Mumbai!!! What is it that strikes you when you come across the word "Mumbai"???
For some it is Bollywood, for some it is road side chaat shops and for some it is ugly/crowded,
and for all south Indians (at least for Tamils down south), it is "Bomb Blasts!!!".
But for me, Mumbai is always special!! The prime reason being, my uncle settled down there a decade ago and I used to visit his place during my annual holidays. So, right from my childhood, Mumbai has always been quite close to me!!
The day when school re-opens after vacation, teacher used to ask all the students one by one as to where they had been for vacation. It was a great pride for me to tell thet I had been to Mumbai!! Since most of the other students hadn't been to places outside Tamil Nadu, they considered any place above Chennai as North India!
Things went by well and I finished my schooling and college as well. By God's grace (defenitely Yes!!), I got an offer with TCS. I joined with great joy and on the final day of my training, we were asked to choose the base locations where we wanted to work. There were around 7-8 cities in the list, each city having 4-5 vacancies. Only Chennai and Mumbai had close to 20.
I had a discussion with my friends and decided we'll choose a place where there is more vacancy so that we all can be together. So Chennai was obviously our first choice and Mumbai we listed as second. After choosing, we all dispersed quietly to our respective place of stay (company provided accomodation)
It was about 7pm, there came an announcement from one of my colleagues that the base branches were allocated to all. I immediately rushed to check my luck. By the time I could see mine, there were people already dancing in joy coz, they got Chennai (Out of 250 trainees, 248 were Tamils. So our first choice was certainly Chennai for all except 2 who were from North India). At last, I saw my allocation half heartedly....
Guess what!! it was MUMBAI!!
The first 5 minutes after I knew this, I was quite dull thinking how to survive sans family. How can I survive without my mom's delicious food! 10 minutes went by, I saw couple of other dull faces. I was relieved since I had some company. My close pals also got Mumbai as their base branches which made me feel happy!
I said to myself... Mumbai... here we come!!!
The D-Day came, I reached Chennai Airport (Not to see off someone, this time I was travelling). I was really excited about my first flight! After an awesome 1.5 hrs, we reached Mumbai... Like all others say, the moment we stepped out of the flight, a blow of rotten egg like stinking air gushed past us! But the Mumbai excitement was still in us, so it didn't bother us much.
I was the only one who knew Hindi among the 4 of us who landed there (I thank my dad till date for having selected Hindi as my second languaue in school). My cousin had come to receive us in the airport. We had to report for duty in Thane. The airport is very far from there. Hence we decided to stay in a hotel close to the office in Thane. Based on my cousin's advise, we boarded a local train from Kurla.
Even today, I wonder how we managed to get into the train with big big baggages on that day!! All the people inside the train were abusing us for blocking the aisle with our luggages. They were abusing us in Marathi which none of us knew. My friends kept asking me the meaning thinking it was Hindi... It was only then did I realise that Marathi was also spoken in Mumbai!! I was under the impression that with hindi we can manage.
Time went by, it was more than a month since we were in Mumbai. I considered myself an expert in Mumbai local train routes (mind you, it is very confusing.. there are 3 different rail lines running across the city and over a fifty stations). I could guide almost anyone with the routes. We rented a house in Thane, our office was in an area called Borivali which is about 25 kms from our home.
Thank god, we didn't have to travel by train to office. We had regular government buses plying between Thane and Borivali. But getting a seat in the bus was a challenge. Somehow, we got used to it and were slowly getting accustomed to the fast paced life there!!
Morning breakfast was mostly vadapav or puneri misal or kanda poha... until a year when an idli shop was opened close to our office. Night dinner was mostly at home where we cooked rice and some vegetable with rasam and curd. One big advantage of self cooking is that however bad the taste is, we ll still enjoy the dish! But my friend was a great cooker ( I mean, he cooks well :P ) so we didn't have any problems at all!!
Life in Mumbai is really fast!! Usually, the trend is Mon-Fri are very slow and Sat-Sun passes by in a jiffy.
But in Mumbai, all 7 days pass by in a jiffy.. I still remember the day when I first stepped into office. Time ran so fast that I completed 2.5 years in Mumbai!!
Be it in office or outside, Mumbai ppl are broad minded. They all are very social and friendly. I am not saying, ppl in other parts of the country are not broad minded, This was just my observation. They do what they feel like doing. I rate this quality very high, which is why I like the city very much!
