ps

to add to the comments on the previous post....

This seems adventurous enough...

an ode to the humble auto rickshaw

Meter Down

Living in Bombay on your own without flatmates and not exactly near to the office, can be expensive. I am considering alternative careers. An auto rickshaw driver for example. The one I drove me to office today lives a much better standard of living. He doesn't have to bother getting wet in the rain on the way to work, while I had to face the ferocious rain today morning while I walked to the main road. His workplace, meanwhile, sits right outside his house. Moreover, it obliges if he decides he needs a change of view from the work desk. He put his legs up and sleeps after a heavy lunch. His work timings are flexible. His workplace has a CD music system (something I don't right now). I might even start liking Himesh. If there is a cricket match, he can take half a day off and relax in front of the idiot box. In any case, he can hear the commentary live on his radio, without worrying about office protocol. He doesn't worry about the Internet being down. When the gas pumps are on strike, its a holiday for him.

Hmm...

I need a HOLIDAY!

another weekend is here...

but
life
means
a lot more

This post is in response to Dobereinerr's comment on 'Street Tales'. It got me thinking. Long years back, one of my uncles told us a humorous incident from life. On one of his training sessions in the city, he was with a bunch of colleagues traveling from one point to another. Most of this group wanted to get to a different side of the railway line. For those who are not familiar to the city, it is divided along the North South axis by the local suburban railway lines and therefore you have an Andheri East and an Andheri West. There are overbridges at each railway station to get to either side and to the platforms. These can only be used by commuters and for the rest of the public, there are separate overbridges / underpasses at a distance from the railway station. Getting back to the incident, one of the members of the group was not really a commuter and was merely crossing over from one side to the other side. As luck would have it, he was caught by one of the ticket checking staff and fined for using the overbridge without a ticket. The only genuine explanation this person could come up was that he didn't realize when he just got caught in the tide of people along with him and didn't remember using the bridge for non-commuters.

Anyways, the point being, I wrote earlier about people being everywhere. It can be disconcerting for a lot of people and takes time to get used to. At no point in time, be it early morning or late night will you find tip toe silence in Mumbai. There is always movement and there is always some sound, the trains, the flights, the cabs, autos. People are always in a rush. To get someplace. Get back home, get to the office, to the shopping mall, not be late for the movie or a rendezvous with friends. A friend here told me recently that people don't smile here. Even if you happen to get into a longish eye contact with someone, you merely look away. Scowl, at the worst. There simply isn't time to pause, smell the flowers, as they say. It is a daily fight, from hunger, for a shelter, for power, for money...and for affection, perhaps. Sometimes, you just wish that you could get away from the maddening rush. The crash and squeal as dreams mesh and collide with each other...the city of dreams.

I chose to be here. I chose Mumbai.

If You Were A Song

I don't get to watch so much of television. When friends talk about Southpark, Frasier, Scrubs and more, I only say 'hmmm'. When I did get to watch television, I didn't like sitcoms and soaps because I didn't have the patience to remember what happened in the last episode or remember the show times. Hell, I don't even know who is who in Friends. Yah! Hang me for it! But I love the ads. They've changed a lot since the times of 'roshni deta bajaj'. Not that they were any less memorable.

I love this one. If you were a song....



I could even float a meme on this.

ps. I'm sure each of the captions are songs. I can name a few. How about you?

Street Tales

In another curious incident today, a little kid with bunny teeth walked up to me as I stood waiting by the roadside for my transport and mumbled something pointing to the other side of the busy road. After asking him twice, I gathered that he needed assistance to cross the road. I agreed and started towards the other side. Without a word, he grabbed my hand and we scurried across, a worried look on his face. I felt his small hand tightening every time some vehicle honked in protest at us. He did mumble some gratitude at the other end as I dropped him and made my way back to the other side.

Last year in Delhi, something similar happened outside the office. That time I helped a blind man cross the street. Then, a couple of cars actually stopped when they saw me, my colleague and the man crossing the road. I could not help but compare that no one even thought of that, here in Mumbai. So much for prejudices.

They are everywhere. On the streets, in supermarkets, at tea stalls, in local trains, on top of them, in subways, on flyovers, on overbridges hawking plastic toys, on the beach, on the higway, on the sea front sidewalks, on red BEST buses, walking across roads, in black and yellow FIAT cabs, on two wheelers, in expensive Beamers, in shopping malls, at the theater, in pubs, in cafes, in video game parlors, at the hair saloon, in the atrium to the office, on the road to Baskin Robbins, around the banana vendor, standing in queues at the ticket window, and at those outside a sale store, making out at Bandstand, begging at traffic signals, jogging in public parks, working away furiously at desktops in AC offices, shouting inside the financial bourses and in non-financial ones, hounding firangs at Colaba, inviting people at ice gola stalls, jumbo vada pavs at the malad station, in blue plastic sheet covered jhuggies along the railway tracks, at Shivaji Park playing a Sunday afternoon game of cricket, at the gym, at night, noon or dawn, long, short, black, white, fresh, stinky, callous, tender...

In sight, smell, throb and crash...human...

People.
Everywhere.

Earlier, I thought I could forgive but never forget.
I think now I can forget, I can never forgive.

Like Janis said...Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...

Balls.
:)

Classic

Life throws up turns at you often. A few of them appear to be blind turns away from the straight path that appears thorny and difficult but with a view of the distant dream. The turn you contemplate is into a blind alley that might take you to the same or an even better but distant and hazy dream. That turn also is about survival. For you and for a few more others.