Aamchi Mumbai: the Mumbai local

Off late have commented on the joys and pains of my commute  in Mumbai locals, this blog is in continuation of those experiences. 

If Indian railways contribute towards national integration, am sure Mumbai locals integrate Mumbaikars, literally! They represent Mumbai. I remember in my campus interview at Pune, the interviewer had told me that unlike here, where you might see 100 people at a time, in Mumbai you will have 1000's. I didn't take him seriously.

7 years since I must have taken first journey on the locals. New to the City, I had to find out any relatives staying in Mumbai. I did find one, they having shifted from Andheri to Virar recently. So, I had an PHD even before I could graduate a degree in the subject of local commute.

The 3 lines

The City has been divided by the Western, Central and Harbour lines (lines not routes). Took some time to adjust to the count, names and the directions of the platform to get down at the stations on the Central line (apart from Kurla, I know there is an station which has platform on both sides, err which is that??).

Dadar

Of all the stations, Dadar, to me, is the kumbh of Mumbai (and am thankful and fortunate of not experiencing Kurla!!). You walk with some one talking and am sure you would bang atleast 10 people on the way, either you go their way or they come yours. When you do manage to reach, you have already lost the other person and end up calling him to check his location.

A colleague from Delhi had to visit Dadar (e) for some work from Dadar (w), and I suggested her to go via Dadar station. Next day, she mentioned that she has never seen so many people at one place, it was like purani Delli!!

Common spots

Mumbaikars, have common places to wait for someone at the station. Be that the Ist class towards Thane (or VT) or the erstwhile UTI bank ATM (since changed to Axis bank). The UTI ATM was one common spot, I remember always being used.

The compartment mix

Western line, to my knowledge, is dominated by Gujratis and Marwaris...Central line to my knowledge is also dominated by Gujaratis and Marwaris (haha, no offence meant to my Gujju and Madu friends, this is just an general observation).

Then come the Maharashtrians; these guys I think, stay faraway places for no reason but for the fact that they have sold their belongings in Town and shifted to make place for the more business minded classes (again an general observation, no offence to Maharashtrians). No wonder you can easily get a Jain dish at any place in Town but no Maharashtrian food, and we call this the Capital Maharashtra.

Commonly, I admire the cheerful Guju groups from the stock exchanges playing cards and noting points scored by each member at the end of every game till Ghatkopar. I have always wondered, how do they settle the game at the end, if at all they decide to wind up...is that in cash?

Maharashtrians, I have noted, always tend to take the doors. They will have friends across the compartment and will make a point to say bye to each of them while getting down, and at the top of their voice.

The compartment fights... mc, bc the lingua franca!!

I remember an incident, was getting up in the compartment with people following me in the peak rush morning hour. During all the pushing and shoving, couple of them got into an argument. The shorty of them started saying, 'uncle, chalo andar, jaga banao'. The taller though was not budging, the shorty kept on saying 'uncle chalo, uncle....'. The other guy burst...'b*****d, uncle kisse bola, teri umar ka hoon!!' Till date, this has been the funniest argument I have witnessed, really made my day. Saying so, have seen punches galore in Men's compartment but only heard of the cat fights...

The compartment places...standing, sitting, sitting balcony and AC

The trick is how well you manage to get in the compartment. There are a few places to the liking of commuters.

Rush hours, if you get a place to sit in or stand comfortably, you really had a good day. But, there are these other two spots that have always intrigued me...

Sitting balcony: this spot is the one adjacent to the ladies coach. For non commoners, there is usually an wire mesh between the 1st class gents and the 1st class ladies coach. The sit am referring to is the one adjacent to the window opposite the ladies coach. Sitting here, one has the view of the beautiful compartment and the much needed air to soothe (the standing spot is famous as much, but is more obvious).

Standing AC: This one is the best, standing at the door (1st place though). Plug your earphones, forget people with their usual business on the tracks and enjoy the loneliness. Only thing to be kept on mind is to make way people to get down at crowded stations and pray that no stone comes your way.

