Events

Mumbai 2025: My First Flight & First Trip

My first trip outside Calcutta and my first ever flight — all for Guns N’ Roses. What started as a concert plan turned into one of the craziest, most unforgettable experiences of my life.

May 23, 2025

Backstory

One night, Andrea showed me something she was genuinely excited about. Guns N’ Roses were coming to India.

She is a huge fan of Guns N’ Roses, especially Slash, so for her, this was a big deal. She asked me if we could go. At that point, I was not sure how it would work. I did not know if travel was possible or how we would manage everything. I could not confirm anything then, but I knew it was something she really wanted.

Over the next few weeks, we kept talking about it. Slowly, things started falling into place. Plans became clearer, confidence grew, and eventually we reached a point where we knew we could make it work. That was when we decided we were going.

Then came 17th March 2025.

At exactly 12 PM, the early bird tickets for Guns N’ Roses went live. By then, we had already learned a hard lesson about concerts, especially after seeing what happened with Coldplay. Tickets do not gradually sell out. They disappear within minutes, sometimes seconds.

There was one problem though. I did not have a Kotak credit card.

For days, we waited and tracked updates, hoping availability would open up again. After struggling for almost an entire day and with the help of a close friend from the Kolkata business community, I finally managed to get through. I secured three tickets for myself, Andrea, and my grandmother.

That moment was pure adrenaline.

Once the tickets were confirmed, we committed fully. What started as a concert plan quickly turned into a five-day adventure trip to Mumbai. At the time, I did not know it would become one of the best experiences of my life.

Next came the flights.

We booked our tickets with IndiGo, and for me, this was a huge milestone. It was my first time flying. Scary, exciting, and unreal all at once.

With everything booked, all we could do was wait for 17th May 2025. The big day. Guns N’ Roses live in Mumbai at the iconic Mahalaxmi Racecourse.

Then something unsettling happened.

The India–Pakistan conflict escalated. Operation Sindoor began, followed by heightened tensions after the Pahalgam attack. For a while, it genuinely felt like the concert might get cancelled.

My childhood school friend Rohan, who lives in Bombay and whom I was eagerly waiting to meet, and I were constantly anxious. We kept checking BookMyShow, scrolling through Reddit threads, and following the news daily.

Days passed.

Then came the relief.

The concert was not cancelled.

Rohan received his tickets a few days before the event, and just two days before the concert, we finally received ours as well.

At that moment, everything felt real.

The stage was set.

The journey was about to begin.

15th May, 2025

A lot of packing, printing, baggage tags, and all of us looking forward with a lot of hope and expectations.

16th May, 2025

5:03 AM, Kolkata

I left home with my backpack and suitcase, having not slept all night, filled with excitement. I went to my nana’s house, picked up my granny and my mother, and booked an Uber straight to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.

Andrea came with her aunty in another Uber.

The fun begins. We’re new to this. We loaded our suitcases onto a trolley and began our check-in process. We passed gate security and then went to get our bags weighed. Once that was done, we started the security checks for our hand luggage. Some hiccups here and there. You’re not supposed to carry a thermometer, lol.

But we made it through. Then we waited for our flight from CCU to BOM.

We boarded the IndiGo bus at around 8:35 AM from Gate 102. It had changed from Gate 15. Our flight was 6E 5297.

We reached the plane, and it was so cool to see an aircraft right in front of me. I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a kid and never really got a chance. This was the first flight for both me and Andrea. We were excited, clicked pictures, and boarded the plane. Of course, we took the window seats — 10F for me, 11F for Andrea, and 12F for my granny.

Our aircraft began taxiing toward the runway, lined up for takeoff, and at 9:19 AM, we were airborne.

It was crazy and scary. The acceleration during takeoff hit instantly, and the change in cabin pressure made my ears block. It was my first time flying, so I didn’t know what to expect. I did feel lightheaded, and I realized that the more I looked inside the cabin while takeoff was happening, the worse it felt with everything moving around. The best thing was to look outside and stay distracted.

Once we were in the air, everything looked so amazing, so beautiful, so small. The sky was so blue. The clouds looked like cotton candy flying past us. The condensation forming on the aircraft window and near the engine are things I’ll never forget.

We landed around 12:00 PM.

I found a Flurys and Starbucks, we had coffee and a box of Flury’s cookies, then hailed a cab! The cabs are different here, it was blue and small, we kept our luggage on top of it and headed to our Airbnb at Chuim Village! Lovely place, minus the smell of dry fish in the air — it was close to the sea, a lot of fishing and marketing happens nearby, they even had hubs to dry fish, hence the smell. I thought we’d never get used to it, but eventually, we were one with it LOL!

We rested, we ate KFC for lunch, were super tired to go out. As soon as we reached Grace Heaven — that was our Airbnb, Vera by the Bombay Home Company — we ordered many essentials, chips, juice, water, a lot of water!

We laid down and fell asleep. I was tired. Then I woke up with an anxiety attack. It hit me around 4:30–5 PM that I was far away from home for the first time. Crazy! But I calmed down, and then we went out.

