www.pailanworldschool.com/ Workers putting in artificial turf for the new FIFA Youth Academy Chandigarh Football Academy http://chandigarh.gov.in/dept_sports7.htm The hostel where the CFA players live YFC Rurka Kalan (Rurka Kalan, Punjab) http://yfcrurka
Read more

Liverpool International Football Academy Coaches – Ray Curtis and Michael Rice

Image
The last half of 2013 was one ongoing conversation about the proposed partnership between Liverpool Football Club and our client DSK Group.  We all knew that only good could come out of this relationship, however we also knew that the level of good would be contingent on the coaches which Liverpool FC selected to represent the Academy in India.  This point couldn’t be hammered home any harder as I’ve seen countless projects fail in India due to the international club’s inability to identify the right type of coaches to make the trip to India. It’s not that these coaches lacked technical expertise or coaching ability, actually that’s never the case, it’s that they lacked a positive attitude and patience.  I actually wrote a post about this which can be found a few months back.  The coaches selected to run the Liverpool International Football Academy DSK Shivajians, Ray and Michael, were handpicked by a trusted member of the Liverpool FC international programming staff.  He had alr
Read more

Barcelona

Image
A few months ago my client at Conscient Football and I were discussing options for an "Exposure Trip" we were planning for a group of Delhi based youth footballers.  The obvious locations came up; Manchester, London, Milan, Madrid, Munich, etc... But then Barcelona was mentioned and it was obvious that the meeting was over right then and there. There were no other options.  Barcelona is located in the country that just won the most recent FIFA World Cup, is home to the best football club in the world and home to the best football player in the world.  Why would we take the players anywhere else??? So fast forward to May 12th.  I'm at Indira Gandhi airport in Delhi with 3 other staff members meeting with 27 sets of parents and assuring them that their little princes will be fine.  I'm holding passports, collecting forms, smiling widely, shaking hands and doing my best to exude confidence and responsibility.  Somehow we get the 27 players through security and customs
Read more