And, points to consider

Firstly, give a damn to the pressed shirt and the polished shoes. Secondly, even if you had a bad day, dont forget to use the words 'sir or dost', while getting in or out of the locals compartment. And, lastly, graduate to cars (just that u need to have ample patience with the traffic jams and the pot holed roads).

Jai ho.

---

The information transmitted, including any attachments, is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited, and all liability arising therefrom is disclaimed. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

Kanha

Some trips are memorable, nearly 10 months down the year with this one, yet feel very refreshing writing on it.

It was Daisy’s marriage sometime late January this year at Gondia (on MP & Maharashtra border), and likeways me, Chai and Tom were planning to attend. Offlate most of my trips with friends have been attending some other friends marriage. Although we are not much of help at the marriage but then we are those silent spectators for the ‘one more down’ phenomenon. Tom, being recently married dodged us; a usual thing for the married, it was the two of us who decided to go ahead. Along with attending the marriage, we planned to visit Kanha- the tiger reserve in MP and it turned out to be a cherishing journey in the wild.

We took the Nagpur Duronto, boarding at CST and reached at about 7 am. We were planning to go to Gondia and then to Kanha (Gondia is enroute Kanha, and would suggest people who may want to visit Kanha to directly reach Gondia via train rather than hopping from Nagpur). Confused for our next move, Chai got a call from some Anuj- colleague of Daisy. Just perfect for us, four colleagues of Daisy-Anuj, Mustan, Nupur & Nidhi were also on the same train to attend the wedding and who had also planned a visit to the tiger reserve. Infact, I was a bit surprised to see these guys come. Somehow haven’t found people from my workplace so enthusiastic to visit a far place wedding. But there were they, my first impression of Anuj was that he seemed senior, helped by his blackberry often checking emails. Mustan, the defying bombaitte, seemed quiet initially. The two girls, Nupur- the ‘thirkee’ and Nidhi- the simplistic, just kept quiet (for those moments only!!). Plus side, these four had some research done on Kanha, proper printouts in place-right from info on Kanha to the cab drivers numbers in Nagpur. I was quiet impressed, atleast better than my yielding to Chai’s last moment plans (I say so, but I prefer plans

of Chai to visit any place, bloody reads a lot of stuff and more or less has some idea of the geography of the place). As I found out later, all of them were new joinees at the workplace which made me remember my first job and the friends I made there. Throughout the trip they had the same topics to discuss about the workplace- bosses, salary and the linkups.

We hired a sumo from Nagpur and decided to go to Kanha directly. Amazing!! my first reaction on the place. Believe me, being from Mumbai and crowded out for space, Kanha was a perfect place to be. Visit any tiger reserve, particularly if you intend to get away from the populous city.

We reached at about 5.30-6.0 in the evening, and though late we decided to get on to the evening batch of the tiger safari (two batches of about 3 hours are organized by the forest department - one in the morning and then in the evening, morning batch starts at about 6 am and the evening at 4 pm). Although we could not see the endangered species that evening, the tour egged us to get up early for the morning safari.

Kanha has two gates to begin the safari from- Mukki and Kanha. Since we took the safari from Mukki gate, we decided to take the morning safari from Kanha gate. The only thought I had at that time was to take good rest during the night but all these thoughts were soon zonked out, by the so called the liquor connoisseurs (just categorizing beer/ wine/ tequila and whatever to simply liquor). I don’t know of how these connoisseurs find out the drinking trait of each other and then how they manage to find a place to get the required stuff, but they do. After again some couple of hours of travel in the darkness, we reached the other side round to Kanha gate, some time about 9.0-9.30 pm. Amazingly, that sleepy place could organize food even at that time –both veg and non veg!!

