Rêves…

Rêves.. It’s a french word which means Dream. You will be wondering that why the title is in french. Well I will explain that by the end of this post.

Now I should bring you to the main context of this post i.e. Dream.

If we go by dictionary the meaning of Dream is “A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.”

But is it so? Dreams are much more than that for us humans. They are our ambitions which we have inside us all the time. Dreams don’t die; they are there inside even when we think they can’t be achieved. They effect our lives alot as they control our emotions as we achieve them or lose them.

Now why out of blue I am writing about dreams?

To answer that, I will share you an incident that happened recently during one of my travels.

It was a busy morning as I reached Mumbai Airport to catch an early morning flight. During security check I was informed that there is a delay in take off by 30 minutes. So I decided to spend time in the food court area to have a cup of coffee.

I took a table from where I could see flights take off and land. I don’t know why but a family caught my attention. The table in front of me had a family consisting of 3. 2 aged parents and 1 son in his mid-twenties. As I sipped my coffee I noticed that all 3 were looking outside watching planes. The old man then looked at his wife and smiled. The smile had a sense of happiness, a smile that said something special was happening.

I thought they would be happy about going to vacation. As I was trying to give my own reasons to their smile, the young boy received a call and he moved a side to attend it. As the boy moved from the table, old man spoke to his wife “You know I always wanted to take you on a plane, but in our lives, we could never afford flying in a plane.”

“You gave me everything in life and it is enough for me. And now we are going also” The woman replied.

“But I always dreamt of us flying together. With the time, I had given up on this thought. But it seems that what you really wish, that do happen.”

Both of them smiled at each other and again started looking outside.

That small conversation that I overheard, made me think throughout my flight and till date as I write this post, I think about it.

Should we give up on our dreams? Or should we keep them safe and wait for them to happen. Because we do get bogged down when things are not happening like we expect. Are we not giving time to our dreams? Or should we be so obsessive about them?

Even though I don’t visit temples or believe in the deity worship, I do believe in the literature that all religions have. I have heard that Bhagvad gita has all answers to your questions. And when I looked for an answer for the question that was rattling me from inside, I remembered this

‘"tasmad asaktah satatam karyam karma samacara

asakto hy acaran karma param apnoti purushah"

It means “Go on efficiently doing your duty at all times without attachment. Doing work without attachment, a man attains the supreme.”

Inculcate the habit of being open to everything and being attached to nothing. Attachment does give strength to work and love beyond ourselves, but it also limits us and makes our journey and growth difficult, especially if the object of our desire is taken away from us.

Too much desire can be bad, as it turns into greed. Greed takes you away from your true calling and dream, be it to achieve, create or innovate.

Do not be super attached to your work, as it makes your journey as an entrepreneur difficult and closed. You cannot wear binoculars and run the rat race.

You have to keep an open mind about the ever-evolving changes, adapt to them. Keep a close eye on your goals but do not get obsessive and be open to accept changes as and when required.

This post is for all of us, who have lost hopes on things that did not go the way we wanted. Life has better things to happen and you have to just keep moving. Let’s not be obsessive about what we want but embrace what we get. Sometimes we miss to enjoy what we have because we are obsessed with what we are looking for. Dream but don’t get stuck at them. Live more and feel what you never dreamt off.And to end with, why title in French? Don’t hate me for this but I thought that having a French title will be more sophisticated and different ‘:-P’.

Be The Change or Don't Complain

It has been long time now, I posted something about my Mumbai Chronicles. I am sorry because of the lame excuse I will be giving, i.e. was busy with work. But it is actually true, because I have been travelling around for my office work and even though there are moments, when a whole post is cooked in my mind, I am too lazy to serve it. 

However, this one incident I would like to share, and I am not expecting everyone to agree to it but still this is what I feel about the whole incident. As I told, I have been travelling a lot and during my travels I meet many people. On my way to Hyderabad from Chennai - 

"This country is doomed. No one can make it better."

I took my eyes of the book I was reading and looked up. A middle aged person, black hair with some shades of grey, the wrinkle around his eyes showed his age, may be late forties, a pencil type mustache, a coffee brown colored polo neck t-shirt, and black trousers, sat in corner seat of my opposite berth. 

"See, how dirty this place is?"

"That is how it is?" answered a person sitting opposite to him. A young man, 6 feet, the look told he works for an IT firm, specky, headsets placed, carrying 2 phones, one an I Phone and one some Sony device

I went back to reading, ignoring the stupid complaint, but it didn't stop there.

