Mumbai Chronicle - 26 May'2012

What’s happening to me guys? How can I be so irresponsible? It’s the 5^th day of me in a city that is for movies and I haven’t yet checked out even one theatre in the city. Moreover it was a Saturday, it’s a weekend and there needs to be a pilaaan.

Nearest theatre from our place, I asked myself? Cinemax Sion.

Which movie which everyone (Sujith bhai, brother in law n sister) will agree in first proposal without much of persuasion required. I think some mallu flick which they will like, and lucky I was that there was 22 Female Kottayam running in Cinemax Sion.

“Didi, would you like to watch 22 Female Kottayam?”

“Yeah. I heard it is a good movie. I don’t mind. Ask your jeeju (brother in law) if he is free?”

“Jeeju, Cinemax is playing 22 Female Kottayam for just 3 days. Let us go for afternoon show today?”

“Is it good? I haven’t much heard about it.”

“Oh! It is really doing well in Kerala. Let’s go, I will book the tickets online.”

Well didn’t have to stress much and they agreed and our Sujith bhai is always ready for movies. So on the first weekend, in Mumbai, I checked out the theatres in Mumbai. Well this specific screen was small as it was a mini theatre that they created for regional movies and was quite small. Little against my shaan but then initially I don’t want Mumbaikars to feel the heat. Hehehe....

The movie got over by 4 we were all at home, but how can we end a weekend like this without reaching back home by night. So I and Sujith Bhai went to CST, just like that. Well I have heard someone telling me that cities get more beautiful in the night and I also think it’s true. Same was the case as we walked through the old corridors of big buildings that took us all the way to Gateway of India. Being a weekend it was crowded with feriwaalaas who displayed their products at the roadsides. The crowd was huge as I could see people checking out things and doing negotiations to get the best deals for them. We reached Fashion street where I felt the world comes to get latest trends at the cheapest price. Well you name a brand and they bring out the copy of the original at the very next minute. CK, Giordiano, Allen Solly, You name it and you get it there and the fashion trends are also amazing. As we reached we saw Gateway of India and a ocean of human faces around it. Families, lovers, friends everyone was out there enjoying their good times and making maximum out of weekend. 

Well for me it was my camera which was on work while Sujith Bhai walked along talking over phones, answering his big fan following. Well I won’t pull much on our padhyatra. Check out the pictures which didn’t come out the way I wanted them to come. However I will meanwhile look forward something more interesting in my Mumbai journey.

What's this... ?

Sujith Bhai in front of Fashion Street

Sea of People at Gateway of India

Ghodagaadis in front of Gateway of India

The Taj

Ganapathi Bappa... On a Cloth..

The corridors filled with Pheriwalas

Mumbai Chronicles - 25 May 2012

Well people who know me very well, actually know that there is a crazy me who can go to any extent of craziness. And It seems that Mumbai city is giving me kick in taking more crazy decisions.  Well before I wrote more, I would like to quote an old hindi superhit song

Do deewane shehar mein, Raat Din Dopahar mein

Aaboodana Dhoondhte hain, Ek aashiana dhoondte hain

Well Please don’t misunderstand the deewane literally because here when I say deewane, I wanted to specify two crazy people roaming in Mumbai looking out for a place to live and not lovers. I am straight and I would make it clear on behalf of me and Sujith bhai. And we both crazy guys were roaming around Mumbai looking for rented accommodation.

The rule in Mumbai says first you find a job and then locate yourself near to that place. But what to do, because we have the habit of breaking the norms set by the so called smart world. I consider myself as an uncelebrated idiot, who is considered crazy but no one ever says it on face. Because in the smart world, no one leaves a well paid job in abroad and fly back to India just to have a feel of being in one’s own country.  Now the new norm that we broke is to rent an accommodation before even getting a job.

My belief is that if you have a place of your own, your mind starts working automatically. The idea of being in the new location was to be independent, work out the ideas the way we want and the total

The place where you live should be nice and should give you positive vibes and henceforth I made Sujith Bhai roam around places and check out 5-6 houses. Finally we ended up at doors of a real estate agent in Borivilli (W) who took us to few apartments. Finally we found a good society, surrounded by societies and roads where you could see some lovely chicks. 

So now on the 5th day of my mumbai stay, I have a postal Address in Mumbai and yeah we will be available by 5^th June at our own adda.

God saves Borivilli and the people there. :-P

Mumbai Chronicle - 24 May 2012

I have heard that local trains are the lifeline of Mumbai, and it is one thing you can rely on when you need to travel across Mumbai. But I had never heard that what to do when the lifeline stops suddenly. Well if you ask any Mumbaikar that if he or she ever got stranded because of breakdown, they might have experienced it but on the very first week of your entry to the city. Very few lucky people like me and Sujith Bhai are entitled for the privilege. :-P

On our way back to our current residence, at Mahim Station, the local stopped as usual to drop and pick its passengers. We both got up from our seats to go near to the door as next stop was ours and you need to make your way out to get down on a station where few people drop off. Otherwise generally if it is a major stop you don’t have to make an effort as crowd pushes you out by own.

