An oasis in the midst of chaos

I stay in Thakur Village, the densely populated residential locality of Kandivali East. The area boasts of excellent internal and external connectivity as it is situated near the Western Express Highway, which becomes the NH8 (Mumbai-Ahmedabad) outside Mumbai city limits. Since my house is located near the highway, I can travel easily to my filming set in Naigaon, the airport and even the Film City. It's a straight road to any of these places.

There is a place behind my house—a forest area owned by the government—it hasn't seen any development in a long time. I like that place a lot, especially during the winter as it's away from the sea so there is less amount of humidity and the area has always has low temperatures.

There are a number of gardens, sports grounds and play parks in Thakur Village, which provide relief from the constant pollution in the city. Some of them include the Evershine Dream Park, Evershine Jogger's Park, Gundecha Jogger's Park, Viceroy Jogger's Park, Thakur Jogger's Park, Thakur Cricket Ground and Stadium and the Thakur Engineering College Ground.

Dining is always a great experience in this locality. You can indulge your taste buds with options like Yoko Sizzlers, Subway, Baskin Robbins, Natural's, Gelato Italiano and many others. For those with an extremely sweet tooth, there's Monginis, Hangout and the local wonder, French Connection. The area is also home to good fine dining restaurants like On Flames, which serves culinary delights from Indian and Chinese cuisine.

If you're looking for pampering your body and mind, there are fabulous spas in and around the area. There are two centres of the Spandan Kerala Panchkarma Ayurvedic Center, which offers authentic Ayurvedic therapies and treatments at affordable prices. Thakur Village has plenty open spaces and lots of greenery—more than any other suburb. The home delivery system, here, is very quick. Looking at the spaciousness and less amount of traffic in the by-lanes, I sometimes feel that I'm in some other city and not Mumbai. This place has a colony-like feel to it and I love being part of it.