Mumbai Chronicles-1

Life has its ways of teaching lessons. One very important lesson that I learnt is “never say never”. Having traveled through and lived in many cities, there were two cities, Chennai and Mumbai, which never found place in my bucket list, for some reason. Little did I know that life always has its own way. Later in life I had to move to Chennai for my post graduation for two long years and then post marriage life brought me to Mumbai. I was always confident about my survival instincts; post Mumbai life completely debunked the notion and my confidence bubble popped.

For anybody new to the city the first daunting task is to hunt for the right house at the right location. There are multiple levels to this challenge. The first level is more to do with psychology. If you are from any other part of country a basic flat would have 1 living cum dining room 1 bedroom probably 1 guestroom, a kitchen, a wash and a balcony but not in Mumbai. In Mumbai a typical flat would be more like a big hall with walls erected to make it fulfill the conditions of being a flat and with every room just being able to be called a room. You dare not ask for luxuries like “balcony”, “parking” as it would burn a deep hole in your pocket. The words like"gallery/aisle/passage” have no relevance so do not even bother. The first tour with the broker will only be a psychological setback after which you would have to change your specifications of the house. 2^nd level has more to do with your aptitude, as you would be required to solve a complex equation with multiple variables like the amount of daily travel to office, size of your pocket, office timings, live-ability in the area etc. 3^rd level is about your negotiation skills to get the most out of the deal which is like any other city in the country.

After you have managed to get a live-able house another mission is to choose the mode of commute to office. If you are in any other part of the country you will be simply told to take a particular bus from a certain bus station or take a direct auto, but Mumbai offers you multitude of options like BEST, local, autos, metro(for a limited areas)- and with all the options you can try different permutation combinations.  So you decide to do some hit and trail with all the options and calculate time spent on each activity from leaving for office till entering office or vice versa just to see on which combination you are able to save some time. So you, start with theoretically the best option- taking a Borivali starting slow local from Borivali station.

Trapped in the penumbra of miserable morning semi-consciousness you reach the station. Your heart sinks deep looking at the crowd on the platform. A wave of restlessness engulfed the crowd as the train appears on the periphery of the line of vision.  You feel pangs of varied emotions when you witness the display of agility and nimbleness on the moving train. The moment train enters the platform people just start jumping out of it as if the train is on fire and those who are on platform are all geared up for the “now or never” moment of their lives, it was nothing less than a carnage. The fear of getting injured in the stampede makes you take few steps back. By the time the train stops it is already packed to the extent that people are hanging on the door and you make up your mind to take the next train.

When the train leaves the platform you move ahead to take a safe position from where you are hoping you will be able to get on the next train. But within next two min the platform gets crowded as if nobody left by the previous train. Again the same story is repeated with another unsuccessful attempt by you and bracing yourself up for another attempt.  After few unsuccessful attempts you look at your watch and decide to take a direct auto, somewhat oblivious of the situation that awaits you on the road.