Monday, November 5, 2007

entering mumbai

It was 27th feb 2004, clock ticking at 3:00 am when I was about to step on the soil of MUMBAI. I hope that the day and the time must have had the same importance for 30 of my other friends traveling from all parts of the country, though i never asked them explicitly ever after. I traveled by golden temple express and you know a girl from yamunanagar at once expects to see "mumbai meri jaan.." feels as if gotta a chance to see heaven before dying ..i was awake 2 hrs before we reached mumbai it ws near around 5 am I peeped out of gate my train was running very fast on western railway tracks we were at virar then , were trying to catch borivali.I , with that naive, fresh innocence kept on looking up impatiently as if i will see unmeasurable heights of buildings in that hour , forgetting pricking cold of north, removing stuffed jackets gloves, just kept on watching fast moving station name boards and thinking about all some bollywood stars who stay here only ....

I still sometime ponder how could i imagine to enter mumbai with that scarce and local knowledge of people ..(as all we from north are not habitual of staying in cosmopolitan which i was entering in ...)

I got down at borivali next day we went to juhu beach with my friend...... it was a place which totally numbed me for a minute. I have never seen such gigantic waves in life ,live in front of me so close that i could sense its salty roaring strength , as if one would come and would overtake me .. every moment after entering mumbai was changing my benchmarks ..i was amused with all surprises waiting to come my way ..ahead.....

Next day for some visit with them only we boarded local train ... huh!!! first time i saw people can run like ants !! I found my fast walking claims were just getting shattered one by one with each fellow overtaking me ...you wont believe i fainted there but no worries got well soon by having neembu paani (station waala..)!! from then onwards till date i have residing fear from mumbai locals..and i really admire people daily commuting through them....

i joined MBT on 27th feb got a place to stay in daffodils Hirandani first time staying alone leaving all time pampering by family got some new frenz .. i got a south indian friend ... Bench mark was going to change again now...you know what !!!! .. she was like she cd have dumped me anytime underground if she was given a chance ..she used to do only one job to clean her surroundings cook breakfast and we used to get ready only and leaving full messy room behind then madam used to come and comment with firm voice and big bold beautiful eyes "you north indians only know how to decorate yourself " hmmmm i said may be yes .....
a really interesting time it was ....
when me and one more my nextdoor friend went to have something to eat outside but keeping all yamunagar's price list echoing continuously in mind ...(kya hona tha fir!!) we came half eaten back with wide eyes opened and cribbing against mumbai ... too costly to live .........and announcing our city was more HUMAN FRIENDLY than this ...

then came many incidents like we used to laugh at "khallas " and we were laughed at for uttering "haanji" in every sentence,we used to befriend anybody going in way if seems from "mera gaanv mera desh"..we
used to collect anecdotes for each other every day to discuss in evening ...
as first time when i heard a lady in my office knew vodka very well ("knew very well... ssshhhh.." ),we learnt few new terms like boozing , dating and ..... when we were invited to office party where my collegues drunk sitting beside me huh!!!!! and i cant forget the day when we went to AURA where first time we saw dance girls... me and my friend at once disappeared from there and ate maggi back home...:))
then there was a hard training course waiting for us ..we used to wake till 3 am sometimes ...day and night were not at all different for us ..life totally changed in three months ..first time i went back to home .........................................

4 comments:

Vishal Kohli said...

Great description of your experiences in Mumbai, and one thing worth appreciating that whereever we stay we are connected to the roots like you mentioned yamuna nagar quite a few times :)

Cheers,
~Vishal

nextdoorgal said...

interesting

Vikram said...

Yeah that was really an interesting time, moments, journey, and for me I discovered a completely new me...It was an amazing time in bombay and with you pkneedie :-).

Shonali said...

Great one.Excellent starting and description.Loved it. I started reading your Blogs today. Youve got a follower in me for sure..!!! :)