A Stronger City

Always: A city that never sleeps. The City of Dreams. The city that famously braves floods or even attacks one day and still steps out to go to work the next day. The Maximum City- with maximum opportunities.

The year 2020: Hotspot for pandemic. Local Trains stop. Empty roads in the morning rush hour. Financial Capital wears a deserted look.

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I had read somewhere- "Each person's memories are his or her private literature". True!
So, if I have to describe Mumbai, I need to choose from my memories-

• Pav Bhaji on Juhu Beach with family
• Ragi Dosa at Madras Cafe with friends
• Two years of MBA spent mostly by strolling around fancy Hiranandani Powai
• Three months of sales training in Malvani slums of Malad
• Morning walks in crammed roads to office
• Evening walks on the Worli Seaface
• Seeing the Lower Parel skyline driving through Dadar flower market
• Avoiding chawls while searching for apartments to rent in SoBo
• Waiting 17 hours for mom who got stuck in a train near Nala Sopara during monsoon 
• Being happily stuck in lines for darshan at Lalbaug and Siddhivinayak
• First time my parents tasted Naturals' ice-creams
• Next time when my parents visited and insisted on having Natural's ice-cream
• Watching plays at Prithvi theater, St. Andrews and NCPA with friends and colleagues
• Managing with expensive and cramped limited housing options with unfriendly flatmates
• Spending 2-3 hours on Western Expressway in the infamous traffic on Fridays
• Enjoying next 2 days of weekend with my uncle, aunt and cousin

The Maximum city has provided me with maximum experiences- both good and bad. And through these, I have grown up. Like me, millions of others have lived in and loved Mumbai and become stronger through their individual experiences. 

And although the city now is facing the worst, it too will grow up through these tough times to be better place. There may not get a magical, radical makeover of the city after the lockdown, but it definitely will build some immunity for future. I don't know about the changes in processes and policies, but its people will evolve to stronger ways of life. And with that, Mumbai will be 'a stronger city'.

When walking to work takes you places..

I walk to work daily. It’s a blessing in Bombay to have a place a few kilometres away from office. Walking on traffic congested, fungi-infested lanes is way better than commuting in Mumbai rains or the local trains. 

What I do with all the time, money and energy I save by going on foot is simple: I cook, I read and I sleep well. Very plain and mundane it may sound, but this is exactly what I cherish- having a peace of mind, that often gets lost when you work in corporate world.

I cook two-three meals a day, and have realized that more often than not, cooking is therapeutic in nature. The colours each food item has during different stages of cooking- from raw to semi-cooked to ready-to-eat- are many more than in a rainbow. The sounds like splattering of oil, the whistling of pressure cooker or sparkling of tea are the kinds of cacophony I can live with. The fragrance of piping hot food stimulate the taste buds, or so I read in a primary school textbook years ago. There are few things that affect all my senses in this way.  What started as just a way to fill my stomach without emptying my pocket on restaurants/delivery food, is now a chore I look forward to.  From the disappointment of making uncooked/burnt/not-a-circle-shape rotis to the excitement of baking banana soufflé, I take a journey everyday through the valleys and mountains of emotions.

I read as often as I can. What stops me most of the times is binge-watching videos. Guilty. What I am reading these days seems to be interesting. The first 15 pages were loaded with Spanish and French words and phrases and references to Tainos , fuku, de Leon, JFK etc. This led to an extensive use of Google Translate and Google Search, where each search led to a new search. As an example, googling about de Leon led me to searching about a former Roman empire of the Iberian Peninsula. This introduced me to Basque- a language indigenous to regions adjacent to Spain and France (that kind of explains Spanish and French words and phrases being used in this novel). A search about Iberian Peninsula led me to check out the modern day Europe’s map, which reminded me of Prof SSB who taught us International Business Strategy. That gem of a man- he gave us assignments on India’s trade relations with countries like Paraguay and Uruguay, which I would never think about otherwise. It is partly because of his way of teaching, that now when I see my friend Instagramming about her vacation in Nuwara Eliya, I know that Nuwara Eliya means “city on the plain”- a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka.

