A DAY IN BOMBAY

I have been born and brought up in Delhi. I did my graduation from a college that was 45 minutes away from Delhi. Currently, I am doing my post-graduation also from Delhi. This is how I used to give my job interview introductions, maybe that is why it took so long for me to get placed! Because of obvious reasons I wanted to explore other cities. I hope we all are somewhat aware of the unsaid rivalry among Delhi and Mumbai people based on certain stereotypes, which is crazy. According to me, these two cities are like Batman and Joker fighting each other but also secretly admiring one another for their qualities.

Anyway, I wanted to visit Mumbai also because my friend worked there so I convinced my parents to let me go, which is totally a normal thing for any adult living in Delhi or Mumbai; divided by location united by overprotective parents. I told my mother that if I accidentally bump into Vicky Kaushal I would only return after getting married. The first instinct of most of the girls attracted by a guy is to get married and for guys, it’s almost always sexual. *Gender Stereotypes*

                                                        

My day began with me reaching the airport, FYI first time traveling alone. The perks of traveling alone are you don’t have to talk, listen to some boring shit and you also get to roam around as you wish. The downsides of traveling alone are you don’t have anyone to talk (for long flights), no one to take care of your belongings when you have to go to the toilet and only for people like me you have to eat alone; I don’t know why but I absolutely cannot eat alone in public. When I am eating alone in public, I immediately resonate with Amir khan from the song tanhaaai (Dil Chahta Hai), feeling like a complete loser who has no one in this world. I was sitting alone sipping my coffee at the airport and had to throw the rest of it away to avoid crying in public which is way worse than eating alone in public. I boarded the plane and try to act cool not making eye contact with anyone. I pray that I get seated next to Vicky Kaushal or any hot guy but sadly I shared the seats with two middle-aged men probably Gujrati which is still better than sitting next to a couple. I landed in Mumbai a little later than expected and my friend was there to pick me up. The first thought I got on my ride from the airport to her home was what’s this smell, fish I guessed.

I was pumped and wanted to visit places right away, so I began the day-long adventure of being a tourist and clicking an annoying amount of pictures and videos of all the roads, buildings and poles. We saw the Gateway of India, Colaba market, marine drive, chaupati, Juhu, Bandra, Worli sea link and what not! Also, I traveled through the famous local train which still makes me dizzy. It is more crowded than most European cities. My friend told me a fun fact about people in Bombay that they love to shop in the local and I observed a number of vendors selling stuff from toffees to cheekus to dupattas to MacBook. It is definite that people are less hot-headed in Mumbai as compared to Delhi because if someone would try to sell me something on a crowded train, I think I will kill them. Wow, my EQ sucks!

We witnessed another famous typical Mumbai stereotype, oversharing talkative taxi driver. This lovely taxi guy took us to all the amazing places in Bandra and also showed us Mount Mary church, Worli-Bandra sealink and Shahrukh Khan’s house. He also told us about the time he was invited into Mannat by Shahrukh himself when he driving some producer around. Now call it a Delhi stereotype but his story made me skeptical and I wonder if all the taxi drivers in Mumbai have a script to follow and fool all the tourists with amazing but false anecdotes. The conclusion is every person in Mumbai is an actor and it is a possibility that there is a real Truman Show situation going on in there.

The only thought I had while my taxi ride back to my friend’s place was, wow what an incredible city!!