Mumbai - Quite a Change

The city of joy, hopes, dreams and the list of abstracts go on and on. How else can i define this city ? Talking about this city, gets me goosebums and moreover, i can't stand anyone talking against it. Be it comparing the safety of the city, when compared to a Metro city like Delhi or be it the food when comparing it with the foodie Bangalore or Chennai. So then, after a long time, 8 months were quite long to return to mumbai for about 2 weeks.

Unlike the last time, I had thought of a train journey, rather than taking a flight, Courtesy : Recession (The word seem to have become a part of all my latest blogs). So yes, I was in S6, Seat 72, Sharing an RAC berth with someone. This was just the second time that i was really sharing a seat, thank god, it was just the berth and not our lives... :P, After a lot of bye bye and ta ta's with my friends over the phone, I was about to board the train, when i started to get a insight of how my travel was going to be....., My bogie was filled with an outing returnees. Hmm.. They were from Somaiya College, Vidya Vihar, Mumbai and had been on an outing to Bangalore/Mysore. So, it was all young guns, all were B.Com students and trust me, the gals just did not quite seem to be B.com Students!!, They were quite living upto the hotness of a well matured lady, Wow, Treat for eyes, but on the otherside, had to be careful, can't just let my mouth open and let water ooze out from it, the reason, there were guys too accompanying them and it would have given them reasons to stretch their arms and flex their muscles.

Just half an hour into the journey, they were all getting settled, and those kiddos, asking few of the confirmed seat passengers to exchange berths to get their remaining collegues to the same bogie and few gals were sharing a light moment, few photographs and all the normal girly nakras. I on the other hand was virtually preparing a score card about which is a potential babe of them all, and how could they be rated on the scale of A++ to D., Tell you what, there were few non-investable grades too.

Journey was a good long 24 hours, Nothing memorable happend, Thanks to Lalu Prasad Yaadav, The train didn't de-rail. But, the food in the train pantry, would have made many tummies derail. I was aware of this and kept "SOLID" diet to the minimum, Depending more on juices and lassi and chaas to Tomato soups. Hours passed and was quite happy to read some boards in Marathi. We reached Solapur and thats where the hidden mumbaikar in me came out. Yes, I was urging to have a "Vada Paav". Hell with everything, This little indian burger (as we call) was so very tempting that i thought, My tummy can take it... :-) and followed it up with some pine-apple juice. Fair enough, Till we reached Pune, I had now decided that, i would not want to sleep at all for the next 2 1/2 hours, Thats because of the little Khandala Ghat which was present and also for the chikki's that i can sallow at Lonavala. All was great., And finally reached mumbai, a couple 10 minutes late than the usual reaching time.

The Local trains had the rush of the evening 6.20 pm, Just like it always is, always was. Luckily i was travelling the opposite side from the crowd. I found something strange, the local train that i got in, had a different finish, It was no more that boring maroon and yellow looking train, These trains were designed in a different way, It had a steel interior, the seats were different from the old ones, the train was painted purple and yellow with many a lot of ads stuck on to it and above all, I was surprised on the arrival of the next station when a lady spoke out, NEXT STATION "Thane", Pudcha stop... "Thane" and Agla Stop.... "Thane", Yes, all the 3 languages. Hmm... thats great., Now, I can sleep peacefully on a local train journey, atleast a lady is kind enough to keep telling me about all the stations as and when it arrives. :-), Laaluji... Tusi great ho!

Another Surprise was the buses, It had 2 camera, one at the entry point and the other at the exit and strangely, i was having a feeling that i was sitting in my office cafeteria in between the rushes of the bus., the reason, because there were these LCD TV's playing all of the citizen awareness ads (like Aids, use FOB to cross railway tracks etc) mixed with local advertisement. This seems to be quite a joy for pick pocketers, They would be in for gala time and can make a good treat.

The city was always developing, a lot of fly overs, some unnecessary ones too., and like the way mumbai had always been, the cutting chai was very famous along with the all time hit Vada Paav with a green chilli. The best that i like about mumbai is, the Chaat, I'd been away in different cities in the last 4 years (most of them were the south indian cities) and none of them had a single place, where they made good chaats., All the days that i had been there, I tried a combination of Dahi Puri, Ragda Pattice, Paani Puri, Sev Puri followed by Oosacha Ras (Sugar cane Juice). Each day, i used to feel so blessed after having it..., That should leave you with a question, How much has this moron put on?, Amazingly, just 200 gms, I was 69 when i left from Bangalore and 69.2 when i reached back.

The day before i started from there, I was struck by a board which read.... "Paav Bhaji", Now, thats something you get in Bangalore, but not as delicious as the ones in mumbai. Even with a half filled stomach, i hopped in for a Paav Bhaji :), I was meeting a very close friend of mine the next day and she asked me a riddle. "Hmm..., but give me the crankiest of answer", She asked me " If you were to get a Paav Bhaji for Rs.25, What would you get for Rs. 100..." I replied "4 Paav Bhaajis.....", She said, "Wrong.... You would get a Puri Bhaaji." I was stunned and asked her to explain. She explained... " Paav means Quarter, 4 Paav's make it Poori (Full) and hence, you would be getting a POORI BHAJI.... " I was stunned.... " Oh god... Why me..... You could have spared me for this..... "

So ya, Mumbai may change, But mumbaikars are truely that jolly, strong and exciting :-)

And as far as me goes..... "You can take a guy out of mumbai, But can't take Mumbai out of this guy...."

Luv, Dhinu!!