We headed towards Bandra West, saw the sunset, and went to see Mannat — not him though lol. We walked (it’s uphill there, tough for Sandra LOL). We visited the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount and the adjoining Mount Mary Church, but they were under construction, so we stayed outside.

We shopped for a few things for mom, granny, and Andrea’s family — religious mementos and evil eyes. People were praying outside like a small mass, it was so cool. I did not know Mumbai had so many Anglos and Christians!

Then my friend Rohan Bhowmick met us there. We planned to go to a café for dinner. We got tired while shopping and then headed to Subko. Damn, I had a sourdough sandwich with bacon. I loved it. The food was amazing. Mumbai café food is awesome!

We headed back to our Airbnb, completely exhausted, and went to sleep — ready for Day 2.

17th May, 2025 – Day 2

Had bread, butter, and tea, then headed to Juhu Beach.

Oh man, I did something crazy here — probably one of the most thrilling things in my life. I went jet skiing in the Arabian Sea!

That was epic!

I paid about 1.5k for GoPro pictures plus some standalone shots from a cameraman.

We then headed back for lunch — McDonald’s, nice burgers and nuggets.

Then we left for the Guns N’ Roses concert. Rohan came to our Airbnb, we picked him up, and we were off — Marine Drive, Sea Link, sunset views… awesome.

We reached the entrance of Mahalaxmi Racecourse. It was insanely packed and tiny. Took us quite some time to enter. Once we were in, after a few minutes, the show started with Slash’s guitar riffs!

Most amazing time. The crowd was crazy. The show was awesome.

We got merch (I love merch), and when it ended, it took around 1.5 hours to get out and get a cab. Funnily, my granny stood for 3–4 hours with no issues!

We finally got a cab around 11:30 PM, and it was great to see Mumbai still alive and safe at night. We headed, had dinner (same old McDonald’s again lol), and went to sleep.

In between all this, something cool happened. I was supposed to go to Bengal Business Council and represent AngloNet and Anglo Indians. The AngloNet community I started has become popular and helped several people. But instead, my business partner at the time, Elvina, and my friend Seshankita went and represented me there.

Day 3 – 18th May, 2025

We got dressed like proper tourists and went to see the Elephanta Caves. Now this was alright, but too hot and honestly a waste of time. It’s something everyone says to see.

Anyhoo, we then headed to the Gateway of India, saw the Taj, took some InstaX photos, helped a man who didn’t have cash, and then booked ferry tickets. Oh man — the ferry ride is 1.5 hours. DO NOT DO THIS.

We reached, then fought tooth and nail for a toy train to take us to the caves. It was hot, but we still took photos and InstaX snaps. My granny couldn’t walk, so she was carried up in one of those chairs people lift — that was actually cool lol.

Coming back though… not so cool.

Maybe because Andrea wore yellow and basically dressed like a banana lol.

She was sitting while we were waiting for the toy train, and out of nowhere — she got attacked by FOUR monkeys. It was a targeted surgical strike.

One shook her head, one bit her leg, one tried stealing her bag, and one jumped on her again.

Everything happened so fast. I hit the monkeys, locals chased them away, and we escaped.

We cleaned her wounds, boarded the ferry back, I got her medicines and antiseptic. Her leg was black and blue — damn. I genuinely thought that night she’d turn into a monkey lol.

Anyhoo, we stopped at Leopold Cafe (Slash and the band were there the previous day), ordered food, and I had a pineapple honey pizza — loved every bit of it. Oh and once we were done, we got to buy a lot of Leopold merchandise!

We then went to Colaba for shopping, saw the sunset, picked up halwa and gifts (and booze for dad), came home, made Maggi, and slept.

What a crazy day. I checked on Andrea 2–3 times during the night… just in case she turned into a monkey haha.

Day 4 – 19th May, 2025

Started the day by going to BKC because I love Apple and wanted to see the original store — Apple BKC. It was beautiful. Exactly like the US ones, with huge plants inside. My granny and Andrea convinced me to buy AirPods Max Pro, and even now — they’re amazing.

BKC is premium. We loved it. We also visited a Bollywood poster museum inside — very cool.

Then we had Arabian lunch at ARBAB. Good food — expensive, so obviously good haha.

Then we went go-karting. Oh man, I loved this. Felt like an F1 racer. Zoomed past people like a pro. Loved it so much we did it again on faster cars.

Then we went to IKEA Mumbai because Andrea loves IKEA. We had cheesecake there — big and amazing. Loved it.

Came back, had McDonald’s again, and slept.

Day 5 – 20th May, 2025

Went to get Bombil fish for home. Then we went to Veronica’s — amazing burgers. Then headed to Subko again where Andrea bought chocolates and a Tote bag for home! She loves tote bags lol!

Then we decided to go to IKEA again (Andrea needed to get things), then back to go-karting on super fast cars. It started drizzling, but we finished anyway hahaha.