And with all this feast of food and knowledge, I happily fall asleep every night, always thinking of what to cook the next day and which new search thread might unravel tomorrow J

Battle of Bambai ki Barish

Red Ikea Umbrella, Pink Guess Tote-Bag and Black Bata Chappals. All the weapons she needs in this Battle of Bambai ki Barish.

Umbrella, because obviously!

Guess' bag, as in this corporate world, impressions matter. Her chic firangi purse is a tool of psychological warfare. Atleast that's what she thinks. Female colleagues look at it. Some try to match it the next day with their Esbedas, while others enquire its origins: "Link Road se liya?" "Nahi, Los Angeles se", she replies with an air. Conversations about her trip to LA happen and someone narrates their holidays in Paris and Pataya. It's a continuous war humans have against each other in order to validate how happening their lives are.

Bata Chappals, because in her Sales stint, in Mumbai slums, in the rains, no other footwear can survive.

(1)
It is a bright sunny day. The MBA graduate, Ms. Vendetta Kumar, in her new kurti and with an enthusiasm that only resurfaces at the beginning of new things- first day in college, first day at gym, first day of internship and now first day of job-finally catches an autorickshaw that would take her to the marketplace in shanty locales of Malad.

"Good Morning Vandita! I'm Sudhir. Welcome to Team Force. Suno ye Vandita Madam hain, yahan training ke liye ayi hain".

 "Hello madam". "Apse mil kar bahut khushi hui". "Kitne din ke liye ayi ho yahan?"

This is the only time Vendetta heard Sudhir utter a sentence, without a cuss word or a fake compliment. Sales is all about gaaliyan and taaliyan.
But this is not the last time the salesmen tried to treat her like an uninvited watchdog from the Corporate office.
As for the rest of the sales-force, Vendy is just like all the good looking trainees who come every year, struggle initially and then after some time act as pretentious pros.

(2)
5.5 km, 45 minutes. "This is the fastest route", the Google lady says. A mental calculation tells Vendy that the average speed of her auto would be 7.33 km/h. "Wow!", she sulks but makes peace with it. #mumbaitraffic

12 km, 2 hours. "There's unusual traffic on your route". "Awesome!", broods Vendy as she's about to have a bout of headache.

Leaves office at 8 pm. Reaches home by 9.30 pm (it's a miracle!). Has a family dinner in a classy Bandra restaurant, where she reaches by 11.15 pm. There's great food and fun cousins, so she ignores the nausea she's feeling. Back home by 1.30 am. "Oh, can I bunk office, like we bunked college ?" is her last thought before falling asleep.

Leaving for home at 7 pm. It's raining and no autowala wants to even look at this drenched lady who is obviously desperate to catch a ride. Uber-Ola have this insane 3.7x surge pricing. Travelling in locals is not Vendy's thing. Maybe a BEST bus. It's 7.42 now and finally an auto agrees to oblige the woman with lal chatri, whose tears are mixed with the raindrops, a saving grace for her. 9 pm, she's home and heads to the toilet. Is it nausea or just hypochondria?

(3)
Day 1: Vendetta posts a photo on Instagram: "Besties, at Palladium Phoenix Mall, Lower Parel"- with Ira and Malvika.

Day 7: Vendetta updates her Facebook status: " Tapur Tupur...pitter patter... tip tip barsa paani <3"

Day 24: Vendetta WhatsApps Ira: "Babe, I really wanna see you, but it's raining heavily :( Let's catch-up some other time".

Day 46: Vendetta tweets: "How can people find rains romantic? Rains bring mud puddles, mosquitoes and the walls stink. #fedup #mumbairains".

Day 52: Rashi calls Vendy: "Vandita babe! I'm in Mumbai, let's meet ya! Sherry ko bhi bulate hain.. girls gang reunion!! :D"

Day 53: Vendetta concalls Rashi and Sherry: "Girlies, count me out. It's flooded outside my place. Kab tak ho Mumbai mein?"