Be it midnight or early mornning 4am, you can be rest assured about the the transporation in Mumbai. You'll certainly find some mode of transport to reach any part of the city round the clock. Mumbai is truely the city that never sleeps!
You can find people from all parts of the country in Mumbai. Matunga is one such area where you can find tamil speaking people more that hindi/marathi. I was taken by surprise to see shops in Matunga having sign boards in Tamil!! I felt at home whenever I was in Matunga.. be it the food or the people around me or the movies at Aurora Theater (An old theater in the heart of the city where all Tamil films are screened)
Point to be noted: When Enthiran was released in Aurora theater, local Tamil people there, poured over 100 litres of milk on the 40 feet high Super Star cut-out!
The characcter the people portray during Ganesh Chathurthi and Gokulashtami (Lord Krishna's b'day)
is just mind blowing. You can find people from all parts of the city dancing and rejoicing in the streets with music. I have never seen any other city celebrate a festival together in this manner!!
The respect they have towards Chattrapathi Sivaji gives me chills down the spine!! The traditional marathis (hard to find in Mumbai though) are ardent followers of this ruler and have strict values in life which they follow everyday. But it is really sad to see that Mumbai having more immigrants that localites which thereby results in Hindi being spoken more than Marathi just like how kannada is also being forgotten in Bengaluru.
Anyways, there are enough political parties to take care of these issues :) :)
There are many Malls in Chennai also, but I was not fascinated by them. I used to think what is the purpose of spending time in malls when you have so many other places around. I was proven wrong by Phoenix Mall and Oberoi Mall in Lower Parel and Goregaon respectively!! OMG... really stunning malls... you can pass an entire day there!!
Things were fine and days were beautiful.. spending time with friends/roomies/colleagues was always great. After 2.5 years of stay in Mumbai, I decided to shift my base back to Chennai so that I can spend time with my family. The last day in Mumbai came by.. two of my roomies accompanied me to the airport. I said bye to this beautiful city as I boarded the plane. Although I was happy about reaching Chennnai, the aerial view of Mumbai made me shed 2 drops of tears :) I am really gonna miss this place for sure!!
Looking forward to visit the Financial capital of India again!!
Bye for now!
Kailash
For some it is Bollywood, for some it is road side chaat shops and for some it is ugly/crowded,
and for all south Indians (at least for Tamils down south), it is "Bomb Blasts!!!".
But for me, Mumbai is always special!! The prime reason being, my uncle settled down there a decade ago and I used to visit his place during my annual holidays. So, right from my childhood, Mumbai has always been quite close to me!!
The day when school re-opens after vacation, teacher used to ask all the students one by one as to where they had been for vacation. It was a great pride for me to tell thet I had been to Mumbai!! Since most of the other students hadn't been to places outside Tamil Nadu, they considered any place above Chennai as North India!
Things went by well and I finished my schooling and college as well. By God's grace (defenitely Yes!!), I got an offer with TCS. I joined with great joy and on the final day of my training, we were asked to choose the base locations where we wanted to work. There were around 7-8 cities in the list, each city having 4-5 vacancies. Only Chennai and Mumbai had close to 20.
I had a discussion with my friends and decided we'll choose a place where there is more vacancy so that we all can be together. So Chennai was obviously our first choice and Mumbai we listed as second. After choosing, we all dispersed quietly to our respective place of stay (company provided accomodation)
It was about 7pm, there came an announcement from one of my colleagues that the base branches were allocated to all. I immediately rushed to check my luck. By the time I could see mine, there were people already dancing in joy coz, they got Chennai (Out of 250 trainees, 248 were Tamils. So our first choice was certainly Chennai for all except 2 who were from North India). At last, I saw my allocation half heartedly....
Guess what!! it was MUMBAI!!
The first 5 minutes after I knew this, I was quite dull thinking how to survive sans family. How can I survive without my mom's delicious food! 10 minutes went by, I saw couple of other dull faces. I was relieved since I had some company. My close pals also got Mumbai as their base branches which made me feel happy!
I said to myself... Mumbai... here we come!!!
The D-Day came, I reached Chennai Airport (Not to see off someone, this time I was travelling). I was really excited about my first flight! After an awesome 1.5 hrs, we reached Mumbai... Like all others say, the moment we stepped out of the flight, a blow of rotten egg like stinking air gushed past us! But the Mumbai excitement was still in us, so it didn't bother us much.
