Mumbai

Well its 4.51 AM and I sit in Raleigh on a Friday that was opposite of what I call productive with guilt of not using the day and overwhelmed after a movie. Was watching "Crazy love" and it got me thinking and pondering over things best thought of when old probably :P ...So, I thought Id put down the two tiny pieces of blog-material I had written a year or two back.Here's the first one about some changes to my loved city I spent most of my life in so far...(sometimes it scares me to think life was short to see only two cities or long enough to know them well) ..yeah... philosophy...what else are blogs for ? :P

Its a very old post, so please consider everything in that context...

Mumbai and Pune, my two homes; the sister cities. Blessed with fame and the title of finance capital the beautiful city of mumbai is famous for the experience people carry with them out of their mundane life including the experience of the untrustable people in the local trains(this emerged from my experience of theft of my wallet from my perfectly closed bag in broad day light) . To me, these local trains(LT) were never an "experience" but a way of life until I got accustomed to the "Punynagari" fight for space in their buses. But yesterday, after a gap of more than two years I got the opportunity to re-taste the unforgettable LT tour; and it has surely improved for the better.

The camouflaged spit on the trains was colored with a thick layer of posters loudly declaring the unbeatable results of the hyped 10th and 12th coaching classes and other regular stuff. Newer trains introduced with more sensible cost-cutting schemes and with an audio-inform-automatic and a digital display of the scheduled stops.
The ever painful wait for the manual punched ticket is supplemented with punchable coupons and smart card kiosks which gave some really fancy looking tickets(as if I got a boarding pass for the train) with least effort and lightening speeds.

However, as smart and techie the new facilities were...it didnt appear that the people lived up to it. People must learn to adapt else the efforts go down the drain and that was what was happening. The barbaric struggle to rush into the train with stronger force winning (push from within the train vs. push from the outside). The old and the most effective queue forming system is never thought of as a good option.
The smart kiosks are only for the smart people who are less in number thus would stand there waiting to be smartening the place...Luckily, the crowd was at-least aware of the coupon system and hence the ticket queues were much shorter.
The trains were prettier but the uncivilized spitting continued..
But in-spite of all this, my love for the city or the people will never diminish because it is the home of the young souls and spirited people who wish to convert their dreams of richness to reality. Love you mumbai.

I don't know how much of it remains true and if it even matters...but Mumbai shall remain in my heart always.