Saturday, January 12, 2008

Akkad Bakkad Bombay Bo…

23rd December 2007: This date will be etched in golden, silver, and platinum words in the history of Indian Airlines Flight No. C658. It was my first time traveling by air. Obviously, I was all excited and raring to fly and not to miss those Katrina Kaif-types air hostesses. Alas! Later I found out that all the good looking flight attendants, as promised in the welcome message, were not on this flight. Even though I kept waiting for some colourful, eye-stopping lady come to me and serve me some coffee and all that foody stuff, none came. The rest of the journey was all kala and safed, totally uneventful. Finally, after two hours of boring journey, the plane landed at the Mumbai Airport. The middle-aged flight attendant announced “Thank you for flying Indian Airlines. We hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we enjoyed serving you.” Don’t get deceived. What they actually meant was “Thank you for flying Indian Airlines. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.”

Uff…the moment I came out of the flight, it was so hot… like a garam garam kadai has been put on your butter bottoms. It’s so hot out here in Mumbai..as if it’s May. Delhi, at this time, must be shivering. And just like people in Delhi’s DTC bus jostle to get out, everyone in the plane was pushing and shoving around each other eager to get out of the plane the moment it landed. As if it’s going to blow up in 15 seconds. People jumped off their seats, kicking each other, brushing their bottoms against each other. Pulling off suitcases from the overhead flaps. Uff..man, hello, excuse me, can u please pull off your luggage off my toe. I thought better remain seated in my seat..else I’ll get mashed like potato pulp in this crowd.

Next stop: Company guesthouse. I took a cab for my guesthouse. The driver had radio on…And call it a coincidence or what you may…the RJ on Red FM had just put the Shootout at Lokhandwala song ‘In the Mumbai, all over India, we are the bhais..” What a welcome to Mumbai…and that too by the RJ of a radio station. In the backseat, I was enjoying the song and having a first-hand look at Mumbai. Arree….woh rahi double decker bus. Pehli baar dekhi yaar. Apart from that, it’s so much traffic and roads so thin, even the skinny Paris Hilton will be put to shame. A friend, while wishing me goodbye had told me that Mumbai girls are hotter than Delhi’s. Alas! Till now I haven’t seen a single girl who could behold me. Delhi girls, especially those at AFD (Alliance Francaise de Delhi), are still fresh in my mind.

It’s been three weeks in Mumbai now. When friends in Delhi were partying on new year eve, I was busy finding roti, kapda and most importantly a home. So I could not roam around and see the real Mumbai, that of film stars and cricketers. Mumbai’s night life and all that jazz. I am yet to travel in a local train. And even though my mumbaikar friends tell me horror stories of local trains, I am undaunted. Like, after 1 hr of travel, when you come out, you will be stinking like a dead dog fried in a pan and all the buttons of your shirt will be missing, or you might find that someone’s stolen the shoe you wore in your left leg, so now make do with a single shoe or better still take out that too and walk bare foot so you look sane. But I am determined to travel in local trains. After all, that is synonymous to Mumbai. And that’s why I have come to Mumbai – to enjoy the (mis)adventure that Mumbai offers.
Sidelights: I like the wada pav of Mumbai so much..it’s tasty, spicy..yummieee. I have been on wada pav diet for the last two days…feeding myself with loads of wada pav in breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Right now I am in office, ekdum comp ke saamne, typing down this post and enjoying some nice Jab we Met songs on my headset. There’s this song playing ..
hum jo chalane lage, chalane lage hain yeh raaste,
manjil se behtar lagane lage hai yeh raaste
………..
Nice song! And now that I am in Mumbai, I can totally relate to it now. Shuru-2 mein I felt very homesick but now I am kinda enjoying everything. Dheere dheere hi sahi, I have started liking this city. Aur ek badee baat, log kehte hain Mumbai aa kar ya to tumhe struggle milegi ya success. Mujhe kab milegi…Katrina Kaif. Mere success ki list mein woh bhi aati hai. :) Let’s see what surprises Mumbai has in store for me. :)

5 comments:

Jaimala said...

Hey..so finally..u've started liking the place! gud...tujhe mumbaiya rang chadh jayega dheere-2 :-)...and am sure..by now ur eyes must have had the pleasure to check out mumbai's hot babes! so ab kya khayal hai tera? ADF gals or mumbai gals???

Jaimala said...

Hey..so finally..u've started liking the place! gud...tujhe mumbaiya rang chadh jayega dheere-2 :-)...and am sure..by now ur eyes must have had the pleasure to check out mumbai's hot babes! so ab kya khayal hai tera? ADF gals or mumbai gals???

Krishna said...

@JAM - Yup! you right gal. I am just kinda liking the city. Mumbai's hot babes - bach ke rehna o hasino lo main aa gaya. :)))

Anonymous said...

only one thing....what were u doing in the office at 10:10 P.M. krishna? :P

jhooth bolta hai...:)

Krishna said...

@DJ - Arre jhooth kaisa...when i wrote this post, i was in office. but when i tried to publish it i realized that blogger.com is blocked in office. so could not post it. went back home and published it in cyber cafe.
Apun jhooth nahi bolta re :)