The connoisseurs had the drinking session on- Chai, Mustan and in a limited way Anuj and the thirkee, before dinner was served. For the love of the drinks (and zero wastage policy) Chai exceeded his drink quota and seemed to be out of his senses for a while. For the first time I saw him sway around a bit. We had the dinner and moved on to our rooms for the much needed sleep. In between though Nidhi had freaked out on some a guy who helped around in the hotel, and must say she had really lost her nerve on that guy for his over helpness to her. The resort room was quiet large and four of us easily accommodated, the two girls slept in the other room. Both these rooms had some distance in between. I doubt the resort had any more occupants, it wasn’t that a perfect season time yet. So six of us, in a small village resort, with one girl freaked out of some haunting image.

I went to bed quickly after the dinner but for the fridge noise, frosting- defrosting. As, I went to deep sleep I felt some one knocking the door. Somehow I got up (had to, as I came to know next morning, none of the connoisseurs even had slight idea that someone knocked their door) to open the door to see both the girls. Now, at about 2 am in the morning both really seemed freaked out, Nidhi more so as she claimed that the hotel help was calling their room number and disturbing them. Half awake then, I just down played the incident and tried providing some confidence. Nupur had a request then- sleep in our room!! Must say, I came to all my senses then. Somehow at times I think girls are at an advantage, they can simply ask any unusual favour from a guy which may not be as simple as it looks. I wouldn’t have minded if I had known these girls for sometime but ours was a day’s introduction and more than that I firmly believed there was no one calling that room but for some wild imaginations. If there had some liquor left, I would have made Nidhi consume it and have made her go to bed as all others were. But,

I had no options but to carry my bed in dark to the other room.

I switched on the light in the bathroom. Their fridge was noisier than the one in the other room. Both girls slept and amidst all the noise of the fridge, I was trying to gather on some lost sleep. The fridge though was really disturbing and I kept on a while thinking of switching it off. But then, I was frightened to get up for Nidhi’s sake. Somehow I felt she might be in half sleep and just might again freak out shouting seeing a guy in her room. But then my sleep got better of my notion and I just got up to switch off the fridge. Thankfully, could sleep for some time then.

As expected, no one in the other room had an idea of all the events during the night, and people say drinking is a bad habit!!

We quickly got ready for the morning safari. We had the guide and the jeep in place and were raring to go to catch the glimpse of the tiger. Amidst all of these, I had plenty of water in the morning and just could not locate any loo at the gate. Awwh, that hurt. No one is allowed to get off the jeep in the jungle at any cost. You can’t attend the natural call even when you are so close to the nature!! We almost spent two hours in the jungle without the sight of the tiger, and I was just looking forward to reach the base camp from where we had to register for the elephant safari. Those two hours, I just felt a tank was about to burst anytime. The guide was at his peak abilities to showcase each bit of the jungle. Finally, when we got to the camping area in midst of the jungle, I headed the toilet. I peed for quiet sometime, much longer that I noticed a few who came later than me to complete the job and go, but I was still standing there, emptying my abdomen.

Finally, we had the sight of a tigress, atop an elephant. The tigress and the large cubs just had a kill for breakfast and with their stomach full they seemed in pleasant mood posing for all the people clicking pics. Such a fantastic sight it was to see the tiger from such a close range in wild.

We came back to Gondia that day evening to attend Daisy’s marriage. Had never seen a barat with people carrying the lamps (could imagine the ‘cholro mint’ ad showing a barat). Overall it turned out to be a fantastic trip; new people, new experiences and then the tiger in wild. Blissful moments.

Caught in-between slow, simple life of hometown and the other way in Mumbai

A life here and a life there…
heart here, mind there
peace here, money there
maa here, friends there
a child here, man there
mom’s food here, dabba there
few intrude here, many there
space here, thronged there
home here, flat there
can pause here, always rush there
can personal meet here, phone & email there
life which way ???
well, somewhere here & there

Hometown is always close to heart particularly for us nomad’s who have left home. We have help built a living there, but then we are not there to enjoy it!!! As is the new hometown, without it out how can we make a living?

tweet-tweet: @ Delhi. Dil ki Dilli. Noticing people, the way of life at the Capital. More to blog on. Thanks PwC, m learning more than my job

My Bachelorhood & (other’s) Sasuma

I liked the tag line. Initially had thought of writing separately on my traits with bachelor days and the phenomenon called Sasuma in a newly married mans life. Thought off nothing better then to combine the two topics…