Anyways coming back to what I was saying, after the train stopped at Mahim Station, it never moved forward. We were bit surprised as it was a first time experience for us. We stood inside the train for some minutes and then we got down at the station following what the crowd was doing. There was a lot of confusion, that what was happening and then some announcement was made on the loudspeaker. Well it sounded like someone is jumbling rocks in a steel box in front of a mike and I bet if the person who did announcement also came and listened, he/she won’t have understood a single word.

Anyways, we thought to ask suggestion from an experienced traveller.

“Bhaisaab, humne King’s Circle jaana hai. Ye train kab chalegi? (We have to King’s Cirlce. When will this train leave?)

“Wo to agla stop hai, issi track pe chalte raho 10 minute tak pahunch jaoge. Ye to abhi yard jayegi aur iske baad doosri train aayegi.. Wo kab pata nahi” (That is next stop. Do one thing keep walking on this track and you may reach in 10 minutes because this train will go to yard and another train will come and at what time no one knows.)

We sighed and looked at each other asking each other what to do. It was stupidity to walk in that afternoon sun on a railway tracks so we waited another 10 minutes and then thought that we will go out and hire a cab. So after deciding to hire a cab, we took the foot over bridge to go to next platform. On the way outside, Sujith bhai told that lets have Lime juice, and we stopped at small outlet at the platform itself. As we were drinking lime juice, we saw our train moving on the other side. On enquiring from the lime juice stall owner, he told that the announcement was made that this train has gone to yard and next train is coming in 5 minutes. I looked at the guy and asked pointing at speaker, the announcement on this. He chuckled and said I daily stand here so i can understand them.

Well finally we crossed the tracks and went to our previous platform as the new train arrived for our destination. Well what I learnt was that you need to be patient as Western railways will not allow lifeline of Mumbai to stop like this. 

Mumbai Chronicle - 23 May 2012

On the second day of our stay in Mumbai, we were introduced to the Don of the building where currently we are staying. Ramlal as I christened him, because no one seems to call him by any name, may be because they all consider it waste of time to enquire and name of living beings staying around.

However I enquired and as per reliable sources, Ramlal came to this building probably a couple of years back and has been staying here and restored peace and calmness in the area from the various stray goons like him. As soon as you enter the building, you will find him resting peacefully on the stairs undisturbed by the movement of the residents. He rests at his favourite spots ignoring all the worldly matters that are happening and people also make sure not to disturb Ramlal while they pass by him. One funny incident that my elder sister (it’s her house where we are staying) shared that one day while she was getting down the stairs, busy searching something in her bag, she accidently steeped on Ramlal who was resting on the stairs. Since that day, Ramlal makes sure that he gets up from his rest and gives way to my sister.

With my keen interest in Ramlal my bada bhai, Sujith Bhai has warned me that

“he may be quiet but if he changes the mind I can be in trouble and be visiting doctors”. However i feel that he cool enough because when I requested him for a click for which he posed without showing any tantrums.

Mumbai Chronicles - 22 May 2012

As Nethravathi Express chugged in at snail pace into Panvel Railway Station, finally my journey that began more than a month back came to an end.  Now don’t assume that I was travelling on foot to take more than a month to reach Mumbai from Qatar. Well it was a holiday which squeezed every ounce of energy from me back home.  Travelling around Kerala, visiting Bangalore, driving minimum 50 KM daily or at least alternate days and the summer in Kerala was little more than what I had expected this vacation. But all in all I enjoyed every bit of it as I was in India... J

As of now in my Mumbai journey I have company of my cousin brother, Sujith as we both are looking forward to do something in here. Well to say what we are going to do, we both have no idea but yes something will happen in our lives that we expect and look forward for. As far as I am concerned, I am one step closer than yesterday to the dream I have for me in Mumbai.

It seems Mumbai was generous in welcoming us because when I went along with Sujith Bhai to get a new mobile connection, we were expecting N number of formalities like requirement of local address proof or reference of any local addressee, which was based on my previous experience when I went to get my Vodafone connection. But what happened was something which we never expected and ended up having 4 sim cards instead of one.  How??

We: Hi, we would like to get one Airtel connection. What are the charges and formalities?

Sales Girl: Sir, we have an offer on Airtel and for Inr 100/- we will give you 4 sim cards.

W: 4? What will we do with that? We just need one.

SG: Sir one also will cost you 100 bucks after all recharge and all. Here we are giving you 4 Sims with 31 bucks of talk time and 500 MB of data free in each sim card.

W:  We But what we will do with 4 Sims and what are the documents required? We don’t have local address so it may be a problem.
SG: No Sir, we just need one photograph and a Photo ID with Indian address. That’s it. No other documents required to get a new connection.

We looked at each other, and I said let’s take them.

Bhai: Why? Do you need to have separate numbers for separate girlfriend?

Me: Nahi Bhai, it has talk time and data, which I can also use for my net.

Finally we decided to get the sim cards. And instead of one we are having now 4 Mumbai numbers which we still have no idea what we will do with it. I have heard that Mumbai is an unusual city and you can expect anything from here. Looking forward to more of unusual activities, well I end my first Mumbai chronicle here