Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Mumbai Diaries - Part 1

"Dude I told you!! We should have gone to the beach. I know you suck, never knew you suck this much!!!" Reddy shouted at me for making his evening not worthy to remember.
I said. "I was just trying to .. "
"No Stop. In the first place you made me come over without having enough break. And then this. Ah .. forget it !!! "
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15 Hours Earlier
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"Vashi .. "
"Vashi , utharne vaala koi hai ?? ", a boy shouted from the front door.
I woke up suddenly disturbed by his cry. I turned to the window to look outside. The sight was beautiful. It was raining, quite greenly and people outside were in a hurry to reach their destinations.
Some of them were holding umbrellas and wore backpack to the front. I wondered if in that case why bother wearing a "back"pack at all. Then something in me reminded that I am actually in Mumbai now, Ah! Finally. I waited too long to come to Mumbai. It's been a year since I got placed in college. Generally, we get placed a year before we graduate at IISc. Thoughts of how I would fare in my job rushed into my head. It made me a little nervous, especially after having a rough time at college.
The bus stopped again. This time the boy from the door shouted, "Sion! Sion!! Sion aa gaya hai, last stop!!"
I reluctantly took my bag and told Reddy, "Let's go!"
Reddy was my classmate at IISc. Though we both know each other, we never were real buddies in college. We were good friends. I gotta tell you, in college you never get placed with your best friends in the same company.
Reddy was pretty disgusted by the sight.
"It's raining. How are we going to carry our stuff? " he said annoyingly.
I said taking a taxi would be the world's best idea. He gave me a dirty look. I tried to ignore his look and got down lazily. Rain started pouring heavily as if it was waiting for a signal to come in full swing. Before I could get any feel for the new city I noticed that my bag is missing. It struck like thunder. I looked around and there's a guy who was carrying my bag and threw it in his taxi. I followed him and had to literally snatch my bag back. This guy then asks me , "kaha jaana hai bhai ?"
I said, " I don't want a taxi".
Reddy in the mean time was trying hard to handle the mob of taxi drivers. I came back to Reddy, he really needed some help. One the taxi drivers learned that we speak Telugu. He was the scariest of those drivers. He was tall, extremely dark and his shoulders reminded me of "The Incredible Hulk".

He said, "Haa, Telugu. You from Andhra. Me Tamil. Neighbor states. Get in my taxi !!!"
... to be continued.

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