Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Mumbai: The city of elastic opportunities

I blog from Mumbai. This is my first time at the city. One thing that hits me on and on is the term "elastic opportunities". Why? For the simple reason that this city is beyond extended opportunities. Opportunities are extended only to a certain limit. But elasticity, you can stretch it to whatever extent you want to. The city has never been berift of possibilities and opportunities.

Coming from Bangalore, this city seems to be in such a flushed hurry. And courtesy, just goes out of the windows of the local trains that are stocked with humans, rushing to leave from "dont-know-where" to "dont-know-where"; that's Bombay..err Mumbai for me...
A new city, brimming with teeming crowd and each one hunting for a possibility somewhere at the next station!

Sorrys and thank yous is as extinct as the dodo! This morning as I was travelling on a local train, happened to bump with a fellow traveller while getting down. Tried to extend the courtesy of saying sorry but the guy was already half a mile ahead.
This is a city in a hurry! No time to extend courtesy and no time to recieve one!

Traveling in local trains is so much of an education on the way this city transpires, conspires and inspires! Some blokes gazing at me on my face with that question mark, some pushing me to the corner of the compartment, some trying to squeeze themselves to read the morning paper, while some just yapping away to glory, the best form of entertainment enmass.

One of the local slangs learn on my way to VT. " Champion ki dum" ( tail of a champion)
Apparently for one who tries to act smart but fails miserably :)

Whatever said and done, this city is full of life. Rush is by the hour but yes that's whatMumbai epitomises...
I am in a rush too...Maybe the Mumbai effect!! Catch you guys later:)

10 Comments:

Blogger Ekta said...

hahah!
guess ur getting used to the spirit of mumbai now!
Time is money in Mumbai dear!:-)
Enjoy the experience!

7:09 pm

 
Blogger Keshi said...

**Sorrys and thank yous is as extinct as the dodo!

thats no good..I'd be so pissed if Im ever in Mumbai then. Common courtesy is very imp and I thought these things r still taught in schools.

Keshi.

8:50 pm

 
Blogger Neha said...

yes keshi, they are taught but never go out of the school..stay there.just there!!
i never wanted to be in mumbai!now ur blog has only strenghthened ma determination not to go there. o yes , i wanna go there as a visitor but not to stay there!

9:05 pm

 
Blogger Keshi said...

**they are taught but never go out of the school..

Neha then it's really the individual's fault, not the school's. :)

Keshi.

11:23 pm

 
Blogger Neha said...

whateva!!
perceptions keshi!

12:06 am

 
Blogger Dewaker Basnet said...

mfaizal : thanks dude..yeah i did visit the same :)

ekta: yeah time is money ekta but the whole fact that the city so well keeps one in your toes is amazingly nice :) im hooked to mumbai ;)

keshi: its not that they are not helpful..they must be the most helpful bunch of people if u ask..but i guess due to the rush effect nobody gives a thought to the lip service of sorrys and thankyous..;) as ekta says...time is money out there:)

neha: i did not mean to not inspire u from not coming down to mumbai...the city i felt does not have the middle way..either u like it or u don't...:)

7:13 am

 
Blogger Neha said...

no wonder it's been held the rudest city .. lol. though i wonder which place is not rude these days..

mumbai.. fast life.. hve never lived there, but have heard a lot.. really wanna go there sometime and just experiance it..

4:40 am

 
Blogger Dewaker Basnet said...

neha: yeah which city is not rude:) in bombay its just that people o not have time for social courtesies..that's it :) u should visit it some time ofcourse...

7:11 am

 
Blogger Ira Pradhan said...

Thank you's and sorry are individuals choices. I feel the city is so alive and wonderful. A different ball game altogether. And how many thnk you's and sorry can one say in a day in that railway station. We stamp atleast thousand toes in a day :))) don't we! Follow the old maxim somtimes, In Rome, be a Roman! But be your own Roman mind you,, it's important to be yourself and retain individuality in all this crowd and mess.

2:37 am

 
Blogger mathew said...

I have been curious about living in mumbai ever since i read the book Shantaram........

1:50 am

 

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