The ricksha walas of Mumbai nagariya

"Autooooo", I scream each time I need one and then realise that it is referred to as "Ricksha" here.

I have to confess that I have never had a better experience of commuting by auto/ricksha or auto rickshaw (as you would like to call it) in any other city. And I know for a fact that the local residents here would never understand what that means because after having spent just about three months here, I already feel so used to it that I have forgotten how horrible the commuting experience in auto has been for me or can be for anyone else in other cities.

When I say cities, it may be important to mention that I have lived in quite a few cities already- Jaipur, Delhi, Bangalore and now in Mumbai. Besides, I have also travelled to a few cities but I would prefer not taking into account those experiences because I haven't lived long enough in these cities to figure out how the autos operate there. My experience (good or bad) in these cities may not necessarily be the general trend as such.

However, out of all the cities that I have lived in so far, Mumbai is the only city that has pleasantly surprised me with its ricksha walas. At first it felt almost unbelievable to see ricksha walas turn the meter down on their own as soon as you got in because I was so used to being extorted and being taken on a ride by their brethren in other cities. By the way as most of us would have noticed already, it is not that the autos in other cities don't have meters, its just that their masters don't believe in turning them down and the role of meter has only been restricted to avoid paying fines if caught by the officials (which is rare in our country) for not operating in the prescribed manner.

So how do they really function? Well, by quoting random fares and hey believe me the trend of quoting random fares in other cities is as normal as it is in Mumbai for riksha walas to turn the meter down. And I am saying this because I have commuted like this for years. Ask why!- because there is no concept of turning the meter down! And on days, when you are really (read REEEEEALY) lucky or rather you think you are lucky and you end up getting into an auto which does not just have a meter but an operational meter, you will hear something to this effect from its master as soon as you have placed your self in it - "20 Rs. extra!" After these exact words, you dare not ask the master "why" because you will either be asked to get down the auto or you will end up causing yourself a headache from the most ridiculous of explanations that they have to offer to answer that specific question.

On the contrary in this city (Mumbai), the riksha walas take you strictly by the meter, so much so that they return even 1 rupee change on their own. Only people who have lived in other cities (specifically in Bangalore and Delhi) would know how unbelievably amazing it feels to be paying by the meter. It still amuses me each time I get into an auto here without having to think, negotiate or bargain and I guess by now it is evident that I am not over this fantastic trend that the ricksha walas of Mumbai nagariya have set for their city.

The saga of reaching office late

I am absolutely sick and tired of being late to work and even though I am late only by 5 to 10 minutes, it sucks as much when you have to report your in time daily. Or rather it sucks even more if you are late only by 5-10 minutes because while in your own head that hardly constitutes as being late, for your senior all that matters is whether you are in time or not and not by what time are you not in time.

First Saturdays are working for me and today is that Saturday of the month. The entire week has been immensely hectic work wise but I am happy that I have been able to cope up with the stress (caused by unreasonable deadlines) successfully. In fact I managed to wrap up some stuff before the timeline, of course by burning the midnight oil. I don't know why though! It's a disorder that I have no control over. I had the urge to knock it off last night in the hope of a peaceful weekend and so I did. And I am happy I did that. What I am not happy about is that I reached office at 9:38 am. Exactly 8 minutes late and as soon as I called the Delhi office to report my log in time (yes I have to do it every single day. Feel free to feel lucky if you don't have to.), I hear the voice that I detest the most from the other end- you are late today? Well, someone please PLEASE for crying out loud tell me, how do you respond to that! I mean isn't it obvious I am late when I have already given him my in time as 9:38 but no apparently some people hate numbers so much that they don't understand numbers verbally either! That apart, I cleared my throat to say "yes I am slightly late" and just when I thought the worst was over, I hear "how come" from the other end. This is when the person talking to you is not even your partner, it is his irritating EA for the record. If only I knew how come, I wouldn't be coming in late by 5 minutes so often I thought to myself. I wanted to scream out loud that it's most certainly not to hear him for longer on phone first thing in the morning! I was obviously caught off guard by that question and so my instant response was "it's raining outside and I couldn't find my umbrella". As ridiculous as it may sound I have to admit that I said that.

