The First Day in Mumbai

It was 4:30 in the morning. I had just reached the Lokmannya Tilak Terminus (LTT) better known as the Kurla railway station, one of the three main terminuses of Mumbai. It was 6th June. I had to report to my office that very day by 10:30 in the morning. My dad had arranged someone to pick me up from the station but none was there at that moment. I called the guy on his mobile. The phone kept on ringing. Just as I was going to give up the response came.

“Hello!”

You can never say ‘hello’ with more reluctance. I could almost smell the annoyance in his words. When I informed him of my arrival, the man was equally surprised and disgusted that an Indian train had made it on time.

After around 45 minutes a slim man arrived. As no person other than myself was having considerable amount of luggage at such an early hour of the day in the station, he had no problem in pinpointing me as his target. This man was definitely not the one I had talked to earlier. This man had a terrible nasal pronunciation, which made him repeat everything at least twice before it made sense to me.

However the drive with Mr. Nasal was fine, as it required minimum verbal interaction. I went to a hotel, bathed and had a good breakfast. After a 36-hour journey by train, those were most welcome.

At around 9 I took another ride, this time with a friend of Mr. Nasal. I was in Vile-Parle. From there I went to Navi Mumbai. The roads in Navi Mumbai were broader, less crowded and had better trafficking systems at least as compared to most of Kolkata and part of Mumbai I had seen. I reached the main entrance of the office in time. I thought I would go to the office, have some introduction, fill some obligatory forms and then rest in the accommodation provided by the company. I desperately wanted to have a good sleep on a soft bed that I missed in the train. I had no idea that so much was in store on my very first day in Mumbai.

(To Be Continued ....)