. 

"They will remain like this. Even though they take so much taxes. now they increased the service charges on rail tickets. Where is all this money going? To pay medical bills of some Italian lady... Huh! (referring to the recent claim of a politician that INR 1880/- crores were paid by Indian Govt. for the ruling parties presidents medical visits to foreign countries).

"And we pay for everything." He continued. "See countries like Thailand, Singapore, China, Malaysia, They are getting better day by day and here we are stuck with corruption."

"Ticket to USA is 30K and If i go to Delhi from Chennai, it is also almost 30 K. What a logical pricing." old guy continued while the IT guy nodding in support.

"This country is good for nothing. We just pay and pay. And our politicians enjoy the bribes and taxes we give."

 That was it, when I could not take it more. "Sir are you moving out of India soon?"  I asked the person

"Sorry!!! I didn't get you." the old guy asked, giving me a Who The Hell are you look...

"I asked, are you moving out of India to another country?"  I answered loudly.

 "No!! Why??" 

"You should move out, if you have so much grunt with this country." I answered.

"What do you mean? Who are you to say that? You are telling me to get out of my country?"

"Sir, I didn't tell you to get out. I just said, if you have so many problems with this system, Please feel free to leave. World is too big. You have USA, Thailand, Malaysia and many more. I am just saying what you feel."

"Young man, mind your business. I pay taxes and I do have rights to ask questions."

"Sir asking questions is different. If you want to ask questions, use your right to information and ask where you get an answer. Not in public, disgracing your own country. I don't deny about issues we have, but I bet, all the countries you named have issues. Please don't judge the book by its cover. USA, you named, is running in crisis, the locals are complaining about taxes, their presidential elections have become a mockery. "

"You named Thailand, a government, which have made it a fun destination point, to be precise a place for drugs, booz and sex. Other countries you named are also struggling with drug addiction issues, human trafficking and financial crisis. From distance everything looks good."

"Next time, when you are on International tour, please try to visit the back-lanes to find the ugly truth. No country is perfect, everyone has to make it perfect."

"You are telling that we should sit back and agree to all injustice."  the man argued. 

"Please stand up against injustice, but then set examples. You just complained that the place is dirty, just half an hour back when the train began its journey, you finished a bottle of water and threw it on track. You could have dropped it in the compartment dustbin."

"So you say, I made this place dirty."  the guy got all red and annoyed.

"No Sir, you didn't, we all made it dirty. Please don't get angry. I felt bad, when you said bad about my country. Jaisa bhi hai, ye mera desh hai, (It is my country, whatever the condition it is in) and I will try to make it a better place with my small efforts and hope to spread the message to everyone."

"Leave it Sir, he seems to be quite emotional about India. Its already 11, let us all sleep."  the IT guy intervened and our uncomfortable conversation ended like that. 

The old man was still gave me angry looks, but something other was going in my mind. To at least begin somewhere. So thought to request you all to be part of a change. Lets change ourselves to be a part of a better country. 

Try to be right, do right things and stand against injustice. Charity begins at home, so lets improve ourselves.

Don't spit and throw garbage on roads or open areas.

Please try to follow the rules.

Try to help the people. Don't pay bribes.

Don't promote begging by giving money to beggars. If we could help, try to get them in touch with some organization.

And many more things that you think can improve our country, us and give peace to our souls.

Mumbai Chronicles - Raindrops, Cool Breeze, Hot Tea & Great View

It was not planned, but I was lucky to witness something that I have seen only in movies or photos about Mumbai. Marine Drive in Rains... I could see the raindrops coming with the clouds and then hitting us... And then they move ahead with the wind while the second lot follows... It's an awesome feel and I wish I had my Canon with me... Nyways some memories from cell to carry along...

Mumbai Chronicles

It’s been so long that I visited here, No Mumbai Chronicles for long now. Yeah, but what to do, Laziness rocks. Hahahaha... Lately, I have been procrastinating and I am still not feeling guilty about it. But I was not totally wasting my time and have been following Indian Media very closely. Have you ever noticed that it is really fun to watch Indian news channel. Well let me tell you from what I have understood, there is no news on the news channel anymore, but it’s all speculations. Yeah, you are reading it right, first I said fun and now I said it’s no news but only speculations. If you go by definition, NEWS is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet or word of mouth to mass audience.

When I was growing up, I used to run away whenever someone used to switch to a news channel. It used to be so boring with some people telling you about what is happening, . But now for past couple of weeks, I was following news (to be true, not by consent) and I noticed it was funny. To sum up there were only one news that was being shown in different ways that was –

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT INDIAN PRESIDENT?