Day 61: Shashank surprise visits Vendy. Saturday Night. Date Night. Marine Drive, bhutta and barish. Rains are romantic again :) So this is how you win the Battle of Bambai ki Barish :D

Day 70: "Acchoo!" Vendetta bunks office takes a sick leave. The Rains rise again...

Coming of Age

If one thing that higher education has done for me, it's my coming of age. As a fresher, MBA has been an extended B.Tech, and I can easily draw some looks for saying these two years have been more fun than those four years. 

As an under-grad student, going to college was the first thing that I did outside of my parents' love and care cocoon. I was lucky to find great room-mates and Kasturba Bhavan's mess food was not bad. I found a hang-out in Surat city's famous Kavi Narmad library, an easy time- pass in walks around the lush green NIT campus, an addiction of American TV series and a solution to all problems-college k bahar galle ki chai. Having day-scholar friends met rides around the city and home food. Engineering didn't excite me but college fests and hostel celebrations and student council were fun. Basically I was a kid trying to live on my own.

Then, NITIE Mumbai happened. Hanging out with ladies and gentlemen, three-four years my senior, has been an experience. These species have been to office, seen the world-some of it at-least and are not students. They are professionals. I got to meet an ex-Army man, a twitter celebrity, people who had good government jobs, a lady drummer, a girl whose dream's to be a Formula One racer, professional photographers, poets: both kinds-romantic and self-deprecating, those who always wanted to live in the city of dreams, the social media slaves, some slaves of their own expectations, people in love, people married. Yes, I met adults here. 

In an environment where classroom studies were as real as a work of fiction, campus so beautiful with green and a pond, nested between two beautiful lakes, located in one of the chic-est locales in Mumbai and housing hundreds of people who left their pay packets to grab a bigger slice of pie; I grew. 

Some takeaways

• Dad was right. Listening is more important than speaking. 
• Lord maketh every one different. Observe all his creations, for each one is a mystery greater than the Universe. Plus, it's fun to stalk hot-looking peeps ;)
• Don't just be yourself, be proud to be yourself. 
• We all need a high. Some find it in booze, some in books, some in friends, others in shopping, still others in themselves. We all get high.
• Cool things are often underrated. Case in point, NITIE.
• Post-placement, B-School final semester means every one is getting married. Yes these adults I met, many of them used higher education as an excuse to postpone their marriages, but in the end, their parents emerge victorious. Or, many of them were in a relationship and now have gotten a fancy qualification and a sexier job, so they are ready to marry their sweetheart. As a younger adult, I am not in this phase.
• I make good power point presentations :D 

An exciting night

Powai to Colaba, via the free-way at night. The lights in the background, viewed from a fast moving car, with a cool breeze through the window through my hair. Friends mocking the RJs of all the FM stations.

Marine Drive, some of my friends chewing sliced raw mangos, one having cotton candy, another one getting her pictures taken and yet another one glued to the phone. Enter two strange men, one tuning his guitar strings while the other one gazing into the stars and a few flying lanterns. The men sit next to us girls, facing the sea and start jamming. And suddenly we all are singing to their tunes. It's midnight and we and more strangers all around are One under the night sky, in front of the sea, with the music.

As someone who gets sickness in the Mumbai traffic and is averse to being out after eight, this experience just blew me away.

A few of my friends enjoyed getting ready for the night, make-up and accessories and everything girls do, some of them ticked the 'Colaba Social' experience off their list and probably many other things. But I wasn't really into it, until the ride on the free-way and the jamming by the sea.

In the hindsight, these happy experiences came out of some begrudging choices. I hate to be the one to always sit in the passenger seat when we book a taxi. I know why that is, because I'm fat and it makes no sense for other girls to be cramped with me in the back-seat. So by default I sit next to the driver. But then the free-way happened. Also, I wasn't really keen on going to the Marine Drive, as it was late in the night (by my standards). Good thing I tagged along with my group, or there wouldn't have been any starry musical night.