At this age, and particularly after your elder Bro gets married, every one just keeps saying, ‘chal, ab teri line clear’(don’t know how; as in who had stopped me earlier!!)… a simple line but makes a huge difference in a bachelors life…

Dunno when did I grew so old- children playing cricket alongside ask for a mishit ball from me…chant ‘Uncle ball please’…what to say …I feel yaar tujhe mein itna bada kaha se dikh raha hu…the point is I never understood when did I loose my teens to become more of an adult…

That is why I don’t want to loose my bachelor days….this is something which I can control…that is why I feel saying f***off when someone says ‘ab teri line clear’…don’t feel like being in a jail when I’m enjoying all such freedom…freedom characterized by no one being there on my head asking me to come on time at home… no long phone calls/ the huge phone bills (cant manage a huge phone bill in these recessionary & no bonus time)… no one asking what I eat or where I am late night…just cant bear such questions…

Bachelor days are characterized by fellow friends like me…sharing a flat…no one caring of who comes at what time…nor bothered whom I am talking (I think I’m wrong… they can link me to everyone I speak to)… where I’m going and doing what… even we don’t care that our bathrooms have no latch or our flat’s windows have no curtains… who cares… we are free to observe and be observed… that’s freedom, freedom of no burden on mind…of just thinking and doing things… not worrying for any…the only feminine aspect being the ‘bai’ coming each day (almost…have some doubts on that… she is the only one we care and think most/ or curse most for all her bunks) to clean the flat… that’s bachelorhood… more like virginity…u loose once, it never comes back…

The other side that I have really noticed now-a-days in a newly wed guys life… is the relation of son-in-law & mother-in-law!!!

Now since most friends/ colleagues of my age are getting married, the phenomenon called ‘sasuma’ inevitably gets discussed at some point in time…

Never had I ever thought of caring to know of how important a ‘sasuma’ would be to a newly wed guy… seriously man…with all the gen-next wives these days, whom do u think is the guy being fed the same kind of food that his mother did all these years !! Till the time these gen-next wives get the accustomed to cooking… the sasuma provides the much needed relief… atleast for those who have been staying away from there home for some years now and marry a local girl…I’m not sounding sexist…but men are men…we hardly like to go to the kitchen and cook food… hats off to the one who manage to do that…

My bro has been example for this phenomenon as is one of my office colleague… m sure my bro would never now sleep hungry on any day…if my sis in law is unable get out of office on time, rest assured he has to receive a tiffin…in a bachelors life- forget, no one even cares to ask u…

Then there is one colleague of mine… makes all of us jealous every day at lunch … as usual we eat the canteen food and this chap receives the tiffin from his mother in law…everything from salad to dessert…it has everything…even the sitafal is properly packed in the tiffin after removing the seeds… that’s what I call a perfect lunch…all of us happy to have that if my good colleague is out for meeting…

Seems a son in law becomes a default addition to the mother in laws list of persons to be cared after… makes me wonder …guys now need to ask one important question to all their would be gen-next wives…forget how well u cook food…how well ur mother does !!!

Weird acts I have done in the past 6 months: Part 1

It feels good to write some lines on of how weirdly I have acted in the in the past few months. It’s really a better feeling to do things which no one normally expects you to do. Further that keeps alive the adrenaline pumping to some more weird acts in the future… hope to do more of such acts...

1. Kerala Ayurvedic Massage:

Though not very sporty, it is exciting, particularly when you are not aware of what it is going to be!!

It all started with Chai (close friend and roommate) infusing this thought into my mind. I think he got this idea from the newspapers he reads on Sunday. To be right on this, we would be reading atleast 5-6 newspapers, excluding the supplements on a Sunday. Add to this the magzines Chai picks up from stalls at the railway stations.

No way could I have resisted to this idea, just to get out from the flat on a lazy Sunday.

We decided to go Dadar for the massage, the closest centre for us. With no idea of what really it is, we picked up a towel and the undergarments in case we need to have a bath. TG… smart thinking.