It all started with the speculation that who will be our next president. This is where our news guys start their work. Initially they suggested names of probable candidates.

Our parties will be giving out the names. Please wait but no, they can’t. And they propose their best candidates. I ask who cares what you suggest.

Anyways to our bad luck or good luck of News people, our own DIDI from Bengal Mamta Banerjee comes to Delhi. And again they all began with news - Mamta meets Sonia, 6 PM meeting with PM to discuss about the candidates. After so much of noise, Mamta comes out and says she will discuss with Mr. Mulayam Singh and then announce.

Another round of speculation, what would have Sonia and Mamta discussed? Why the meeting with PM was cancelled? Is Mamta going to support Pranab Mukherjee, most probable nomination by Congress (as per their sources) being a Bengali? And this was going to happen whole day when Mamta di and Mulayalam met and then came out with googly. They proposed our PM’s name for presidential candidate.

And now our channels got worried, they wanted to know who will be the PM if our PM becomes President? LOL, they just proposed a name, they have not declared him as President. Moreover you people are only saying, UPA will discuss and give their final nominations. Similarly, NDA the opposition party will also have to announce their proposal. Anyways they kept on going discussing who will be our next prime minister? LOL

Next day when UPA went for meeting, our media kept on discussing, what will be the outcome? Guys please wait, its matter of an hour or so, they will come out and tell you whose name they are proposing.

Finally a name came up was Pranab Mukherjee, our Finance minister was nominated for president by UPA, the ruling party of our country. Well I thought that will be the end, but then Pranab Puran began, it’s Pranab all over. His constituency, his house, his wife, his daughter, his school and what all they can show about him. On the same time, DIDI and mulayalm also agreed to support Pranab. Another round of speculation starts, if UPA promised DIDI and Mulayam something. Hats off to our Indian Media, who is working hard to keep us updated with the NEWS today. Well I have now gone back to basics and immediately switch to an entertainment channel. :-P 

Mumbai Chronicle 5 June 2012

Finally our thikana (a place to stay) is now confirmed because this Tuesday, we got it registered. Our house owner came down from Pune and both of us signed up a contract for next 11 months. SO from 15^th June 2012 till 14^th May 2013, anyone can come to Mumbai without worrying about accommodation. We will adjust you on the floor or with Ramlal during your visit. ;-)

Mumbai Chronicles 4 June 2012

I do not know how some people can stay in home whole day and not feel suffocated. This Monday, I had nothing much to do, because the appointments I had planned didn’t work out which lead me to stay indoors whole day. In the evening, when I had consumed all the oxygen inside the house, I decided to take a walk.

Well walk generally means that you take a stroll around in a garden nearby or just a simple walk. But that is for general people, the normal humans, the mango people, but there are always some special humans, who start walking in some direction and then they suddenly realise that they have reached the nearest railway station. Then instead of turning around and walking back they get into the next train going anywhere and then get down at the last station. Now at last station, they think, Ok the joy ride is over and now they should go back. But how can they do that, because that is what the normal people do. As per them, if you came up to this place, you should at least check if there is something interesting to go around this place. And they find something which is like 2.7 Kms away, and because they are on walk, they think lets walk up to that place.

The Sand Art

Gola Wala Shops

My MilkShake Ready :)

This is how I ended up at Juhu Chaupati on a Monday and believe me, it never looked like a working day with so much of crowd. You can see only 3 things on Chaupati, lots and lots of people, sand arts and N number of shops serving paav bhai and Ice gola. So I had a milk shake from one of those shops at chaupati (see ice golas and paav bhaji are for general people again) and finally decided to end my walk and returned back home

Mumbai Chronicle A.K.A Pune Bhraman 2/3 June 2012

The 2 days at Pune can be summarized by like this, Good times with cousins, a wrong choice, Gaming on X-Box and a ride which squeezed out every ounce of energy from us.

To begin with, the best thing that happened was to meet my kid sister after long long time. And it was good time pass to watch the cat and mouse game, the relationship which Sujith Bhai and she shares. The love is so much that they just keep on calling names to each other and pulling each other’s leg. And your job is to just add some fuel to the game and then you can have a full on entertainment packed hour ahead.

