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My 'Daily Mumbai' visit

Monday 9 AM is the time of the day when every Mumbaikar hits the road . Every
road becomes full of cabs of all shapes and sizes and people from all strata of life
flock on the roads. You may not wonder if you find a bullock cart also moving on the
same road because except only the Bandra Worli sea link which is prohibited for
bullock cart most other roads are available to them.

On one such Monday I decided to go to the Lamington road for buying some
electronics items for my hobby and try to get my laptop repaired.

After a solid wait of half an hour near the Powai Hiranandani BEST stop I got an AC
bus going for Andheri. A bus stop is not at all a good place for waiting at this time of
the day. The bikers can push you any time to make their roads among other cars.
The A.S Road becomes a sea of vehicles now.

The bus was completely pact up, there was hardly any moving space inside. So the
scene outside and the scene inside are the same. No space to move around. But the
BEST conductor among this jam pack crowd can move comfortably with two bags on
each shoulder.

I once asked one conductor how he moves so freely with two bags . He said , ' it's all
in practice'.

Near the SEEPZ gate no:2 there was a commotion for disembarking , a good portion
of people got down there then came the SEEPZ gate-1 and the bus became 50%
empty. I got a window seat now.

I once asked a BEST conductor what the word “SEEPZ” stands for and he had a
blank face (well for you reader it is Santacruz Electronic Export Producing Zone ,
this is at present a SEZ (Special Economic Zone) now.

At SEEPZ gate no:1 the majority of the bus got emptied . Now our bus moves past
the Chakala crossing and then the western express highway crossing to the Andheri
bus stand. This small portion of road took almost half an hour due to heavy traffic all
along the road.

The new ticketing counter at Andheri is more spacious and airy . But the long queue
still spills beyond the corridor out onto the open space. Conventional window
ticketing is not sufficient enough to cater to such huge number of passengers.

Having heard about heavy rush of the Mumbai suburb trains I decided to go for first
class for my destination, the Grant road. Funny , I asked for Grant road and the lady
gave me Churni road. When asked she said it was all the same.
The train of course was very crowded even at half past 10'O clock when most of the
office goers must have had reached their destinations.

The crowd was decent and everybody maintaining their poise by holding the handle
from top. People from every age group could be found in every compartment in this
train.

It was all hand's show in front of my eyes. Even in the first class it was so crowded.
Funny very few people were wearing wrist watches now-a-days. Almost every guy in
the compartment had a cell phone and some even had two phones.

Having reached Mumbai central the compartment got almost emptied. The next
station was grant road so I got readied for getting down.

There are two foot over bridges at the grant road station but both bridges look quite
aged and worn out at many places.

I disembarked through the side road towards the Lamington road electronic market.
The path , the roads and the shops around do not resemble the hi & fi of south
Mumbai at all. It is rather dingy roads with full of muck and dirt all around the roads.

The road beside the flyover takes a right turn towards the lamington road police
station where my shop is situated. There is no dearth of traffic on this road even at
12'O clock.
After little searching I got my items
easily . The lamington road market
now-a-days have become more of a
computer market.

But why not ? after all electronics and


computers are all merged together to
become one in many names like
robotics , power electronics,
psychedelic lights, Programmable
Logic control or PLC etc all have a
processor to work.

Variety of Power LEDs (Light emitting Diodes ) are found in plenty in many shops
here. The Power LEDs are becoming cheaper now-a-days . A 3 watt power LED
button without heat sink is available for RS:90 a piece. The future of illumination is
going to be the Power LEDs.
I finally found a shop which could repair my laptop for a reasonable charge but it
would take 3 hours time.

Half past 6'O clock and I was ready to start my return journey. The train to Borivili
was in time. The first class compartment was not so crowded this time but still it was
reasonably filled up.

As it crosses more stations more passengers enter the compartment. When I asked
one gentleman why so much rush is there in the first class. He gave me a funny
answer - “the first class compartment is bound to be filled up because for first class
only a few compartments are there whereas for general class there are plenty of
compartments”

So true he was...

I reached the Andheri station little after 7:30 PM. The Andheri station was a sea of
people ,all were patiently waiting for train. Not a sign of indiscipline to be found
anywhere around. As the rush increases the little shoe maker boy too slowly gives
way to growing traffic and moves towards a more confined space.

As if floating on a cloud of people I came out of the eastern side of the station gate.
The exit path way on the eastern side of the station is very small & narrow compared
to the number of passengers move through it. The adjacent shops also make the road
very narrow and even more crowded than the train itself.

This small dingy passage should get cleared of all the shops around to make it more
free and airy.

At the Andheri terminus I board on an AC bus and got a seat to relish my return
journey. The bus threads through the heavy traffic at a decent 5 km per hour. Near the
express way flyover the entire traffic was dead slow now.

At SEEPZ the bumper to bumper traffic was extremely slow moving.

When I reached the Powai vihar stopage it was well past 9 PM. Lots of working men
and women travel by these buses and the suburban trains everyday. At the end of the
day when they return home their body aches , their face shows tiredness . The jolly
looking BEST conductor is too tired to laugh on every passenger but still he moves
calmly among the crowded bus with two bags on each shoulder. The BEST driver
who is also fed up but still maintains his calmness in repeatedly telling the passengers
not to crowd near his seat as it distracts his driving in heavy crowd.
As the bus halts on the way men and women silently alight from the bus and then
walk down quickly towards their home. This is not the time to waste on the road. The
journey for today is over but it will start again tomorrow morning at 9'O clock.

This city is great not because of it's being the economic capital of the country but
because of it's 40 millions patient and tolerant people who despite having every
ingredients of indiscipline and intolerance never loose patience and maintain the
calmness and serenity for this city.

Hats off to the Mumbaikar who daily travels on the buses and the trains in this city.

S. Bera
Powai.

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