Maxximum City - I

Whosoever I have told this has expressed surprise and shown amazement, so I perfectly understand your reaction to this.

This is my first ever trip to Mumbai.

Though I was here once earlier, but that was a transit stop on my way to Trivandrum from Delhi. And that time I thought the plane was going to crash in the slums, so this time I was prepared for the sudden descent of the plane into the slums.

To my utter disappointment we got off the aircraft using an aerobridge, otherwise I had plans to get down on the tarmac and kiss the land of Shantaram ala Pope John Paul II.

Well I got out of the airport and the first thing that hit me was that this place smells so much like Chennai. I know some people will take serious offence to this but I don’t know what it is, maybe it is the smell of the sea or the fish or whatever but the two cities smell pretty similar to me (and I love both of them).

Ok, now the first thing I noticed when I got on the road here in Mumbai were the color of the autos. For a Dilliwala who is used to seeing CNG (read green) and yellow autos, the Kala-pilas of Mumbai stand out. And after that it was the multiple shapes and sizes of taxis. From an Alto to a Wagon R to the familiar boxy Ambassadors, all of them are here. Further down the road I noticed something which might sound a bit silly, but I think the flyovers here in Mumbai are miniaturized versions of the ones back in Delhi. Compared to the huge ones at AIIMS and Dhaula Kuan the ones here seem a bit tiny :)

Oh and yes, now the most interesting part of probably any city. I asked an Autowallah if he will go to my destination, he said yes and my next question was "Kitna??" Old habits (formed after years of haggling with Delhi autowallahs) die hard. He looked at me puzzled and indicated towards the meter as if telling me what it was and said "Meter!!"

The autowallah didn’t know the exact place where I needed to get down so he asked a cop, and boy the Mumbai cops have way cooler jeeps than Delhi Police, sky blue camouflage and all, they are simply awesome. Also, the cop who we asked for directions asked the autowallah to take a left from the next junction!!! Now you may not find anything weird with this, but for me this was!! I had half no no fully expected him to say "Next naake se left lena" after all that’s what the cops in the millions of Mumbaiya films did, how could he disappoint me like that.

Well after that I met up with Uddu and Kalle and we went to Hiranandani and again I couldn’t help but notice how cramped this city is and how effectively they make use of space here unlike in Dilli where probably the luxury of space has meant that it goes wasted because of lack of planning.

A friend of mine (I cant remember who) had pointed out something a few days back to me, he had said that in Mumbai all the shops have signboards in English as well as Hindi and to my surprise he was absolutely right. Even places like Levi's and Westside had their names displayed in both the languages. I have no clue about the reason for this, can someone enlighten me??

Another thing which I noticed or rather was staring at me in the face, was how the whole city is swamped by Vodafone hoardings. In light of this when I tried to remember if there was such a thing in Delhi, I realized that maybe Airtel dominates others but not to the extent that I saw here.

P.S. I have not even seen 1/10 of the city, these are just my first observations based on the few areas that I have been ot in a matter of few hours.

P.P.S. The most practical advice regarding living in Bombay Mumbai was given by Paro. She advised me to do away with the North Indian habit of calling everyone a 'Bhaiyya' to avoid getting myself in any trouble.

P.P.P.S. Vishal Dadlani, of the music duo Vishal-Shekhar fame was travelling on the same flight as mine, and I immediately noticed him, knew who he was, as in him being part of the music duo, and that he had sung Dhan-Te-Nan but couldn’t recall his name :O