Mumbai Jogging!
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| Photo : Mumbai as seen from my camera! |
DISCLAIMER:
It's true that we can't understand a place, its people, society, human psyche and culture in a week. I am not saying that whatever has been observed by me is the ultimate truth for Mumbai. Maybe am wrong. As this is an individual observation/experience. But I can say this is my IMPRESSION about this city which will remain till I get an opportunity to be there for a longer time.
It's true that we can't understand a place, its people, society, human psyche and culture in a week. I am not saying that whatever has been observed by me is the ultimate truth for Mumbai. Maybe am wrong. As this is an individual observation/experience. But I can say this is my IMPRESSION about this city which will remain till I get an opportunity to be there for a longer time.
So you are
wondering why the title Mumbai Jogging?
Well, that is what
I felt in Mumbai, throughout my stay here. I was in Mumbai last week. This was
my first trip to this city. From the morning till evening the cool breeze from
the sea shore kept me enthusiastic, full of spirit. It felt like I was jogging
here, no fatigue, simply fresh. I heard, read a lot about Mumbai. No doubt
Bollywood movies provided a window to this place. Hey! Doesn’t every one of us
feel that we all know lot about Mumbai? So much exposure of this city through Cinema
that it feels we have already been to this place if not in reality maybe in
some previous birth. Every nook & corner, festival, society has been
depicted in some or other mainline, art commercial cinema. Such is the charm.
So is the city.
As the taxi zoomed
out of the Mumbai Central station I was welcomed by a totally different
Landscape from Delhi, with the special ingredient called the pleasant weather.
The roads with tiles giving impression of a complete jigsaw puzzle, the old
buildings, all with imperial touch. There were tall,
slouching coconut trees, narrating how fierce this breeze turns
during monsoon time. The buildings having windows with fences, questioning the
mind that why the person on the top floor wished to live so high from the
ground? The taxi picked up the speed of 120 kmph throughout the journey! Isn’t
this something we are missing here in Delhi? All the roads clear, traffic free,
buses with decent number of passengers. I wondered where the people of the so
big city have gone. When I asked the driver he replied with his Mumbaiyaa Hindi: "क्या है न भाई यहाँ पर लोग हमेशा जल्दी में रहता है जहाँ से तुमको बैठाया वहां भी traffic नहीं मिलेगा" that majority of the
population here travels by Mumbai Local. So the buses and roads are not the
full of traffic even at peak hours. I don't know how true his statement was but
with the comfort of his foot resting on the accelerator I concluded yes brother
you are right carry on. Amazing the speed was. Sitting in front I was feeling
great with the breeze keeping eyes full of happiness.
The other day I
was waiting for the bus number 500 for Vikroli.
The bus station was clean, and the to my surprise the buses were not standing idle
at the bus station, rather, at a regular interval they were leaving the bus
station. I thought BEST (the Mumbai Road Transport Service) is following the
principle of Airline Industry where the theory is that an Aeroplane should
be in the Air not standing idle in the bay/airport. So was the buses here, not
standing idle, rather plying with their schedule. This is something missing
here in Delhi. The other thing to praise was the crisp, clean uniform of the
bus staff (driver/conductor). The uniform has the name plate of the conductor;
with the emblem of M.R.T.C I never saw such respect for the uniform here in
Delhi. The Conductor here in Mumbai will come to your seat and ask for the
ticket/s. That is what the definition of an ideal Public Transport is. Mutual
respect and understanding between the Travellers/Passengers and the Transport
Organisation. And I did ride the lifeline of Mumbai; the Mumbai Local Trains
and didn't find anything local about it. Rather they are high speed, regular, durable,
reliable transport medium and commute thousands of passengers’ to-and-fro in
this big city. People are helpful. They will try to help you as best as they
can, and will not stray you with false information.
Hey! Am I going
too overboard in stretching the Transport theory?
Boring you?
Ok! Well this was
just one of my general observations there.
I am still to come with my agenda i.e. 'SENSE OF BELONGING'. What it is? How it comes? And what are the
requirements/conditions/necessities? Well, I thought of boring you with all of
my good experiences in Mumbai. All of my 12 days stay experience here. But,
then I had some bad experiences too. And we all are aware that this human tendency to
curse and to hold on all bad experiences, events more with him. So am trying to
balance myself in going to extremes.
I was duped by two
auto drivers here in MUMBAI as well. Not for one time but for two. This is also
a part here in this write-up. I was duped not by a Maharasthrain/Marathi auto driver but, sadly by North-India migrant
auto driver, who cunningly sensed my helplessness as a stranger to this city
and charged me Rs 70 for a travel/distance of Rs 12, with excuses of his
Auto tariffs, taxes, timings and blah
blah concepts which only god can understand. And that is not all, further
he tried to show how street smart he was by telling us to which hotel to go and
how to bargain with hotel owner for off-season discounts. For that moment we
thought he was helping us. I thanked him for his helpful attitude. But, later
on I realized he was not worth of it. Trust me I was very furious and gave
all the गाली (abusive words) possible to him. I cursed
him. Although this was just a very small incident in thousands of similar
incidents, but the underlying theme is very broad for human conscience to
understand. This was the point when I realized that what Sense
of Belonging is and how it comes.
It comes when you owe your life to a place, which you call your motherland, native
place or hometown. It comes when you have a Language to speak, to write. It comes when you have an Inborn Identity as a resident of
that place. And it comes when you hail from a prospered area and you feel proud of it. Unfortunately, in this
case there was a migrant from North India, who had nothing to do with Maharasthra, its culture, its
traditions, its people and why not? After all he didn't owe anything to
here. He had only one thing in mind; to make money. I am not saying that the
auto driver is to be blamed. He can't be blamed because he is financially poor, for sure.
Neither I am not with blame game here. I am just trying to understand how can we inject 'SENSE OF BELONGING' in our Moral Veins?
.............................................................................................(to be continued)
What you think? Am waiting for your views? Maybe we can make some further additions to it.
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