Mee Mumbaikar

Mumbai – The city of dreams, is a true face of modern India . Often glorified by the different sources of media (specially the bollywood), has always been very close to my heart. And to your surprise, I’ve never been a resident Mumbaikar! In fact, I’ve never been a resident of any part of Maharashtra !. And I’m sure that there are many more who love the city, but have never been there. Thanks to Bollywood for that! I even know so many names of the different localities inside the city. In fact I know more localities in Mumbai than in Patna !

Ever since a kid, I had this dream to one day step outside the VT station, be careful with the baggageJ, go to ‘chowpatty’ & have a good view of ‘dariya’. Watch a film shoot around the Gateway of India, then probably in the suburbs, encounter a few gang wars/shoot outs……..

And I had my day. To take admission in a college in Karnataka, I could not get a direct reservation to Bangalore & decided to make the journey via Mumbai. The station I stepped out from, was Kurla instead of VT(which is CST now) – & no one came to snatch the baggage. There were some 10 hours for the next train to Bangalore , so we decided to go to CST. We took the life-line of Mumbai – the local train. It was mostly empty, as it was noon.

Traveling on the doors of an empty Mumbai local is an experience that can’t be put in words. CST was not much different from the VT shown in movies. The same huge clock on a tower, the same long queue of taxis. We took one of them to the Gateway, so soothing – had seen it numerous times on TV/pics but nothing matches the live view. People roaming around – mostly tourists, front view of the hotel Taj, I was lucky to see the Indian navy ships in the sea having the Tricolor printed, felt like saluting it.


The next stop would be the Juhu chowpatti . On the way, we saw several big bungalows of several personalities(as told by the driver one of them was Big B’s - whatever he says!)


That was another gr8 experience. Sun was ready to fall into the deep blue sea. With a costly bhel-puri in my hands, I took my first steps into the marine waters in my life! Then we went on to see the marine drive. In the evening it looks majestic. It was amazing to look into the west, I saw lights coming from the Arabian sea, probably from Dubai !! You feel more Indian when u see a non-Indian entity. And how can I forget the return journey - again in the local! This time it was not as empty as previously. We just got to the platform somehow, and were helped by the people into the train. I remember I did not take a single step! A similar story while getting down – just got near the gates on my own…

On my several subsequent trips to Mumbai, I’ve had different great experiences, and the most memorable ones were : the local train, Gateway, The marine drive, the chowpati, The Juhu Iskcon temple, Haji ali, the Vada pao, the aunty who owned the lodge in which I spent two nights….


Its probably this love I have for the city, that makes me uncomfortable when someone says : “You are not allowed!

it’s the city of maharashtrians and you are an unwanted species.” And then they say ‘jai maharashtra’. I’m sure that this very act makes the spirit of Maharashtra cry. I’m sure The great Bal Gangadhar Tilak will be shedding tears from heaven..



Mumbai is as mine as yours or any other Indian’s.


Jai Hind.