The wining argument

You wake up from a deep sleep to go the bathroom. You glance at the watch - its 0445. You remember that you have set the alarm for 0500. The conflicting arguments of going back to sleep or staying awake has always had one winner in my case - I go back to sleep even if it is for 15 minutes ;)

Brand Tata

In India, chances are you could spend an entire day using products created by Tata. You could take Tata Indica (or a Tata bus or a truck, if you’re adventurous enough) to the Taj hotel, turn on the Voltas aircon, watch TV bought from the Croma retail store, use TataSky to do so with electricity supplied by Tata Power, wear clothes from apparel retailer Westside, read books while lounging on cushions from multimedia and stationary vendor Landmark, check the time on your Titan watch, surf the internet with Tata Photon and make calls with Docomo, sprinkle Tata Salt on your grub using crockery and cutlery made by Tata Ceramics while sipping Tata Tea and drive out to a Taj beach resort for the weekend on a bridge constructed with Tata Steel. All this while you drink water from their Himalaya brand.

That's from an advertisement I recently saw in TATA premises.

A century old brand that is still going strong. Commendable, isn't it?

Ramblings

I have boarded a fast train from Kasara to Mumbai CST. As Thane approaches, I plan to get down with my heavy bag. Regular commuters would tell you that 9 in the morning is not really a good time to alight at stations like Thane, Dombvili, etc (but then i wonder when exactly is the right time?). As I am praying to the almighty to let me down in one single piece I get a nice push. I turn back and the man comments, "Aila ladies hain". (Yeah, a single lady too evokes the plural noun form). The uncle to my right comments, "Idhar kahe ko chadha, ladies compartement mein chadhne ka". I smile and look at my hubby in front. "Acha, navra hain kya.....arre saab biwi ko aage lo na aap....warna woh utar nahin payengi". My poor hubby was getting the bashing, it was infact my stupid choice to get into the genral compartment because the ladies one was empty at the first stop.

For the next 3 minutes, there is no pushing so that the 'ladies' can stand in little comfort. I must say i am impressed by this chivalrous effort but as soon as the station is in sight there is such a commotion that my I am blinded by the rush. I do not remember anything except that after a few seconds I was on Thane station with my scarf in one hand, my bag on another....and yeah I am in one piece.....but hell! I just don't remember using my legs to walk a single step!

I look back at the train and I can see smiling faces as if to say "Welcome to Mumbai Mam".

;)

A completely drenched lady gets into the compartment. Another lady, probably her friend, asks "OMG, you are all wet. Was it raining?"
"No, I just took a full body wash in the station bathroom", retorts back the drenched lady.

Quote

It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection!

From the book - Eat Pray Love

Song

One of my all time favourite anatara (urdu for the middle stanza) -

Barbadiyon ka shok manana fizul tha...
manana fizul tha....
barbadiyon ka jashna manata chala gaya....
har fiqra ko dhooein mein udata chala gaya...

Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya
har fiqra ko dhooein mein udata chala gaya...

Rafi's magical voice, Sahir Ludhianvi's perfect lyrics and a good looking Dev Anand on the screen for the movie 'Hum Dono'

Three cheers to the Mumbai local

Whatever it is, I stand by my previous thought - this city has a quintessential charm! So let me pick the first charming thing about the city that every newcomer always raises a toast to - Mumbai locals!

As I crossed the 3 suburban railway lines to reach office I couldn’t help but notice that there were thousands others who did the same. But it was only me who was worried, everyone else was busy doing something on the journey. Everytime I had a confused look while switching the railway lines, in would come a good samaritan and narrate the plethora of options that lay before me. It isn’t really exciting to listen to someone talking in the native tongue - "1017 ko andheri se fast local jaati hain, usase dadar chale jaana, phir central line mein switch maaro aur Kurla jaakar wahan se Panvel chale jana. Itna mushkil nahin hain". You thought that the native tongue was marathi...no its locals! Mumbaikars eat, sleep and breathe locals ;).

Any other city probably would just have 2 options with respect to a local train - time and destination. Mumbai's railway network has probably the largest set of reserve words I ever thought was possible - fast, slow, central/main line, western line, harbour line, 12 car, 9 car, ladies special. The introduction of metro is just gonna add to the list I guess.

The cities that allow you to switch between the railway networks, example - Kurla, Dadar; one should probably hold a contest here at peak hours to check who manages to actually walk down or up the foot over bridge. Because in the 2 weeks that i tried you cannot choose to walk, you glide with the wave of passengers along. And if you glide in the wrong direction, no choice, curse your stars and start again!

Inspite of all this, its probably the best network I have ever seen. Every single point on the map is connected by the rail network with the trains running on perfect time. A 0717 hrs means just that, its never 0720 hrs. There is a train every other minute although you get a feeling that the rush in each of them is much more than the previous one.

The sheer magnitude of people travelling by the Mumbai railways can overwhelm you. As a newcomer you would detest the close proximity with which people travel. You wish you could be in a place where the density of population was lesser and the crowds thinner. But just when you are about to miss a train and are running towards it, out come many hands to pull
you in and remind you that this proximity is what keeps people human here!