Life in Mumbai
“Why is everybody running here?” That was the first question I asked when I landed in Mumbai. Today, after 2 weeks, I am also running with the crowd. Everybody runs from morning till night, only to run again the next day. Welcome to Mumbai, the city of dreams.
Every morning, I catch auto from my home to reach the station. I then travel in local train and then take taxi to reach my office. I tell my friends “It takes me an hour and half to reach my office”. In reply I listen “You are lucky to get a home near by”.
Time is a luxury here. It has to be, especially when you spend half of your time in traveling. You always look for time and start doing things that you never imagined before like routinely reading newspaper while hanging in the train.
My office is on the 11th floor. I have to wait in a queue for getting into the lift. Climbing stairs upto 11th floor is not something I would like to do everyday.
I think Local trains of Mumbai should definitely contest for 8th wonder of the world. The amazing feature is that you stand on the platform and the crowd pushes you inside the train. Once in the train, you don’t have to bother about getting down, the crowd will again push you down to platform. Candidly speaking, after traveling in Mumbai local, I thought my last journey (My previous post) was pleasant one.
There cannot be a better analogy between Mumbai local and a truck loaded with cattle’s. The strange part is that people travel like this every day. A journey like this, once in a life time, is like climbing Mount Everest. But Mumbai public has habit of climbing Everest everyday. Even I have climbed Everest 10 times (2 Weeks in Mumbai!!).
Finding house in a decent locality is as hard as traveling in local train. Even after compromising on location, you have to think about space…..1 BHK….hmm….I think single room will work. No wonder why Mumbai has largest slum (Dharavy) in Asia!!
Finding jam in Mumbai is quite common. Doesn’t matter you own Mercedes or Bentley, you won’t find place to drive it. The fastest mode of travel is local trains. That’s why; local trains are the backbone of Mumbai. If they halt, entire Mumbai halts.
Rain in Mumbai is like a puzzle with no solution. The trains get delayed and flights get cancelled. Everything comes to stand still. People get worried about reaching the office. Hawkers get worried about the sales; it’s a complete chaotic situation in rainy season here.
After cribbing so much about Mumbai, let me talk about chill things. The climate is cool, and there are plenty of quality beaches. You can find here the tallest skyscrapers in India. The view from marine drive is fascinating. Marine drive is in the form of semicircle and attracts a lot of crowd. You can stay for hours and enjoy cool breeze.
Business is taken quite sincerely here. Unlike in Delhi, Auto drivers don’t try to take longer route (most of the times). Most people read Economic Times (ET) here and I don’t understand why??? Previous to my MBA, it was difficult for me to get a hang of ET. I think not everybody in Mumbai is an MBA. Then what does everybody do with ET?? That’s the point…….Economy takes the upper hand in Mumbai and then comes the society (My personal opinion, you are welcome to disagree).
The best part is that you understand the value of time and space but unfortunately, your money loses value in Mumbai.
