Well, I was in Mumbai !!!

But just missed a miracle (Thanks to independence day). To start with I had been to Mumbai for a one day trip, with my uncle who was on a business trip and I was accompanying him.

The journey started on an interesting note, we were waiting for the BIAL bus at Hebbal, and surprisingly we didnt get one for close to 25 mins (till 11.15 and we had a flight at 12.20) which meant we would be late for the flight (with my uncle around I always live on the edge). Luckily, we found a cabbie who came to our rescue and we reached the airport just in time. Thanks to the cabbie who made full use of the wonderful BIAL road. The interseting part of this travel to BIAL was me and my uncle were the 2nd and 3rd passengers in the cab, there was already a female passenger(oh sorry a lady or a girl passenger - this is a completely different story). My uncle stuck a conversation with her (thanking her for the timely drop) and I continued further making it an interesting one till Priyanka revealed that she is going to the airport to receive her boy friend.

We boarded the Indigo flight. Within 1 hour and twenty mins we were flying in the skies of Mumbai. And when you are there in the skies of Mumbai, all you can see is Slums, dirty flats and more slums (No wonder Danny Boyle got inspired by them). Once we landed in Mumbai, the weather was surprisingly pleasant. We headed directly to the Chembur where my uncle had a business meeting to attend. In the whole trip, one thing I was completely impressed of Mumbai was the attitude of the Richshawallahs and the Taxiwallahs. I was apprised by Madhu of the their honesty towards passengers but was overwhelmed when I experienced it first hand (Well if this is the true spirit of Mumbai - I am really a fan of it). Infact to check one of them I purposely gave ten rupees extra but the guy promptly returned it back. Their counterparts in Bangalore or for that matter anywhere in India are such Chors that hardly any one believes them.

In the evening we went to the Siddhi Vinayak temple. I had heard a lot about this temple but was visiting it for the first time. I must say post 26/11 the security in Mumbai is beefed up and rightly so. We went around aarthi time and we had a good darshan. However, I believe the crowd controlling and planning of the queques can be done better to avoid commotion at the Vinayaka. We then went to Mahalakshmi tempple, again a very famous one. Unlike the Siddhi Vinayaka, this temple was not crowded and had a very pleasant and a wonderful darshan of the goddess.

We then thought of chilling out and having fun and headed to Mumbai Central but only later did we realise that it was Independence day which meant a lot of shops were closed. By now we were tired and wanted to get back to the room, so we decided we will catch the local train for the experience. The last time I had travelled in local train, I had a very pleasant experience and had reprimanded Madhu for not using it. But this time around my opinion has changed. I had heard a lot about the Mumbai local trains and how crowded they can get but yesterday was insane. We saw crowds jumping on to the train from the time the train was slowing down till it took speed. 9 out of 10 ten times I wouldnt have travelled in that train but for the fun of it, me and my uncle decided lets try it, we travelled from Dadar to the next stop (I do not remember the name), hanging on the footboard of the train , these five mins were filled with a lot of fear but at the same time had a lot of adrenaline rush. At the next stop my Uncle decided not to continue in train but will take a taxi, but I insisted we will continue in train. We finally took the taxi. All throughout the journey back to room I was feeling, we couldnt do something which was a routine for thousands of Mumbaikars. The next day I woke up to read the newspaper which reported that 6 injured and 1 dead among the many who had fallen of the train because of the excess crowd. I thanked my uncle for the timely decision of opting the taxi.The excess crowd all of a sudden in these trains was because many of the train lines are stopped for renovation which meant the same amount of crowd with lesser trains. I hope somebody does something to control the crowd if not they would read more such reports in the newspapers.

We then checked out of the hotel and reached the Shivaji International aiport, this time much ahead of time, all throughout the trip in Mumbai I saw dirty flats, more slums which made the city look for more dirtier and cheaper than Bangalore but I must appreciate that the roads in Mumbai are twice wider and no pot holes at all. We then took a flight back to Bangalore and reached back in time for my uncle to get back to races and make up the Mumbai trip expenses. By the way this was my maiden flight journey, hopefully many more to come in the future. As expected I was very excited, luckily I got a window seat both the times and was observing different activities and the wings with keen interest while it looked like trite speech for many frequent travellers. I will always remember that my first flight journey was to Mumbai in a Blue Indigo flight, flied by Captain I.G. Singh and this part of information was announced by the very pretty head flight attendant Ms.Reena Verma. I observed that the both the times the head flight attendant had a boy cut and hair was let loose while the other hostess had tied their hair in a bun. I wonder if this was a coincidence or was the haircut part of their uniform based on the grade??


Until next time,
Lots of Luv,
Sri!!!