I was the only one who knew Hindi among the 4 of us who landed there (I thank my dad till date for having selected Hindi as my second languaue in school). My cousin had come to receive us in the airport. We had to report for duty in Thane. The airport is very far from there. Hence we decided to stay in a hotel close to the office in Thane. Based on my cousin's advise, we boarded a local train from Kurla.
Even today, I wonder how we managed to get into the train with big big baggages on that day!! All the people inside the train were abusing us for blocking the aisle with our luggages. They were abusing us in Marathi which none of us knew. My friends kept asking me the meaning thinking it was Hindi... It was only then did I realise that Marathi was also spoken in Mumbai!! I was under the impression that with hindi we can manage.
Time went by, it was more than a month since we were in Mumbai. I considered myself an expert in Mumbai local train routes (mind you, it is very confusing.. there are 3 different rail lines running across the city and over a fifty stations). I could guide almost anyone with the routes. We rented a house in Thane, our office was in an area called Borivali which is about 25 kms from our home.
Thank god, we didn't have to travel by train to office. We had regular government buses plying between Thane and Borivali. But getting a seat in the bus was a challenge. Somehow, we got used to it and were slowly getting accustomed to the fast paced life there!!
Morning breakfast was mostly vadapav or puneri misal or kanda poha... until a year when an idli shop was opened close to our office. Night dinner was mostly at home where we cooked rice and some vegetable with rasam and curd. One big advantage of self cooking is that however bad the taste is, we ll still enjoy the dish! But my friend was a great cooker ( I mean, he cooks well :P ) so we didn't have any problems at all!!
Life in Mumbai is really fast!! Usually, the trend is Mon-Fri are very slow and Sat-Sun passes by in a jiffy.
But in Mumbai, all 7 days pass by in a jiffy.. I still remember the day when I first stepped into office. Time ran so fast that I completed 2.5 years in Mumbai!!
Be it in office or outside, Mumbai ppl are broad minded. They all are very social and friendly. I am not saying, ppl in other parts of the country are not broad minded, This was just my observation. They do what they feel like doing. I rate this quality very high, which is why I like the city very much!
Be it midnight or early mornning 4am, you can be rest assured about the the transporation in Mumbai. You'll certainly find some mode of transport to reach any part of the city round the clock. Mumbai is truely the city that never sleeps!
You can find people from all parts of the country in Mumbai. Matunga is one such area where you can find tamil speaking people more that hindi/marathi. I was taken by surprise to see shops in Matunga having sign boards in Tamil!! I felt at home whenever I was in Matunga.. be it the food or the people around me or the movies at Aurora Theater (An old theater in the heart of the city where all Tamil films are screened)
Point to be noted: When Enthiran was released in Aurora theater, local Tamil people there, poured over 100 litres of milk on the 40 feet high Super Star cut-out!
The characcter the people portray during Ganesh Chathurthi and Gokulashtami (Lord Krishna's b'day)
is just mind blowing. You can find people from all parts of the city dancing and rejoicing in the streets with music. I have never seen any other city celebrate a festival together in this manner!!
The respect they have towards Chattrapathi Sivaji gives me chills down the spine!! The traditional marathis (hard to find in Mumbai though) are ardent followers of this ruler and have strict values in life which they follow everyday. But it is really sad to see that Mumbai having more immigrants that localites which thereby results in Hindi being spoken more than Marathi just like how kannada is also being forgotten in Bengaluru.
Anyways, there are enough political parties to take care of these issues :) :)
There are many Malls in Chennai also, but I was not fascinated by them. I used to think what is the purpose of spending time in malls when you have so many other places around. I was proven wrong by Phoenix Mall and Oberoi Mall in Lower Parel and Goregaon respectively!! OMG... really stunning malls... you can pass an entire day there!!
Things were fine and days were beautiful.. spending time with friends/roomies/colleagues was always great. After 2.5 years of stay in Mumbai, I decided to shift my base back to Chennai so that I can spend time with my family. The last day in Mumbai came by.. two of my roomies accompanied me to the airport. I said bye to this beautiful city as I boarded the plane. Although I was happy about reaching Chennnai, the aerial view of Mumbai made me shed 2 drops of tears :) I am really gonna miss this place for sure!!
Looking forward to visit the Financial capital of India again!!
Bye for now!
Kailash