Sometimes it's good to go out of your zone, do things you don't want to and see the world a little differently. Well, sometimes :)

The City

What makes you fall in love with a city? Last I checked, a guy posted on Facebook that he got engaged, and is in love with the city where he met his fiancee. Years ago, I had seen on television, a cricket world cup match being played in Melbourne. Before the toss, they showed the beautiful sites of Melbourne city, along with the MCG. I had never been there, still I felt like I 'loved' that city. So much so that I told my father, "I'll live there one day, and you'll live with me." Papa of-course said yes to amuse his little girl.

The little girl has grown up, and outgrown that love for that city.

When 12, she moved from the city she loved to a city she had never even thought about. Eight years later, she claimed she loved her new hometown.

Again, years ago, probably around the same time of my love affair with Melbourne, I had heard about Mumbai. Like not just Bollywood, but about the city. Now I don't remember what was what I heard, but I had decided "I want to live in Mumbai someday".

Unlike the Aussie city, I was not too vocal about my decision on Mumbai, because a) I was a child and had chosen Melbourne and b) I was a child and was 'laughed' at by some not-ill-meaning relatives about my wildness to live in a 'foreign' land. In those days, Mumbai too was 'foreign' to me so, probably to avoid b), I kept quite.

 No big issues really. Not then, not ever.

Now, after the two cities I have lived in and loved, it has been an year in Mumbai. Things that are different are that I don't live with my parents now and there are more exciting things than just McDonald's when I was the kid in love with, yes, Melbourne.

Right now is pretty interesting for me. I'm interning- so it's like my first job.  J Office is in Pune, another city I had never thought about. Lovely weather! But I yearn for human companionship. No, I don't work with robots (and I don't think I would like that). There are people, but no one I talk to. Like no friends to hangout with, or just chat for hours together. So, decided to spend the weekend in Mumbai.
Sorry, but no sorry- I love Mumbai :D The City is fun.

12.30 am- late night dinner in Amar Juice Center, Juhu.
1.00 pm- lunch in college with friends
4.00 pm- Mocha Chip and Donuts and talking with a friend in Dunkin Donuts, Powai
4.30 pm- Haiko- to window shop and for AC, and KFC- to use the restroom
5.30 pm-  Mediterranean Focaccia Bread and Coffee in Starbucks, Powai
7.00 pm- Crossword showroom (books ♥)

7.30 pm- Sneaked into a movie hall and watched last 25 minutes of Cinderella
8,00 pm- Watched Avengers- Age of Ultron- the movie whose tickets I had bought
10.30 pm- a non-veg meal at McDonald's
11 pm- on my bed, blogging.

Love for the city bases out of the carbohydrates apparently, but really because of the humans. The friends I talked with. Talking really may have been bitching, gossiping, cursing, giving cold looks to the new people staying in our college hostel, or discussing the clothes passersby were wearing around Haiko/KFC. But without this, despite a fun job in a cool city, life was BORING. Not living in any other city has never affected me like this. Mumbai is The City. 

Finally, A Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends! 10 11 days later? Later, not late. So it happened...

January1
The new year started with me waking up late, much like every other day of the month long vacation bestowed upon me by my Bombay wala b-school.

January 2-3
Nothing new.

January 4
Accompanied mummy to the dispensary. She went there to replenish her stock of medicines. I was sitting in the waiting room, next to the weighing machine. I do not blame the machine for what happened next. I'm very fat. Same old, same old :/

January 5
Pretty much involved liking and commenting on Facebook and posting "What are you guys up to" in the various WhatsApp groups I was not part of till the first half of 2014. Or I should say same as Jan 2 and 3.

January 6
My ex-roommate's birthday. Post the morning ablutions, made a Picasa-Collage birthday poster for Priya. Rest of the day was spent checking the notifications of people liking and commenting on that.