Although it took some time for us to understand the whole process, initially, looking at the ad’s I always had at the back of my mind who really is going to do the massage- male or female?? (all you ladies reading- you wont understand the dilemma men get into in such situations, perhaps because we have the two options available).

Well, it is not the beautiful ladies shown in the ad who do the massage. TG again. No one has seen me so much naked since the day I have learnt to bathe myself!!! Can’t imagine a lady touch my body at all those places that the guy touched to make me feel better… haha ((-:

This guy really had strong hands… he poured litres of oil on to my body first and then just kept on wiping that thing of my body. Before that… he made me wear that thin, really slim cotton undergarment and then made me lie on the wooden plank. I have never worn such a slim thing before. More embarrassment follows when that little thing gets wet… more transparency builds into it. Some more embarrassment when he makes you turn on to your back side. Even I have never seen my backside so closely!!!

It took nearly one to one & half hour to complete the massage. Really can’t say what feeling I had at the end of the massage but I could really feel some of my bones in the chest, back and the buttocks.

Lastly, had that hot water bath in the paste specifically prepared to remove the oil. At the end felt that should also have had some head massage to help the blood circulation to the head as well, which was only now jumping around the body below neck…


2. The Mumbai marathon

Have signed for the 21Km run. There is some time for the marathon… roughly two months to go. To run a marathon is no easy task. Always knew that but have understood more clearly now. To gain the lost stamina is no joke; howsoever good you were in running in the past. This is what I have noticed specifically after starting the practice. Two months into the practice… I started initially with climbing the 18 floors on stair of our building, and now a day’s 2 rounds of the building park. Won’t have dared to sign for 21kms run if I have had initially run those 2 rounds… lets see now in Jan… I do have 2 more months…m coming Mumbai Marathon!!!

Some tweeting: On a long leave for Bro's marriage… such are the only days to be away from Mumbai and the daily thoughts of office/work and people. Look to sneak some more time to write one more blog…

Luck by Chance: universally applicable

Lazy Sundays are good time to watch a couple of movies and unwind a bit. Last Sunday I happen to watch the movie ‘Luck by Chance’ and an aspect of it struck me. Thought of correlating the theme of the movie with the lives we live at our jobs.

All starts with a dream… Vikram (Farhan) the lead in the movie ‘Luck by Chance’ has this dream of becoming an actor in bollywood… he believes in himself and thinks that fortune does not come to one…one needs to go to attain that fortune… I liked this.

I’m a strong believer in the notion that luck follows hard work… without perseverance there cannot be any reward. But then… there is some charm in this chap (Vikram) in the movie… all the small things that he does… right from pampering Dimple in the party, identifying his opponent and misleading him, charming the lead actress etc etc… makes him possible to establish himself in the scheme of things… don’t know of the rightness or otherwise but these little charm’s in one matter really if you need to move ahead quickly…there is where I think the luck factor comes in!!

I believe in our professional lives there are a few differentiating factors that one needs to possess… academic record of course is the biggest factor…networking is the other. Vikram’s a talented actor… that is why he gets into the big banner movie… but there is a slight difference in the way he approaches people…there is where he differentiates himself from his friend, who continue to do small television serials… soft skills is what he carries to move ahead of his peers. Even though he had no godfather he targeted the right person to move ahead… with no harm to Dimple he did take an advantage of her!!
I think these charming skills are really important in today’s professional lives as well. I have had enough experiences to suggest as to how that matter more for personal growth. All of us work for reward (just that our bosses determine that at year end!!) and all of us work hard for those but not all things are attributed to work though… there are those small charms that you carry that matter as well… its not just the 9 to 6 affair…its how we work in those hours. Contribution at work is both about the quantum and the quality… quality is also about our approach towards work and the people around us. By charm, I mean the way we influence the people surrounding us. All of us are lucky enough to get equal chances in our day to day affairs; rest is how we make those chances work… of how we influence that bit of luck to work in favour of us!!

defining love....

Dude what is love???