Well my elder brother (cousin whom we actually visited and stayed with) and me love to click and were planning for a drive to some caves, a couple of hours away from Pune. Well on Saturday we thought we will rest till lunch, and then we can drive out. But then a devilish idea struck our brains. We read review about one Hindi movie released on Friday and thought to watch it in the night. We checked online and booked the tickets for 9.30 PM. By the time we finished our lunch, it was almost 3.30, so my cousin suggested that we leave tomorrow early morning for the caves, because if we leave now we can’t be back by movie and we postponed our drive and decided to roam in mall, have dinner and go for the movie. That was one bad decision because the movie sucked and we cursed every actor who worked and promoted that movie. The worst part is that the movie has been declared a hit and has earned 48.5 Crore of Indian Rupees in first 3 days of screening. Well I would like to forget it as a nightmare.

Next day began with me waking up early and preparing tea for everyone. I was looking forward for the drive when my sister cutely came to me and said “Bhaiya my ankles are paining with all the walking we did yesterday in mall. We will go but I will stay in car while you trek up to the caves.” And there went our plan to drive up to the caves. So what should we do whole day? And then we had ourselves entertained with Xbox and it was fun. And we never realized that it was time for our train.

Train journey was something which I say, can only happen in our country. 

We had our seats reserved and when me and Sujith Bhai identified our train and neared our compartment, we got confused. It looked like an unreserved compartment with no space even to step in. Well we fought our way into the cabin, and then had argument with the guys sitting on our seats before finally sitting. It looked as if there is a chair with you sitting on it and there is wall around you with no space. You cannot move your feet, because the space between the seats, people have stuffed bags or themselves sitting on floor. Those 3 hours were the worst part of our visit and I was thinking about God, that how he maintains the Balance sheets. He flew us to Pune like Kings and squeezed us on our way back. Hehehe...

All in all, it was fun to visit Pune and there goes one more city to my list of places I visited. 

The caves we couldn't visit

Mumbai Chronicle 1st June 2012

There is an old saying in hindi, that Uparwala jab bhi deta hai, chappar phaad k deta hai. It means, when God gives, there is no limit to it. Well 1^st of June was a day when something like that happened for me and Sujith Bhai. We had plans to visit our cousin in Pune (yeah it again sounds as if I am on vacation) for the weekend.

Pune is 3 hours away from Mumbai and generally you can reach there by road or train. But that day God had some other plans for us to travel. Isn’t it cool if you have a private chopper flying you down to Pune in 30 minutes, while you enjoy looking Mumbai from air. Well thanks to my jeeju (brother in law) who manages the Mumbai operations for a Private Company who rents out choppers, we flew to Pune. How that happened? The story goes like this –

 Well when we decided to visit Pune, we called our brother in law, requesting to book train tickets online for us “Hello eten, We are thinking to go Pune this evening. So can you please book our tickets online for evening train?”

“Oh! Is that so? Do one thing, reach here at Juhu Airport by 3 PM. There is a chopper flying back to Pune without passenger. You guys go in it.”

“What? Chopper? Really? That’s cool...”

“Yeah, No problem for that, as it is flying back without passenger. You come here and you can travel in it. Ok. See you at 3.”

“Ok eten. Thank you.”

I informed the same to Sujith bhai and we were pretty excited about it. But that was not the end to our excitement, because after an hour, we received another call from Jeeju, informing that there is a company car coming to Juhu Airport via our accommodation, so we can come along in it. What else you need, if you have someone picking you up, drive you directly inside the airport next to the Airport hangers and then you board your flight without lines and checking counters. Well it sounds awesome and we felt privileged. But there was still more to come. At Pune, the landing was supposed to be at a private hanger which was 1 hour away from residence of our cousin and public transport was not available from that location to city. However there is a vehicle which drops the Pilot home and luckily for us we had to go in same locality, so Pilot offered us a ride to our destination.

Sujith Bhai Capturing the view

So if I summarize my 1^st day of June, we had a awesome flight, believe me, Mumbai looks awesome from air (and when I say this, I mean the view is better than what we see through the small window in plane), then we went Pune without spending a single penny and got a chance to click lots of photographs. When I started my journey to Mumbai, I used to believe that Mumbai will show me a different phase of life and world. And yeah indeed I am loving it and looking forward to it. Thank you God for giving me the courage to take this step and being there along me.

Apna Juhu chaupati

Me and Bhai inside chopper

Mumbai from Chopper

Mumbai from chopper

Mumbai Chronicles 29/30/31-May 2012

To begin with, I would like to clarify that I am actually not on vacation, even though it seems like one. But last 3 days of May made me also feel if I am on vacation or what because what I did was to eat, sleep and watch movies. And the bug didn’t leave sujith bhai and my di too because they accompanied me wasting time. To summarize in 3 days we saw 10 movies, on an average 3 per day, many episodes of CID & Crime Patrol. Ab people can’t resist to get inspired from me, LOL.