January 7
Charlie Hebdo attack happened. Honestly after so many days did I watch news on television and read all the tweets that were not just about TBBT, Ellen DeGeneres and Vogue.

January 8
Shopping. A day well spent ;)

January 9

My day started with me waking up at 10.43 a.m., walking outside to collect the newspaper, where I found this cute little greeting card, from a neighbour I don't even know. Sweet! Memories of bachpan when greeting cards still meant something were rushing in my mind. There's still a stack of un-sent "Season's Greetings" cards, next to old photo-albums with pictures from pre digital camera era. A huge leather bound card holder is just next to it which has so many yellowed visiting cards, easily 10-15 years old. This is when I decided to publish this blogpost.
But, the laptop battery died :(
And I lazed off...

January 10

Back to Mumbai. Dinner at Pop Tate's. This is where the curious case of "18 Till I Die Happened". I ordered, just for kicks, a drink by the name "18 Till I Die", which according to the menu was Vodka with Bubblegum. Had Fish, Chicken and Paneer, but the drinks came in late. Shots maare, #firsttime. It was too bitter and spicy, not at all bubblegum-y. While my aunt had ordered a drink called "Mind It", which she said tasted just wow.
I guess our drinks got interchanged. So we repeated "18 Till I Die" for both of us. The next set tasted better to me and worse to her. So I guess, either the bartender was drunk, or we had lost it. The hotel manager was afraid I'll put some bad review or something, so we got a free dessert. Now that's Happy New Year!

On the way back, Dev Anand sang "itna madir, itna madhur, tera mer pyaar.." on the car radio.

I hummed along, and decided to publish this blogpost finally. But on reaching home, I was suddenly too sleepy. So zzzz...

January 11

Attended the street festival #StreetConnect. These pictures will say the rest :-)

Bought many such jute bags :)

Tired? Have a seat on this bench of waste bottles :)

So finally, A Happy New Year to y'all.

Fun Funny and Fragile

A lot has happened since my last post. Life at NITIE is fast, furious and fiery. And as it turns out, I am fun, funny and fragile.

There have been times when all seemed to be going wrong. The Ms. Studious was not studying, the Ms. Blogger wasn't blogging, the Ms. Book-lover just could not read books. So basically I wasn't doing any regular stuff. My regular stuff.
Freshers' Party was round the corner. Every other girl seemed to be shopping, or thinking of going shopping or sitting in front of the laptop: e-shopping. Girly things have never been my things. Ron Weasley, Ross Geller, Jim Parsons and the Ellen Show are sort of my things.

My "non-alcoholic" drink ;)

Anyway, somehow I found myself going mad when everyone else seemed to have shopped till they dropped (rather till the Sales and stock were great). I did buy what was like the first one-piece of my life and the last one left in all the malls of Mumbai. J

This also reminds me of the first ever party I went to. First taste of night-life. Some 10 of us, "breaking the ice" while some crushed ice into their drinks, and I maintained my teetotaler status. J

Meanwhile, I had to undergo three daunting weeks of dentist appointments L.

After the initial euphoric vigor to participate in EVERY event died, the glum gloominess of not doing ANYTHING took over my senses.

And many stories remained untold (some in the drafts of this blog, some in the recycle bin of this laptop).
Celebrations like Friendships' Day, Raksha Bandhan, Dahi-Handi happened, but not really. Rohit, a friend, on his pan-India tour to reconnect with friends and travel different cities, came just a stone's throw away and I could not meet him. Well because of the dentist appointment.

Freshers' Party showed me that I can dance, I mean I CAN DANCE. Cool!

In my niche group of friends (it's better than "small group of friends" and much better than "intimate group of close friends" ;) ), it is quite well known that I can provide some comedy.

