This post is a little different from my previous posts as this is a little more personal. This is a story about a boy who came to "Mumbai" about five years back. This was the first time when he was going to live away from home. Alongwith the concerns came the excitement. There were so many stories about this city that he had heard and so, he looked forward to actually see the city that never stopped, the city of dreams, the city of the riches and the rags. It was when I started working after college that I got to know the real city life and I fell in love with it.
There are so many incidents that come to my mind when I want to write about this city, the time when a taxi driver after understanding a conversation between me and my friend started talking in an American English accent advising us not to settle abroad, the journey when I struck a conversation with an auto-wallah who had worked with Sachin and was not happy that the Tendulkars shifted homes (apparently Sachin's form deteriorated after that), the euphoria when I drove at a cruising speed on Bandra-Worli Sea Link, the embarrassment when for the first time I tried to hit on a girl in a bar and failed miserably, the cringe in the heart when I saw a whole lot of beggars in front of a Lamborghini showroom, the desperation I felt when I was stuck helpless in the crowd at Dadar and the stories keep coming to me.
Mumbai has so many problems and still it goes on with an amazing pace. People have circumvented those issues and moved on. For example, A major issue is the tedious travel to work everyday in the local trains. Its worth watching how with a couple of rubber bands, a briefcase and four enthusiastic people you can make a good cards table in the rickety old train. That card game is not just a distraction for those four people but for several other bystanders whose travel became easy just by looking at that game. Also, you understand the real meaning of fast food in this city. The sandwiches, vada-pav, cut fruits with special masala, you get everything near the local stations and people rushing to work literally just have to wait for a second to get that fulfilling breakfast they need. At any hour of the day, the roads are flooded with those yellow-black autos & taxis and you are never short of public transport. And there are plenty of options for places to eat or for order-ins which is actually another problem as you always get confused.
Then there is night time, but wait, its never really dark in Mumbai. After being stuck in a traffic-jam at 2 a.m., I know this for a fact that it is never really dark for the people of Mumbai. Keeping a basic sense of security, I have never feared traveling late at night. There are so many people everywhere at any hour that you never feel alone and the darkness just fades into the light. Whether it be a night-out at marine drive or a late night drive back from work, or getting drenched in rain during Ganpati Visarjan at 3 a.m. with thousands of others this 'City of Lights' has never disappointed me.
There is just one condition here, that you need to listen to yourself to fully enjoy this place and so I came up with these lines for those who still don't fully appreciate the city-
इन ऊँची ईमारतों के बीच से कटती इस हवा का रोना सुन रहा हूँ मैं
सड़क के किनारे खेलते उन बच्चों की किलकारियां सुन रहा हूँ मैं
भीड़ में खोये हुए उस आदमी की पीर सुन रहा हूँ मैं
समुंद्र की लहरों के बढ़ते इस आह्वाहन को सुन रहा हूँ मैं
इतना कुछ सुन रहा हूँ मैं, और कितना कुछ सुनना चाहता हूँ मैं
कुछ कह रहा है ये दिल, कुछ सुनना चाहता है ये मन
इस भीड़ में इतना खोया हूँ के खुद को ही नहीं सुन पा रहा हूँ मैं ||
Just listen to your heart, strive hard, dream big and this city has more than enough space to make you feel at ease.
