MUMBAI....

Hate it or Like it… it won’t change…. It’s too big to care for you…. And it is for this very reason that many people find it mesmerising. Mumbai stops for no one… be it the president or a beggar. It knows nothing but to move … to whiz past the times be it good or bad … from the bomb blasts to the share market boom…its always on the move swallowing millions and millions of dreamers who arrive in this city of magic to attain what they always wanted fame or money or whatever …. Never ending never stopping never sleeping…. That’s what Mumbai is …. There’s no room for the lazy or people wanting a relaxed lifestyle. The adrenaline rush you feel every time you step out into this fast paced world is undeniable and probably can’t be explained in words. The rush to catch a local to work every morning may seem maddening when you first step out into the city but you learn to live it... in fact when you don’t do that travelling part you think something is missing. Talking about me the best part for me everyday is the travel by local… even if I don’t get a place to sit. You stand near the door and feel the wind in our hair and how everything is just left behind… you just can’t help but fall in love. In the morning the trains are filled with commuters travelling hours to reach their place of work… every morning you witness a struggle… a struggle to get into the trains a struggle to get a seat a struggle to get down a struggle to work to earn a living a struggle to survive in this crazy city. This is what most Mumbaikars would proudly say “Amchi Mumbai”. And somehow unknowingly I have also got drawn into this struggle for the past two months. They will hate it complain about it but an outsider better not point it for it is their pride to live here. There is a constant flow of people into the city who never seem to leave it once you come to the city you are bound by it whether you like to reside here or not you are bound by it. Let us take my personal experience I hated Mumbai when I came here and started my PS (will explain a li’l while later) for I was alone when everyone seemed to have a companion but as time went by I realized no one knew anyone they are all just strangers like me. But I was jealous of the people in other PS with their friends while I was alone I was jealous about the way they spent their weekends hanging out at the cool places in the city they were assigned and in all this jealousy I declined the charm Mumbai held out for me. I always thought you need a companion to fall in love with Mumbai as a whole and I was certainly right but not 100 percent you do need a person to completely fall for Mumbai. In the past two months I have spent here doing my PS I had cried initially for I was alone and trust me people there is no other bigger torture than being deprived of your friends and family’s love and attention. Out of your family you are suddenly no longer the center of universe and for someone who had been pampered all her life by her parents it’s a very difficult job surviving outside your nest, but my past two years have made me able enough to carve out a niche for myself in this tough world. Though it was quite a different thing than your hostel where you have strangers in the same position as yours and this might have helped you to forge relationships in your hostel but it was not the same thing. But lets just say I survived and this in itself I think is a personal achievement for me though not a big one but I learnt to live this hard period of two months and I am happy I did managed without a major breakdown.