Mumbai meri jaan…..one year in Mumbai!!!

Mumbai… formerly known as Bombay, Capital of Maharastra, most populous city in India, commercial and entertainment centre of India…. These are the things that one will say when you ask about Mumbai (of course these are the things you get if u wiki it also :P). But I am not writing this post to repeat those things. I am writing this to give my own opinion about my one year stay in Mumbai. Let me start with my first experience after coming here. So, here I go…

Nothing much is there to tell about my first 2 visits to Mumbai as I have come, attended interviews and went back to Chennai almost immediately. I was very much pre-occupied with the thoughts of interviews and was very nervous. But during my first visit itself, I observed that Mumbai is full of beautiful girls. I felt like a Bedouin (desert wanderer) who found Oasis in the middle of a Desert. Of course, Guys who come to Mumbai from a place like Chennai are supposed to feel like that. If they don’t, then there is something wrong with them. Their eyes automatically get focused on the fairer sex (In Chennai, I should say there is no such thing as fairer sex). And I’m no different. So, I enjoyed those couple of days of my stay in Mumbai quite well. Well, that was the only observation I could make about Mumbai during those 2 visits.

August 10 2009… This was the day when I have actually come to Mumbai to stay as I have got a job with Indian Register of Shipping (IRS). I got down at Dadar station at 5 early in the morning. It still amazes me how the local taxi drivers find out that some one is new to Mumbai, just by looking at them. Last 2 times, I traveled in local trains. This time, a feeling of richness camouflaged me as I got my first job and so I decided I will go in a taxi.

So, I got into a taxi, and after I reached Powai, the taxi driver said “saath sau hua saab!!!” I was astounded. “Mumbai must be a very costly place” I thought, and I gave him two 500 rupee notes. Then he said “saab. Aapne che sau hi diya. Ek paanch sau ka note aur ek sau ka note.” and he showed me a five hundred rupee note and a hundred rupee note. I didn’t even think twice. I gave him another 100 rupee note. He said thanks and left with a glowing smile on his face. It was after some time that I realized that my first one hour in Mumbai cost me 1100 rupees.

But I should say that this incident is one of the really few negative ones I had after coming here. I had lots of fun in this one year. I went on more number of trips this year than in the past few years of my life. I have watched so many movies after coming here that I have lost count. I have done lots of things after coming to Mumbai which I would never even have dreamt of doing.

But all these were possible only because of the wonderful friends and great room mates I have made in the past one year. Because of them, I love Mumbai. Without them, Mumbai would have been just like any other city (except for the beautiful girls of course :P) …. So, this post is dedicated to all my friends in Mumbai :) Luv you guys….