All these things aside, who am I, if not the clumsy little girl who's prone to getting injured. So brace yourselves, we have a fracture coming our way. With broken toes and determination, I faced the last one week of examinations. Accompanying me, in these testing times were Rosesh Sarabhai, Abhishek-John's Dostana, my room-mate's kettle and Sonal's extra soft pillow. If there's one thing I have learnt, then that is: "If you want a Princess-like treatment, injure your limbs". That's the easiest, albeit a painful way. 

And all these woes seemed endless, until today. 

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi :)

The moment I saw Lord Ganeshji, all dressed up and adorned in flowers and lights, I knew everything is fine. God Bless us all. :)

A treasure hunt and the final treasure

Place: EDP (3-4), NITIE, Powai

Instructions given, mentors allotted.

Place: NITIE Pond

Clue1: “This place has recently seen a construction of something famous”. Place shares name with Scottish writer Hector Hugh Munroe.

Google told something like Saki. So, next destinations => “Saki Naka”. Auto rickshaw hunt followed. Almost all the teams had booked an auto, so our team was trailing by about 10-15minutes.

Auto found. Now the question was “Where/What in Saki Naka?”

Google said a new place called “Peninsula Grand” has been inaugurated. It turned out to be a new hotel. Auto driver confirmed that 2 new hotels have recently been opened. But mentors said that that’s not the right answer. So, auto-walla said metro station can be the new thing we are looking for. It turned out to be correct. Rules were to take a group selfie there and post it on Whatsapp and the next clue would be “pinged”.

Place: Saki Naka Metro Station

This selfie business did amuse the auto driver, and contrary to what I had heard about Mumbai auto-wallas only going on certain routes of their choice, this one turned out to be sport enough to go ahead with us to help us win this event.

Clue2: “Bhel Puri, Sevi Puri, Rangeen Ret, Suhaani Raat”

My team mates Madhur and Ipshita quickly guessed it right-Juhu/Chowpati!

So off we go. On our way, many other autos were carrying many other teams and indeed, it was  a matter of pride for the drivers too as they raced to get their passengers to the famous beach first. On our way, we were speculating what could be the next destinations in this hunt. I said it has to include the sea-link. My idea was immediately rejected by both my team mates and even the auto driver echoed their denial. How bruised I felt. Anyway, no time to sulk.

Place: Juhu Quickly we clicked a snap with the sea visible behind us and let Whatsapp do the magic. After a few unbearable seconds, answer was declared correct and we received the next clue.

Clue3: “The 64^th most famous surname in the UK”.

Ok, so I asked the auto driver to think of a place with “Angrezi” name. Meanwhile, we were checking Wikipedia of famous surnames in the UK. Auto-walla was giving us the most quizzical look he could manage. But, Madhur found the answer to be Carter and of course, we were now heading towards the famous Carter Road. Since this is in Bandra, I again pitched in the idea of Bandra-Worli sea link. This time the denials were more pronounced, including “tsh-shh!”

Place: Carter Road

An eatery with the name “Carters’ something”, and thus we clicked Madhur’s picture with that sign board above him to prove that we have indeed reached there. The answer to next clue was something that gave me an enormous amount of inner-joy.

Clue4: “If this thing is put in a weighing pan, you’ll need to put 50000 African elephants in the other pan to balance it.”

It did take me about 40 seconds while my team-mates frantically googled, but here was my moment of glory- “Heavy as elephants- it’s got to be the Sea Link”! Hearts of hearts my team acceded to my genius and when our mentor confirmed that the answer’s correct and gave his “blessings” to go ahead, it was a real task to keep a modest face and conceal the smirk.

                        

Clue5:  “The last scene of ‘Wake Up Sid’”.

Ok, so it was the kissing scene. It was raining. It was at Nariman Point.

Now, the auto-driver had to experience the pangs of separation as there was no way he could drive all the way from here to there.  All this while, he had been the benefactor for us, our mode of transportation, and a clever one- taking all the short cuts and racing with (against) his fellow auto fraternity. Naturally he felt a kinship towards us.

