The same TJ (tour or travel jockey) wanted me to write a #1000wordstory about my #Mumbaiexperience. I share below the same. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as enjoyed writing the same.                                                    

My Mumbai Experience

 

A city which I never wanted to live in, or come and settle down, though I must have passed through it umpteen times – Mumbai. My Marathi friend asked me as to why this contempt for Mumbai? I replied that I hated a busy life with no room for enjoyment, where to live a decent life, one had to take up two jobs. The city never sleeps. The electric train is stopped only for two hours, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. And if it rains, you are doomed. You cannot even travel to your office and back home. “What else to say?” quipped I. My Marathi friend replied “But here is where I made a fortune. I came as nobody and Goddess Mahalakshmi ensured I became somebody. My needs are met. I am never short or out of money”. 

I still fondly recall my tour to Karnataka through Mumbai from Ahmedabad in between 1993 and 1995. I was marketing manager for a submersible pump company based in Ahmedabad and was supposed to tour at least 15 days a month. I used to come to Mumbai Central from Ahmedabad by Karnavathi express which started at 5 a.m. from Ahmedabad and dumped me at Mumbai around 12.30 p.m.  The Kurla-Bangalore express used to be around 3.30 p.m. the same day and reached Bangalore the next day evening around 3.30 p.m. or so. I was supposed to first go to Bangalore, our branch office and from there travel north of Karnataka to Belgaum and Bijapur districts. I used to visit interior taluqs in each of these districts and appoint pump rewinders as our franchisees/ dealers. I ensured sales jump up from 600 pumps in 1993 to 1000 pumps in 1994. One of the main reasons was a jolly Goa trip that we arranged for all these dealers.

Coming back to my memories of Kurla, I used to buy Mongini’s slice cakes there for Rs.5/- a packet and enjoy eating them. I once got caught by a RPF policeman for wrongly entering “Ladies Toilet” at Kurla Station mistaking it for a “Gents Toilet”, though my act was not intentional. I had to pay up the fine of Rs.100/- from the meagre tour advance of Rs.3000/- taken for a 20 days tour. Those were not days of Google Pay or Phonepe or NEFT. Even if somebody deposited money in my bank account at Ahmedabad, the Bijapur branch of the same bank would not give money upon production of my signed cheque by myself. He would ask for identity proof. Those were days of no mobile. We had to book a trunk call in our hotel and wait. The receptionist used to call us once the line got connected to our Head Office at Ahmedabad or Branch Office at Bangalore.

 

I still used to love eating “ vada pav” at Mumbai stations. I used to eat the “meeta paan” in front of Mumbai Central which was a delicacy by itself meant to be tasted. It would be prepared on a block of ice with generous doses of cherry and guess what – date fruits. It used to be chill and melt in the mouth. I had never tasted heaven like that.

 

I used to write inland letters to my darling who was pregnant with my 1^st and only son then and struggling all alone in Ahmedabad. I used to wait for her reply inland letters to my lodge in Bijapur. Out of the 15 days, I used to stay for 6-7 days each at Belgaum and Bijapur. My letter written from Belgaum had to wait for her reply to reach to Bijapur lodge. There were so many logistic difficulties. I hope you can understand. It was long distance love even in those days. The joke doing the rounds after he was born was that she had to introduce me as his father, every time I returned from my tour. This was because I used to be away for 20 days in a month. Barring the 3 months of July, August & September when it rained in Karnataka, I was on tour for the remaining 9 months in a year.

 

My other experience of Mumbai was with my first job in 1987. I worked for an air conditioning company of repute. It was an Indian MNC, you can say. I joined as a management trainee at Chennai branch of the company and was frisked away immediately upon joining for an induction programme of 20 days to Mumbai. I was reluctant to go. I got down, half way and went to Bangalore where my dad was staying. My mom was with my younger sister at Hyderabad. My father somehow convinced me and like an idiot, I took a bus from Bangalore to Mumbai, travelling through Pune for 2 stretches of 18 hours each. Ultimately, I reached the induction programme even if it was a day late. I stayed with another trainee in a hotel room. It was an experience for the first time. I used to wash my inner wear and dry it in the bathroom. Then we used to attend the training in our office at Chinchpokli. We also visited our Thane factory for about a week to see the way air conditioners were manufactured. For both these places, we used to travel by the local train in 1^st class. We could not imagine travelling in the local train in any other class. Our company provided us with a season ticket or pass for 1 month. We could at least comfortably stand and go, if not sit. If we were lucky, we could return sleeping in the 1^st class. We were more concerned about the change of trains at Dadar and the fear of being able to get down at the right station for such changes from Western Railway to Central Railway and vice-versa.  We had our fun times too. We visited Juhu beach, Chowpatty and enjoyed Chaat items for the first time in life.