Crowd! Crowd! Crowd! It is everywhere in Mumbai, be it the local trains, buses or roads. My friend and I are so fed up of the crowd that we prefer staying at Goregaon during the weekends. In the last 1 month, I have visited the up-market Mumbai ( south Mumbai) only 2-3 times. Travel can be so tiring. Sometimes I wonder how I would manage all these if I end up working here full time.
Bus will be one option I will try to avoid in the future. I am not too sure if local trains might be any better but then the grass is always greener on the other side. As opposed to back home in Hyderabad, the folks in Mumbai use the rear entry to enter bus and exit through the front. As soon as one enters the bus the tendency is to find your way 'aagey' ( front). The bus usually would be crowded and hence one has to fight one's way through using one's physical and verbal prowess to get 'aagey'. ( even in the damn bus ). Thus the phrase ' Babuji zara aagey chalo'. The phrase 'Babuji dheere chalo' would be redundant here since the bus can only go 'dheere' given the traffic on the Mumbai roads. I usually shudder when I see a woman or a girl boarding the bus because they can't really wait to get to the front however crowded the bus might be. There is also this bloody obligation to make way for the fairer sex. There was this lady today who was dying to move forward and uttered the 'Zara aagey chalo' phase not less than 10 times in the first 5 minutes that she boarded the bus. 'Kahan jaaye madam, bas aapke sir pe jagah hain' ( There is no place to go anywhere . May be, I should stand on your head) . I visualized myself saying these words but I was just smiling along with the other male passengers surrounding me. 'Aagey' might also be the word that the Mumbai conductor as opposed to the word 'ticket' in other cities. Guess I need to stop this now and start my work for the day. After all, I need to go aagey in life.
Bus will be one option I will try to avoid in the future. I am not too sure if local trains might be any better but then the grass is always greener on the other side. As opposed to back home in Hyderabad, the folks in Mumbai use the rear entry to enter bus and exit through the front. As soon as one enters the bus the tendency is to find your way 'aagey' ( front). The bus usually would be crowded and hence one has to fight one's way through using one's physical and verbal prowess to get 'aagey'. ( even in the damn bus ). Thus the phrase ' Babuji zara aagey chalo'. The phrase 'Babuji dheere chalo' would be redundant here since the bus can only go 'dheere' given the traffic on the Mumbai roads. I usually shudder when I see a woman or a girl boarding the bus because they can't really wait to get to the front however crowded the bus might be. There is also this bloody obligation to make way for the fairer sex. There was this lady today who was dying to move forward and uttered the 'Zara aagey chalo' phase not less than 10 times in the first 5 minutes that she boarded the bus. 'Kahan jaaye madam, bas aapke sir pe jagah hain' ( There is no place to go anywhere . May be, I should stand on your head) . I visualized myself saying these words but I was just smiling along with the other male passengers surrounding me. 'Aagey' might also be the word that the Mumbai conductor as opposed to the word 'ticket' in other cities. Guess I need to stop this now and start my work for the day. After all, I need to go aagey in life.
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