I am told that he sends out an email listing everyone's in time to the Partners daily with reasons for being late. Believe it or not, my concern is this- will he be writing this against my name today- "log in time - 9:38 am; she was late to office because she couldn't find her umbrella."

No seriously, now that would be hilarious!

Mumbai's tiny tot

Mumbai is perhaps the only Indian metro city which has come to mean so many different things to so many people and hence phrases such as 'the city of dreams', 'the city that never sleeps', 'the NY of India', 'the maximum city', and so on.

I relocated here in the month of June, 2012 and what exactly were my reasons to opt for Mumbai? None (honestly)! Before I could even try and think of one, I was here. Had this relocation taken place a couple of months earlier, I could have called it personal but certain things are not meant to be, is how I look at it in hindsight. I had visited Mumbai a few times before but I can hardly refer to them as visits considering how short they were and the limited time that those visits allowed me to explore this city. Besides, its one thing to have visited a city and another to relocate, so I obviously had my own set of apprehensions about Mumbai. The best way to ward off those apprehensions I thought was to not think much about it and to wait and see it unfold instead. While this kind of  spacing out did help, the downside of this approach was that it took me significant time to sink in that I was in Mumbai after I was made to fly.

We are nearing the end of August now and I realise I am two and a half months old in this city. How has it been here? Not bad at all, I would say. I am sure if certain people I know were to hear that response (especially my brother), their reaction would be - "oh c'mon! You end up liking every city you live in". And I wouldn't dispute that at all because that's in fact true. It's not because I have no bad experiences, but because the good ones outdo the not so good ones for me. Also, I choose to look at the brighter side by default- blame it on my parents.

While it is too early to conclude anything about the city, I already have a few good things to mention and the foremost being- how safe I feel in this city. I have to admit that I have never felt so safe in any other city and this is despite staying all by myself here. Agreed my work hours are not as atrocious as they have been previously but I can bet, no matter what your work hours may be, this city envelopes you with a sense of safety that no other metropolitan city in India can. It's amazing to see a city with so much energy and life at any hour of the day (and night) and what is even more amazing is, that it is contagious! I crib to myself practically each morning I wake up for work. However, fortunately my cribbing remains restricted to the four walls of my room and to that time of the day alone for as soon as I step out I realise I fall in the rarest of rare category of people (not just in Mumbai but in any other city) who have the luxury to walk to their office. That apart, like I said the city's energy is contagious...it grows on to you no matter what the weather is like. I was surprised to see, how even the heaviest of rains here does not stop people from doing their daily chores, when I would mostly be dreaming of ways to somehow bunk office and sleep for a little longer or sit and have a cup of coffee in a cafe across the street. 

There are plenty of other things that I love here, for instance, the exciting  theatre scene with so many good plays being staged every other week, jogging by the sea side at Carter Jogger's Park and Bandstand, street shopping, rains at the moment (for its monsoon time here), exploring the plethora of eating joints that surround my house and office and most importantly finding people who I enjoy with. However, I would not want to conclude about Mumbai based on these reasons alone because these aren't things that can be attributed to the city alone. These are things that I partly opted for (except the rains of course!No, I am not related to the Rain God.). To explain better and at the risk of coming across as a show off (and secretly trying to do so ;)) - I don't think everyone living in this city gets to jog at Carter whenever they'd like to and sometimes run into celebrities too. Well the point being I can do it because I chose to stay  close to my office (which happens to be in a beautiful area called Khar) and was lucky enough to find a place.

Just when I was thinking of concluding this post, I realise that there is a lot more I'd like to write about (read my experiences) the city. However, that realisation also amuses me as I can't believe I already have so much to write about a city in which I have barely spent a quarter year. That apart, being Mumbai's two and a half month tiny tot, I better reserve my thoughts n comments for just a little longer.