Down the Mumbai Lane...

If you ask me one line on how I find Mumbai, I might just say….’I don’t like it at all’…not very surprising! Infact, many people I know, feel the same, they are just waiting to go back…be it my friends of IIML or my co-interns…so what do I attribute this to…my first four days in Mumbai, when I was without any place to stay, the crammed spaces out here, me losing my cell, falling ill, etc etc…
But let’s just go through the journey…I landed in Mumbai, perhaps with a lot of apprehensions…mainly about how will the city be and other such things, but most importantly how will my internship be..but I had never even thought of what happened later…we reached the PG we had got booked for ourselves at Marine Lines, and we are given a room which is of the size of a store room with 5 beds and connected to another room, so effectively it was a 13 seater room with no window!! and I thought ‘Oh God! I don’t want to stay here…rather I can’t stay here’ but since we dint have any option we left our luggage, paid the security and then began our search for a place to stay…but all efforts in vain..we went to various places, contacted hundreds of people, but still couldn’t find a decent place to stay. But among all this one thing I was sure of, I can’t stay in that PG. we went back to it in the evening, fought with them, got our money back and finally stayed the night in a hotel…so the next three days went like this: going to office in morning, all tensed bcoz we dint know where we’ll stay at night, after office searching for a place to stay, and then landing up in a hotel at night, where also we used to get a room after pleading a lot!! In the meanwhile we had seen hundreds of places to stay, but each with its own set of constraints… So, how did we finally get a place to stay??in one of the most strange manners! We were at a restaurant cribbing about the acco, since I had just returned after travelling 3 hrs and seeing 2 more places, and as usual neither of them was decent enough..so there was this uncle, sitting with his family in the table next to ours. He offered us to stay at his sister’s place, which was in the same area..we went and saw the place, though it was not anything great, but still decent as compared to the places we had seen..and since we all were fed up of searching for pgs and hostels, we just opted for it..and now I am staying at this so called ‘flat’ in a chawl…so this was how Mumbai welcomed me!!and I am sure I have left out lot of minor things in between, which had added to our frustration… So, how’s the experience been till now??its been almost a month, since we came here..hmm…ill say not so good! People want to get out of office, and relax at home. But all the interns, at least at my office, stay back late, many times even have dinner there, coz they dnt have anything to do back at the pg. Working everyday till around 8 in office, then back to the pg all dead tired! And in no mood to do anything! Thankfully, we found a decent place to eat, so dinner isn’t a problem. But on weekends, its so hot here, it becomes just impossible to stay!
Now, after 3-4 days had passed since we had found acco, how could things remain normal! Something had to go wrong. So this day I was going to office, got down at office, and as soon I reached the gate, I realised I had left my cell in the taxi. I ran back, even chased the taxi, by another one…but of course, dint get back my cell…and when I returned back people just said ‘Welcome to Mumbai!’ But at this point I would say that the journey indeed would be incomplete if I forget to remember some, who made me sail through it… Hmm…now lets get down, to the places out here..haven’t seen much as yet..went to Elephanta Caves, which again was more tiring than fun. Though I would say marine drive and chaupaati are nice places to roam around especially at night, you just need good company…Then, there are indeed nice places to eat, although they make sure that a large chunk of your pocket is emptied out there. Infact, you tend to empty out your pocket a lot, just sit in a taxi, and the meter runs faster than the taxi itself! So, Mumbai has ensured that most of us are out of money and I am just waiting, to get my first salary, oops ‘stipend’….salary milne mein to abhi time hai! Oh, that reminds me, of my office!! How can I miss writing about it..I spend 10 hrs *x 5-6 days in a week out there…office is a nice place…the first day went all in induction, and there was an elaborate dinner, which I had to miss, again bcoz of my acco problem. But anyways, work is nice, and should get more interesting now, with primary research in! We are 11 interns out there, which is good coz u get good company and friends.So, I guess, I have written quite a lot! Can’t write more now…enough of Mumbai..so, what next?? Another one month of summer training, daily up and down, and surviving in this hot n humid weather! And mom keeps saying, enjoy and see places..so in all probability going to north side this weekend, let’s see how is it!
And, if any asks me would I work here or come here again, my first answer would be a BIG NOOOOO…..but lets see, how this one month goes…coz you never know what’s in store for you!!