Rush, push & Rush

Tired Exhausted Fatigue. These are not quite the words that one should think of while stepping into the office. But then I couldn't help it today. There are some things that you should definitely avoid in life and traveling in the Mumbai buses after 9:30 am is definitely one of those. Varun and I stepped into the bus (Number 40) at 10:00 am. Both of us were foot-boarding for the first 5 mins. Our usual 'Go south' strategy didn't work as the rear part of the bus was too crowded for us to find any space. The 'Go south' strategy where we try and find some space towards the rear of the bus worked well for us last week. Once we manage to find some space there, there would be no one asking us to move 'aagey' and since our final stop at Andheri was near a traffic signal (also considering the traffic at that hour) we would get enough time to step out of the bus from the rear exit.

We were not lucky today and soon I was doing an ‘aagey chalo bhaiyya’. There was no space for the poor guy to go ahead. But neither did I have any space to go back. If I had stayed there I knew that there would be others pushing me and so I decided to find some space in the front. It was jam-packed and I found the going tough. Varun who was held up near the steps for quite some time now joined me. A couple of minutes later, there were a couple of guys pushing Varun and I forged ahead putting the foot in the sparse empty spaces that were available. I just heaved a sigh of relief but with 2 women trying to move to the front I knew the worst was yet to come. In circumstances like this ‘side stick’ strategy comes in handy. As the name suggests , in ‘side stick’ strategy we move so close to the seat and stand sideways facing the seat creating enough space for the women folk to move forward. Unfortunately this time, there were others already employing this strategy so all that we could do is stick to them. Just as the women moved ahead, there was a guy 6 feet tall and probably around 90 kg weight who wanted to move forward. I seriously think people above certain height and weight should no be allowed in the Mumbai buses. With people like this guy fighting for space, what chance do weaklings like me stand? Worse still was the fact that the guy moved straight (not sideways which would have saved some space) stretching both his hands to cling on to the support. Looking at him I wondered if he was standing in a bus or working out in a gym. At one point my face was right in front of his arm-pits. 'Bloody-hell!!!'I thought!.' To hell with the Mumbai buses '. Thankfully for me the agony did not last long as he moved ahead. I was dying to share this with Varun and when I did tell him about this guy, he told me about another guy who was forging his way through the rush using his pot-belly. ‘Argh! Another outlier’ I thought. There should be some rules to ensure that these guys don’t bully their way through the rest of the crowd in the bus. Gosh! It’s such a pain. It doesn’t matter if I don’t shave. It doesn’t matter if I don’t take bath or even if I don’t brush. I realized today that the objective after I get up in the morning should be to reach the office as early as possible.

Initially, when I started moving in the buses in Mumbai, I used to be worried about someone stealing my wallet. In the Mumbai buses, one usually doesn’t have the luxury of moving one’s hands to check if the wallet is in the pocket. Over a period of time, I realized that my usually highly insensitive bum was now able to feel my wallet and relieve me of the tension. Darwin was right about his theory of evolution and things do adapt according to the surroundings.

As we started walking on the footpath, I encountered a huge man-hole that was large enough to fit 4-5 guys. The gym-guy in the bus would easily fit into it. Probably he could even take me and Varun along with him without much difficulty. I turned back to explain this to Varun. Seeing that he was far behind me I continued my walk only to find another man-hole awaiting me. I was lucky that Varun was not too close to me otherwise I would have landed in this man-hole trying to explain him about the other one. Sounds funny! But it could have really happened to me today. I was so tired and drained as I entered the office. There are many flyovers coming up in the Hyderabad and doing some mazdori kaam there might be better than this. Well, I think I need a break.

The tale of two cities

I was walking on the road with my friends near hotel Samrat, near Church gate. It was a pleasant walk from that place to the Brabourne stadium. There were no buses to be seen anywhere, the roads were empty and were sparsely crowded. Huh? Where am I? This is definitely not the Mumbai that I know. As far as I am concerned, Mumbai boleto crowd hona chahiye. Without the crowd how can it be Mumbai? Saahil tells me that that’s how this part of the city is –South Mumbai. “I have lived here most of the life and this was the Mumbai for me till I started travelling in the local trains” says Anahita, my friend Rahul's fiancee.

