Mumbai so far...

Hi All,

Self is back in this space after a really looooonnnng time. I have been busy with searching for & eventually switching jobs. As part of my new assignment in a new organization, I had to move to a new city namely Mumbai, the city of dreams [or so they say]. And move I did, from the pleasant confines of Bangalore to the bustling & uncertain atmosphere of Mumbai.

My journey across the great Indian Deccan plateau had to happen via the air route given the tight time frame I found myself in. Not that I am complaining. Much to my surprise, the flight departed on time and managed to get me to Mumbai in one piece. For those not familiar with Indian conditions, this by itself is a major accomplishment! The air journey was reasonably comfortable and the pure rush of adrenaline that courses through your body when the plane is taxiing down the runway & preparing itself for takeoff is worthwhile for the thousands you pay for the hour or so ride.

The joining went off smoothly. It was other related incidents which I wish to elaborate on here. I was prodded on by a fellow joinee to take the notorious suburban railway back to my hotel on the first day of induction. I reluctantly agreed but had a bad feeling about it from the word go given that it was just the third day of my landing in Mumbai. To top it off, I was linguistically challenged. The only Hindi I knew then (and prob. even now) was “Hindi nahi maalum hai” (I don’t know Hindi).

At the train station, a mass of humanity had gathered and was anxiously waiting to be my fellow passengers. The train arrived and there was a sudden increase in activity. People started pushing & shoving mercilessly. It was as if I did not exist. I got a little peeved by all this and “lost precious time” (according to my friend) by which time the train was impossibly full. The next train arrived a few minutes later and this time I doled out the same treated that was meted out to me earlier on. I angled & scuttled my way across to board the carriage. My friend was suddenly all praise for me and even commented that my initiation (read into a Mumbaikar) had begun. My friend continued to enlighten me on various aspects of rail travel in Mumbai.

The 2nd day of induction was equally eventful but this time for all the wrong reasons. Another fellow joinee offered a motorcycle ride back to my hotel and I gladly accepted especially after the “sardined” train ride the previous day. But it seems, as always, God had other plans. The bike I was riding on didn’t have the usual mirrors. The ubiquitous traffic policemen, deployed strategically at various traffic signals, gleefully stopped us and fleeced us accordingly. I felt bad for the poor guy who lamented that till that day hadn’t been caught and that too twice in a single day.

I have also witnessed my first terrorist attack. With the frequency with which bomb blasts are happening here, I guess everyone must add terror to their list of firsts when they are narrating their experience in Mumbai. People have been just reduced to statistics and terrorists are striking with such audacity and certainty every 2 years that you get confused if the authorities here are really in charge and have things under control.

So, there you have it. This is how my Mumbai sojourn has been so far.