Mumbai Meri Jaan??

Aye dil ! Hai mushkil jeena yahan
Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan!!


Ah yes! Those are lines from some random famous bollywood movie.

The reason i take pains to copy paste those lines is to suggest that even in those days Bombay,if not Mumbai, was not a very pleasant city to live in.I came back only yesterday from the "Financial capital" of India and believe me it's perhaps even worse today!
If you have ever cared to see a T.V. travel show about Mumbai , they ususally call it ,rather safely, the city of contrasts.It's that way because thats the most positive expression one can give for Mumbai and plus you don't get want to mess around telling the truth with the "Sena" around!

Of-course they just don't call Mumbai "city of contrasts" without reason.

On one side u have the world's largest slum and on the other u have the the posh shoping malls..

Where u find overcrowded local trains, suddenly an empty one passes by.(it's kinda humiliating!)

Here's my fav : Worli bus stop is called "Worli Village" and Dharavi is called "Dharavi Terminus"! (for those who didn't catch the humor: Worli is perhaps India's most developed areas and Dharavi is the WORLD's largest Slum!!!)

I traveled to Bombay (hey lets call it Bombay. it sounds better) by train. Arguably rail travel in India is good. But the first impression about Bombay is not soothing. Not soothing? Nay, it's DISGUSTING. All you see is filth and filth and filth. Ah yes and in the middle of all this u have a towering skyscraper,just to live up to it's own repute of being a city of contrasts!Any way , i just covered my nose with a perfumed handkerchief and just moved on... just like a diver taking precautions before taking a plunge.
Very soon , i realized that Bombay was far too populated.

Give this a thought : u have local trains running at intervals of 3 mins - all of them overflowing with Mumbaikars... and yet u have traffic on the roads! Oh boy!!

On the positive side, u have fairly good footpaths here. Footpaths without vendors!U can walk past the Mercedes and Volkswagens which are stuck on the road , and if u feel like playing a practical joke, just give it's driver a BIG smile!(u can imagine how that man would feel - U buy a car for 15 lacs which boasts a top speed of 300kmph and here, u have a guy who walks past ur investment while he is still stuck!!!)

But Mumbaikars reputedly never give up. U ought to pay a price for that BIG smile!if the footpath is ur territory, the Zebra crossing is theirs.The moment they realise that u are going to try crossing the road, they floor their accelerators.

psssst here's a secret to cross the road: just keep walking and tell them:"I'm crossing. U bang into me and u'r going to jail buddy!"

Also, Bombay makes u realize the banes of technology.Every guy and gal there seem to have the cell phones glued to their ears.Hey! Here's a suggestion for u, if u are of the same breed - Try blue tooth!No one seems to bother about one another here. It's like "Mein , Meri phone , aur woh"!

.... To be continued




Hey do u like this blog? or do you think it stinks?please leave a comment here.also FOLLOW me by clicking on "follow" button on the left hand side.