Love, curtain calls and sultry beauties in Mombasa

If Nairobi was a heady mix of Gujarati warmth, casino suave and unlimited applause, Mombasa had more surprises in store!

After a scenic four-hour drive, our Land Rover stopped at what was to be home for the next few days. We were booked into  sumptuous, fully-stocked cottages on stunning Bombelli Beach, where sun, sea, sand, stars and cottage were all one. And as if that was not mesmerising enough, we had well-tanned and toned eye candies sprinkled liberally across the powder white sand. Paradise found!

Our performances were at the snug 200-seater Little Theatre Club built in British times. It was a privilege for us to play on the same stage where world renowned artists of a  bygone era had bowed to resounding applause. And boy did we keep to tradition……encore….encore….the crowds roared each night, to our hosts' delight.

With claps still ringing in our ears, we celebrated our fame at the famous night club Bora Bora. We soaked in the rum, feasted on delicious local cuisine and danced our shoes off to cuddle under the moonlit sky with sand in our toes and rum-induced youth…. the bachelors stayed on to jive the candy till dawn!

From the beaches of Udwada to the beaches of Mombasa around a dozen Parsi couples had made Kenya their abode half a century ago and these dozen had grown to ten dozen!(There’s got to be something in the air….hope the Mumbai Parsi Panchayat is reading this!) They treated us to some traditional Parsi food reminding us of home…but we were not ready to board the flight back home yet…

And from Mombasa our safari went to Kisumu via Nakuru lake where we had a breathtaking view of thousands of flamingoes lining the shore, the lake looking like a shifting mass of pink….little known hamlets full of cheering hospitable Gujaratis waiting to be entertained by a crazy bunch of bawajis from amchi Mumbai.

In between performances we took in some sites….Malini Beach was an hour-and-a-half drive from our resort. Having been exposed to only Taraporewala’s antique aquarium on Mumbai’s Marine Drive, none of us were prepared for the beauty and bounty of the sea which we were treated to on a ride in a glass-bottomed boat. We were like children screaming at every passing underwater beauty.

Our host Navinbhai also treated us to a two-day safari at Amboseli National Park. We parked at the five-star Kilimanjaro Lodge. We would start off early morning and for the first time we were the audience and God’s other creations the performers…… lions, buffaloes, rhinos, giraffes, deer, elephants the size of buildings…. crossing the vast open plains against the backdrop of the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro…..memories to keep for life.

And as we waved goodbye to boards and banners  saying “come back bawajis” we knew we had won not just their laughs but their hearts too. Little did they know we felt the same and were going to come back no matter what. And if there is paradise on earth it is in Africa.

And so ended our dream trip. Climbing the steps of our Kenya Airlines jet, settling back in our seats with stethoscope earphones, craning our necks to see Shammi Kapoor gyrate with Mumtaz on the only screen shared by 200 passengers, we knew we were ready for Mumbai. And as we touched down amid the squalor of slums in our face….all of us had a warm smile. Smelly, sweaty, crowded but this was home. We may not like it but love it, oh yes, we do!

The author is a well-known stage personality