Mumbai...Mumbai...Mumbai....finally... after an eternal wait I visited my city of dreams and it gave me warm hug that i cannot forget for rest of my life. It all started when I was a kid and had been to nampally station ( Hyderabad) to see off somebody to mumbai. As the train started moving, a boy (in his teens) was shouting (with a lump) at a man who was in a inebriated state, "bambai ki train jaari bhai.... jana nahin hain bambai ku??" and as the train left the platform he broke down with tears. This indelible scene gave birth to my curiosity towards this city of dreams. Since then, any mention of this city, and I become curious to know the details.
You go to visit a city for the first time in life and yet you know the details of the city, deja-vu, how many times does that happen? Not many, mumbai is one such city, Andheri, Bandra, worli, Malabar hill, chembur, dadar, mahim, juhu,all these names were known to me, sometimes through movies, sometimes through the address provided at the end of the television serial, for suggestions or contests. Even now, I am sure anyone who has not visited mumbai and reading this blog would know these names.
My first day experiences included the thrill of the "locals" of mumbai, I was told mumbai has 3 veins, Western, Central and the harbor line. It was Saturday so I did not get to experience the Super-Dense Crush Load (14 to 16 standing passengers per square metre of floor space). I was standing in the Goods Compartment ( realized only when i got down), a super-duper drunk man was tantalizingly close to falling off from train , all efforts to bring him to conscious turned futile, some were even afraid to talk to him, some were not bothered, a woman boarded the train at kurla, realized that he could fall of the train, dragged him inside the compartment holding his collar. When I looked around, I saw the luggages in the compartment, I was looking at each compartment with doubt ( like madhavan in mumbai meri jaan), but people were hardly bothered, they did not have an alternative.
My second day started with visit to siddhivinayak temple, I walked the same road (Pedal road, now veer savarkar marg ) that Sachin Tendulkar used to walk sometime, I saw the shivaji park, where the greats like sachin, gavaskar, kambli used to practice. We had booked a "Mumbai darshan" tour package. It started from the Gateway of India, where we got to see rahul bose. Then we moved on to rich mumbai part, marine drive, malabar hill, and the bunglows of Shah Rukh khan, Amir khan, Salman doesn't have a bunglow but we got to see his flat. We even saw the edifice of Mr. Mukesh Ambani. I couldn't count the floors, but my head was at just more than 180 degrees with my spine. Next was juhu chaupati, a mouthwatering "pani puri" and "kala khatta" removed all the salt taste we had after being in the sea water. The tour ended with a visit to Hare rama Hare krishna temple, with I thanking God for being there with me all the time.
All the way back to pune, I was feeling bad that i left mumbai. May be I was lucky that i found good company, that I stayed at a location which was like centre to mumbai, that I found no taxi drivers who charged more or fooled with distance, that I travelled in "local" at a time when there is no super-dense -crush-load. Not sure how I would have reacted if I had not had all these. But all i remember now is the hug that this city gave me, it was warm and welcoming.
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