Well the last 3 days were silent, so nothing much to share. Oh in between we went out and had Dhai Poori, my first snack in Mumbai gullies. Let me tease you with the pics, LOL... 

Sujith Bhai - Khush to bahut hain aaj

Bhelpuri Centre - Antop Hill

My Plate

Mumbai Chronicle - 28 May 2012

“Hello” I answered my cell.

“Hi, Am I speaking to Prashant?”

“Yes, Who’s this?”

“Hi, I am A (name not disclosed), calling from SSS (company name not disclosed) and we saw your CV on naukri.com. Are you looking for a job?”

“Hi Archana, Yes I am looking for job options.”

“Okay, we are looking for a Business Development person, and your profile seems to be perfect.”

“Okay. Can you give me details of your company?”

“We are an organization, dealing with Automobile giants. I will send you sms, you can check our site. Can you come tomorrow for an interview?”

“Well I need to understand, what will be my profile. Can you email me a JD?”

“I don’t know much about the JD. Better if you come tomorrow and you will be in management position.”

“Okay. Will 11.30 AM be fine? Please send me the address on text along the site name.”

I received a sms with the address, which was like an hour journey in local train from our station. The website was not so impressive and the info was totally not clear on the site. Even though I was negative about the company, I decided to give a visit to them.

Monday morning, my visit to the office was something more badly than I had expected. Well it was an office in a mall, which was still under construction. I located the office, and entered to find 6 people sitting in a small room, around the 3 cocktail tables. Yes, cocktail tables, not office tables. There were some stools to sit for people who visited them, well which I later understood that was borrowed from some neighbourhood shop, because they took back a couple of them in front of me.   Well the person, their so called Co-founder of the company was not present and was expected in 10 minutes, and they asked me to wait for him. Well after 10 minutes, door opened and a small girl of around 7 years walked in, followed by a lady in mid forties, followed by a Nepali boy who I think was the caretaker. Well everyone in office, started to pamper the kid. A stout man, round face, shot hair, clean shaved walked in and everyone greeted him Hi Sir. So finally the man came, who looked like the main guy and was supposed to take my interview.

“HI everyone. Good Morning”

Everyone greeted him back.

“Is there something to eat? Let’s order something?”

“Why? No Breakfast today?” someone enquired

He gave a look at wife and then replied “We had b’fast, but then also lets order something.”

“What you want us to order?”

“Order anything like jalebi.” That’s when he noticed me.

“HI, You are?” he enquired looking at me.

“Sir, He is Prasanth, who came for the interview.”

“Oh! Yes yes. Give me 5 minutes and we will start.”

There was a small one more room, partitioned in the same room. Well they went inside that room, and started cleaning the one cocktail table placed inside. Well the interview was kind of funny, because whole time the person was trying to prove that they are a big company and I should not look at this office set up. It was like they had already hired me, and it was salary negotiation meeting and they were showing me the big picture. Well to end my conversation, we reached the point where I demanded a salary and then he offered me an amount.  Now is the funny part –

“Okay Sir, I understand what is the Job profile. The salary is also okay for now so if you send me the offer letter, I will do my confirmation.”

“Offer letter? Yaar, yahan sab zabaan pe chalta hai (its all about word, i will keep my word.)”

“But sir, there should be something in writing.”

“Okay, if you want, when you join, make one document yourself, and I will sign for you.”

“Well, Ok Sir, I will give you a confirmation by evening.”

Well I haven’t turned around to look and think about joining that organization after that. The word still rings in my hand “Yaar, yahan sab zabaan pe chalta hai...” Hahahaa....

And you know what, whole 1.5 hours I sat there, the Jalebis he ordered never came. LOL...

 Looking forward to see what all Mumbai has instore for me and my chronicles.

Mumbai Chronicle 27 May 2012

“Di, tomorrow we are planning to visit Thakurli to ani di and family.” I informed

“Tomorrow? Sunday? Well if you are planning then I guess you need to leave by 9 to avoid Megablock.”

“Megablock?”

“Yes Mega block...”

“Aaargh!! After Megatron, now Megablock...? How did this Megablock came on earth. Where will I find Sam Witwiky and Optimus Prime now?” I mocked.