I really loved the food at Samrat especially the ‘achar’ which reminded of the ‘aavakai ‘(mango pickle in Telugu) back home. After a sumptuous dinner at Samrat, we moved to Leopold. With English babu Pranay back from UK, we wanted to have a drink after the meal. I am an occasional drinker but this time I was in a mood to try out something. The initial plan was to have a big pitcher of beer which would be sufficient for all 5 of us. But then after the heavy meal, we were in no mood to go for it. ‘Thank God’ I said to myself. Beer is not something I really enjoy. I still remember how I had to gulp a big glass of beer in front of my Australian clients. Social drinking you see. On popular vote we decided to have ‘Tequila'. I quite liked the whole process of having it starting with putting some salt on your hand to finally trying tasting neembu to feel the kick of ‘Tequila’. This was followed by Mexican Milk shake. It tasted like the Irish cream ‘Baileys’ that I had on the flight. It was good. For probably the first time, I really enjoyed drinking. I was thinking that I should get Dad to taste the Irish cream I thought. It is awesome and someone like him, who relishes good food and understands taste, would surely enjoy this. The drink had got to me and I was feeling slightly dizzy. But the bill came that blew all my dizziness away. To put things in the local dialect -‘Poori nasha utargayee.’ It was about Rs 500 per head and I was like”Aaah, there goes 1/10th of my salary. All the saving that I had done traveling in the RED( I won’t call them BEST) buses and local trains was now gone in a jiffy. But then that’s ok. I enjoyed the evening and I wish I would soon earn enough to have such evenings without a tinge of guilt in the background.

I found that there are two contrasting cities within Mumbai, south Mumbai and the rest of it. South Mumbai is the Mumbai that is shown in Bollywood movies and the city that the foreigners visit. One doesn’t find the crowd that one finds in the rest of Mumbai in South Mumbai. I won’t say that one is affluent and the other is not since places like Malad, Andheri and Goregaon are developing at a much faster than South Mumbai. (I think so). But there is a ‘big city feel’ that you get in South Mumbai that is not there in other parts of Mumbai. The Big city makes you feel that you need to do something and be someone some day. I had experienced something similar when I saw the bill after I had a ball out there with my friends. May be it is this feeling of ‘Kuch karna hain aur bada ban na hain’ that drives many others like me into this city. Ah ah! Guess I am thinking too much, getting too much into my future worrying about salary figures. That’s not me. Right now there is no such thing as lazing on your couch on a Sunday afternoon listening to Bollywood numbers and giving vent to your thoughts.

The movie Vs The hype

It was 2:40 pm, Saturday, December 27th . I was just entering the Oberoi Mall to watch 'Ghajini' that hit the cinema halls on 25th December. I wasn't too sure if I would get the tickets for there were just 15 minutes left for the show. It was 2:45 pm by the time I reached the ticket counter. And lo! I found a ticket. Great ! I thought. It's pretty easy to find tickets for a movie like 'Ghajini' on a weekend these days.

Well then, the situation has changed buddy. PVR, Goregaon had 10 more shows of 'Ghajini' lined up. So there were adequate number of shows to quench the thirst of all the movie buffs. I am talking just of one PVR in Mumbai. There are many cinema halls in Mumbai and I guess all the multiplexes had more than 4-5 shows of 'Ghajini' . A movie buff like me would thus easily find a ticket. And that's exactly what the movie-makers want. Break even or may even make profits in the first 3 days. ( Remember that there might be more money coming from the release of the movie outside India.)

From the general gup-chup with my friends, I have understood that this funda of going hammer and tongs in the first 3 days started with 'Singh is King'. Market the movie big time, create the buzz and get the crowds into the cinema halls in the first 3 days. 'Ghajini' took movie-marketing to a different level altogether. There were lots of promos on the TV with the usually media-reclusive Aamir Khan embracing it like never before. There were 2-3 sites for the movie that created the hype about the story which Aamir Khan's own website sporting a total Ghajini look. There was a huge hoarding in PVR Goregaon and I believe that would be the case with other multiplexes as well. With the employees of the multiplexes sporting Ghajini hair style, Aamir Khan was leaving no stone unturned marketing his movie. 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' wasn't marketed at this level but then it also swamped the cinema halls especially the multiplexes when it was released.

