The First Day in Mumbai (part II)

(It is continuation of the previous post. So if you haven’t already read that, better do that first.)

I was carrying a pretty heavy suitcase and a bag of decent size. I availed one of the small vehicles plying on the roads inside the office campus and reached block D. The campus is pretty big. A wide road stretches straight from the main entrance to a large fountain. Behind the fountain are the buildings where people work. The buildings are arranged in two somewhat circular arrangements. One circle comprises of blocks ‘A’ to ‘E’ and the other one includes from ‘F’ to ‘J’. There are other buildings too but I wasn’t and still am not concerned with those much. However the aspect more conspicuous than the extent of the campus was its cleanliness. I felt good to be in such a campus and hoped that everything would turn out to be equally neat.

At 11 in the morning, we were around twelve people in a conference room. Waiting. When the silence was unbearable I started with my introduction. The cue was taken up by others and within some moments I realized what was most essential, that we all belonged to the same frequency, all fresh graduates from IITs. You know what I mean.

I don’t want to bore you with what happened next in the office. Exactly as expected, form filling and introduction and etc. Only important thing was a bit of miscommunication. The HR official told me that I was expected on 27th whereas I came on 6th. He assured however that there will be no problem and directed me to the guesthouse in Wadala.

At around 7pm I came out of the office premises. Remember my luggage. This time I wasn’t lucky to catch one of those vehicles and was blaming the company for having to carry the luggage around in such a large campus. I took an auto (will write about the ubiquitous autos in Mumbai in a later post, there is a lot to write about). I reached Vashi, the entrance of Navi Mumbai from the larger part of main Mumbai. I took a taxi for Wadala.

The ride was going nice until I suddenly realized that we were no longer in a city and it was getting dark. There were no buildings in sight except only a distant factory. The roads were pretty empty with occasional high-speed cars darting past us. I must admit I was quite shocked. If the taxi driver had any intension to rob me, it was the perfect time and place. I took out the piece of paper containing phone numbers from my purse and placed it in my book-pocket. If someone snatched my purse, I would still have the contacts – logic, you see. Much to my relief, the taxi got into a crowded area once more and I reached the guesthouse. But the ordeal was far from getting over.
(I later came to know that the deserted road was Chembur-Wadala highway.)

(To be Continued ....)