 Anyway it was harder on me and Ipshita as from hence forth; the journey was long if we take a cab and quicker if we choose to travel by the local train. I was determined not to go with the latter. Determined I was. As it turned out, Madhur was more determined in this case to take the short trip via the dreaded mode of transport-the locals.

Saying my silent prayers, clutching my sling-bag closer to me, trying to look like a confident, everyday traveler, I boarded the train. Luckily it was Sunday afternoon, meaning we got empty berths to sit on.  To ease ourselves, we girls sipped in the Appy Fizz, talked about something I don’t remember, while I listed the possible destinations for the finale clue- “the CST, the Marine Drive, the Ambani’s house Antilla, the stadium Wankhede…,” took deep breaths and ultimately reached the last stop-our stop- Church Gate.

I sighed relief for about 5 seconds, when Madhur waved at us and started running towards the exit. We took a cab. He tried to negotiate and settle for Rs.30. We had to settle for Rs.40-as quoted by the cab driver.

The few minutes inside the cab were for me to take a mental note. “I travelled the dreaded local and nothing went wrong. Thank you God”. 

Place: Nariman Point

We reached the beautiful destination, clicked a selfie and waited with bated breaths for the last clue. Out of nowhere two more teams appeared and in lovely air of Nariman Point, there was an air of rivalry and urgency to crack the last code. And this was time my team-mates’ mobile internets chose to go down!

Clue6: “This place is sarcastically known as the greatest centre for gender transformation in Mumbai”.

Missing the sarcasm intended, I thought of nearby hospitals. Re-reading the clue out loud, I called my uncle whose office is in the vicinity of where we were and he told me that there is a National Centre of Performing Arts nearby. We were convinced that sarcasm intended was at the male dancers in female attire in the plays. Wrong answer!

Our mentor called Madhur and told him to head towards the CST. Clueless, we did. Two minutes into the cab, I thought out loud- Centre for Sex Transformation! The answer to the clue was an inside joke involving the abbreviation of the famous railway station. What the hell! The mentor now told us to head towards the Gateway of India, because the reason he asked us to head to the CST was because the game was over. Winning teams had already cracked the code. We touched and went from the CST to the Gateway.

Place: Gateway of India

Now that the game was over, we sipped the refreshing sugarcane juice from a nearby juice shop and joined the crowds picnicking at the well known tourist spot. We spotted the rest of the teams, the winning teams in the centre and though we were drenched in sweat; the treasure hunt had culminated into an awesome tour of the City of Dreams.  After a few group photos and selfies, it was time to be treated by our mentors for the winning teams and time to treat ourselves for the rest of us. While others were deciding the eatery to go to, I quietly looked at the magnificent Taj- the celebrated hotel opposite the Gateway.

Some 9 of us walked on the streets of Mumbai looking for the famous coffee shop Leo Pold, then decided to go instead to the Starbucks. I followed the group silently while once again trying to look street smart and confident in the overcrowded tourist spot, which has also witnessed a terrorist attack. Calming my nerves and keeping faith, we enter the Starbucks coffee shop.

Place: Starbucks

So today was not just the first time I travelled a local train, it was also the first time for me in a Starbucks. J J J

Another dreadful experience was ready to be encountered. Catching the BEST bus till the CST, from where we take a local train for the journey back. Now, I am no daredevil. Travelling in the local and catching the BEST bus in the same day was the scariest that could happen. With the other 8 marching confidently towards the bus stop, my “keep a calm face-look confident-be brave” inner machinery went into auto mode.

Another myth of my mind was busted that day, and there is nothing scary about the fast moving transportation of this fast moving city. All safe and sound, we reached the CST. Panic easily trumps my feeble faith and again the inner mechanism has to pump me up. Getting into local train was easy. Getting out of it was easy too.

To add to this eventful day, the auto-rickshaw we hired from the station to our hostel faced a tire-puncture.  But this did not deflate my spirits as in about 6 hours, I had travelled across Mumbai, journeyed in the local train and the BEST bus, visited the Starbucks and discovered an effective inner faith machine. J