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.