My sister unlike me is not so filmy so she didn’t get the joke. She plainly replied “Megablock means that Local train service will be disrupted for general maintenance on Sunday. It happens regularly and this time it will big in wake of coming monsoon.”

“Ok... Noted.” I was upset that joke didn’t work. Grrr..!!

So Sunday morning, me and Bhai woke up early, yeah unusual but true and that too on a Sunday, and by 9 am we were out on our way to Thakurli which is like 1 hours journey even in a local train. Well the journey was quite comfy as people avoided to leave home in wake of megablock. By 10.30, we were at our cousin’s place, where we were welcomed with refreshments, followed by tea, followed by lunch, followed by evening snack. If I had anything more to eat I would have jumped off the building but luckily that didn’t happen as I thought about my Mumbai chronicle readers.

Whole while, my sister ani di was worried about my nephew (her son) who for the first time in life went alone with his friends for movies, and she was like, I hope he is fine, I hope is not stuck at station because of megablock. While my nephew, a young lad who is 16 now, was enjoying good times with friends. 


How can I say that he was enjoying? Well generally a movie ends in 2 hours; well our chap went at 10 in morning and came back at 5 in evening. Well it was a long long movie and like a good uncle I didn’t ask him why he was late. Instead, I gave him advice that when you have plans like this, tell home that it is someone’s birthday and you will be out full day. What a good uncle am I? Hehehe...

Well we returned home by 7 and whole day, megablock was lucky to avoid me, because I would have been more worse that Sam Witwiky and Optimus Prime. :P

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 Tales – Welcome to Amchi Mumbai

Metros fascinate people from other towns and every metro has its own identity which pulls you to visit that place one day. I don’t know why but I really wanted to work once in Mumbai and see the life here, so when I got a chance to relocate I thought why not Mumbai? This city welcomes everyone with the open hands, and literally it was true for me when I landed and had to pay some money to the customs people when they opened their hand, Lol!!! Anyways that was a funny encounter where I bluffed and got out of a big trouble or I would have ended up paying much more than what I paid. 

One thing I have noticed in most of the metros is the people, from different regions, castes, creed, colors, different languages and all in one place busy with their lives. But in Mumbai busy means, busier than the bees collecting honey or the Ants transporting their Ration to their nests. If you look at it from above you will call it crowded but I won’t call that crowded because I am one of that crowd who came to this city to find something interesting.

It’s my 2^nd day in the place and I have loved the local train rides. The best part is that you don’t have to do much of the effort most of the times, just be in the way and they will push you in and out of the trains. Once inside everyone is doing something when they are travelling to kill the time and enjoy the daily journey which turns to boring when done on daily basis. As per my observation majority is for the people listening to radio or music on their devices, followed by the love birds that are busy making their spouses happy over the phone, updating them everything including whom they are sitting with at that moment ;-), some people become friends and discuss global issues while some sing devotional songs. The life is busy but they still take out time for the stuff that has to happen.

I had a chance to interact with the Dabbawalaas (tiffin suppliers) who became so famous when Mr. Clinton was in town and was amazed with the way these guys (who for our information are not MBA’s) manage their business. I had gone to Andheri for an interview and saw a pack of men standing and many Dabba (tiffin boxes) placed around outside Andheri staition. To my surprise they had a process and at that time distribution for each area was happening and there was a responsible person assigned for each dabba and location. I was enquiring about the process and was amazed with the way this all works. Well I stopped enquiring much as they misunderstood me as an reporter and asked me that which paper their picture will come. So I took off from there before they realize that I was just wasting their time like I was doing for myself. :-P

Like I said I didn’t have much to do other than wait for interview calls, I thought to show my spouse some parts of Mumbai. So yesterday after the interview, I went to andheri station instead of buying a ticket to my station I went to Mumbai CST with my camera. Well till yesterday I used to think it was Central Street, but I was corrected when I went there. Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal, previously known as VT is one place which will tell you the history of Mumbai. You come out of the station and you feel like you have come to era of Britishers. The old buildings stand there and tell their own story. Story of being there and witnessing the change, the pace of Mumbai and what it was and it is now. Well we both had great time clicking pictures of the buildings and keeping them in for memory.

Well I am just a day old and I am blabbering so much about the place, and I think I am going to stay here for some time. Looking forward to make friends and explore more of this amazing city. Like my cousin says “If you get the taste of this city, no matter what you do, you will keep on coming back to this place”

Let’s see what in store for me and if I will like the taste of this CITY called Mumbai. Will be back with more Mumbai tales, till then TATAS and BIRLAS… :P