I asked this question to one of my room mate who for the past 5 years has been dating* a girl - who of course is his girlfriend….

*dating = can’t find a suitable word for someone being in love & yet to get married in our Indian context

thereafter I have asked this question then to most other people also… be it my other room mates …CA articles working on the same project as I am…my project manager, PwC colleagues etc etc… just to find an answer to this question I have been dwelling upon for some time now…what love really means & how is that it should be defined?

For the past 1 year I have been watching some of my friends and others who have got engaged…how life changes for them and how they affect others lives… all but a strange experience…. life seems to be unidirectional for them…

Relax… no complaints for all of U who are in love… love matters…no one better than me to understand that …though m writing the blog…

But then I started thinking on this ‘love’ word and tried to get answers to it… I got some interesting responses which I thought should be put down to get a non dictionary meaning of love…

Rummie 1 (who is in love) defines- ‘love is a situation wherein u don’t get seduced by the hottest chick that may be around you & you still continue to think of your beloved’

Ok. I agree with this definition. But this guy was just surfing Bharat Matrimony site alongwith my other rummie & trying to find who is the hottest on bloc ... though I don’t mean he is not in love … (our other aspects of locating the hottest one are purposefully kept under secret)

Rummie 2 (desperately trying to find a match for himself on Bharat Matrimony… that too at 12 am and avoiding my question feeling m not feeling sleepy & that is why such questions) says…‘love cant be defined … it is very unstructured & you never know how n when it happens’ …. (nice way to get away !!!)

on some serious stuff…
I queried our articles as I knew I would be getting some good response (U can query articles only… CA Institute gets pride when u post queries and not those simple questions to its students)

Article 1 (female… u know the rule -ladies first) defines—
· when in love one feels secured/ one is sure of himself or herself
· we accept a person first for what he is and then we have the freedom to say for what we feel he or she should change to better himself
· when in love, you want to be with that person for all the time
· love is trust

Article 2 (male) thoughtfully defines—
· love is the willingness to compromise one’s self
· love is all about compatibility & trust

truly… CA articles always add more value to our thought process…

Colleague 1(who is getting married soon -he is a telugu & his fiancee is a guju) says- ‘there is nothing called as true love…marriages to some extent are a compromise… I may go around watching other girls but then my fiancée knows that at the end of the day I shall come back to her…’

hard one to digest but a I feel it to be a realistic view…

Colleague 2 (he messaged me his response) – defines love as a situation wherein U love someone more than yourself…

Further as I ponder on this ‘love definition’ my senior added some more twist to the definition & I faced one more thought provoking question… are love marriages better than arranged marriage?

Actually I had pondered on this question sometime back and asked one of my Bengali female friend on this question. She got married a few months back and her marriage was an arranged one --

as I was sipping my coffee and chatting with her on the messenger …I asked her—
what is that she is feeling after getting married to someone who was a stranger to her sometime back and that now after getting him known after being with him for a while? Does she really feel to be in love and does the guy whom she thought was to be like is like as per her thoughts and would her love last the same way over life as it does now??

She had a simple response… yes definitely I am in love… more that what I thought to be and found my spouse to be more interesting than what I had thought of… may be the romance would end but not the love !!!!

Good one…but she believes that she married him only because the guy belonged to her caste and then had no answer to my next question- what if her spouse was not a Bengali and then he would have been the same person??
In short Love also sees what caste n religion u belong to… n I tend to agree to this point…


So what is love is after all???

time for me to try n define the same …

I believe love to be a feeling of belongingness… the thought that someone cares for U…that someone understands U … has all the faith in u… it is all the fight that u may have but then it is also the sacrifice U can make to see the other happy… it makes u feel happy but then can cause lot of pain as well…

I guess I have added nothing different from all the views I could get …but then I feel none of the definitions to be the complete…love, a small word with a huge meaning!!


PS: I know some of my friends will have this definite question of why is that I thought to blog on this topic…where is that I got the idea??
Well then my answer would be… I really don’t know…probably working throughout makes U miss most of the people u have cared about…