'Ghajini' reported made 170 crores in 10 days. Big bucks! This strategy also helps the movie industry effectively combat the movie piracy and that's good for them. My only worry as a movie buff is that the quality of movies might come down. While I heard gals raving about Aamir Khan's body, I am sure many of them would agree with the fact that the movie as a whole wasn't up to the usual Aamir Khan standards. In the times to come we are likely to see more movie marketing and may be even on a larger scale than what we saw for 'Ghajini'. For the movie makers this might well do the trick helping them to break even well before people understand anything about the movie. They might now be encouraged to spend more on marketing the movie rather than the movie itself. But as a movie buff, I would go home disappointed if the final product - 'the movie' isn't what the hype promised. Do the movie-makers care?

Left leg aagey aagey

Yup you have guessed it right. I loved 'Rab Ne' and saw 'Rab' in King Khan. I usually keep humming the songs but my title is not about it. It's about the crowd again. The crowd in the bus ( where else) . I seem to be incapable of thinking beyond the crowd and traffic in Mumbai. The buses are so crowded here that you can't keep your legs steady at one place. Depending on who moves in or out ( thankfully), one needs to keep stepping back and forth. Left leg aagey aagey Right leg peche peche( Ah! The word 'aagey' ! I seem to be in love with this word traveling in the Mumbai buses) .That's silly but I was reminded of the 'Chance pe Dance' song in 'Rab De'. But unlike that, the exercise in the bus is no fun.

I sometimes wonder why no one thinks of doing something about the Mumbai traffic. We, management students should perhaps do something about it. Mumbai is big. Mumbai is happening. It's the home of Bollywood. It is the financial capital of India. There are so many foreigners who visit this city. This happens despite all the chaos and commotion. A bit of orderliness would be so good for the city. There definitely has to be a way out. I sometimes wonder how one can live day in and day out in this city traveling from one end to another without feeling the pinch to do something about it? May be I am saying this since I have been here for just about a month. May be I will get used to it within the next one month.

Babuji, zara aagey chalo!

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.

After 2 weeks at Mumbai

Hmmm.. then it has been 2 weeks at Mumbai. I am back to office today after a lazy weekend. The bosses at the office are busy and I am here back to writing my heart out. Hopefully it will be a more regular effort from me this time.

The first week at Mumbai was fun. With PVR cinema hall just a 10 mins walk from our place, Varun and I went there every now and then for movies, food and fun. The second week seemed to remind us the fact that we quit our jobs sometime ago. Not knowing your destination at Mumbai can hit you hard and that's what happened last Monday morning when the auto guy took us all around the place and gave us a bill of Rs 80.( as supposed to the max Rs 50 bill that should have been the case). We decided to travel by bus but the bus-journey that evening was the torturous journey ever. The journey that would usually take 30-40 mins took 1.5 hours. The speed or rather the lack of it ( just like Rahul Dravid's batting today). I wondered how the drivers in Mumbai manage this day in and day out. But then I later realized that the traffic that day was courtesy Aamir Khan who visited the Oberoi Mall. Grrrr.. what a timing! Surprising though it might sound, we have started using the right bus ( 40) only since the last 2-3 days ( a good 1 week since we came here). The buses that we traveled so far go in a round about manner and finding the shortest route bus has been quite a relief.

Nothing in life bothers me so much as food does. And when food costs you a lot, it's a big loss for me. From our initial experience in Mumbai in the first 10 days , we haven't found had much success finding good and not so expensive food. 'Local experience' seems to be invaluable in such circumstances. Things have been better over this weekend as we have managed to find some pretty yummy yet affordable places to eat

After two weeks, I can't exactly say whether I like or dislike Mumbai. This is what I said when one of my seniors asked me the same.


OVL : So do you like Bombay?
Me: Getting used to it. Started appreciating Hyderabad more after coming here. Well, I don' t think I like it . at least for now. May be it will change over the next 2 months.
OVL: It doesn't :D
Me: I really don't mind :)
OVL: Neither will the Shiv Sainiks! :D
Me : :)

A smile was all that I could manage as a response at that moment and I guess it will remain so for some time to come :)