Mumbai Experience: Part One

More than one month I have been in Mumbai. Now I can say at least that  know this city little bit. Mumbai is really miracle city. It’s more or me who is with all your heart “Village Boy”. In that aspect it is eye opener for me. So just trying to present” Mumbai Life” through my eyes. Sorry if any one feels bad .

The first thing which strikes me about this City is Its Absorption Power: Be it people, be it Building or be it Vehicle or any thing. Nothing is “Waste” in this city. Everything has value.
Lets start with the people, people from all over the India are here and people are doing all type of works. Be it 6 am in the morning or 11 pm of night, the Train and Buses are full. Everybody does one or another thing to earn. I have seen the people working in corporate house to people working in govt. office to people who are migrant labour. All
have the feeling “M for Mumbai and M for Money”. So work hard. Mumbai does not refuse anyone really. Those who are not able to sustain,  it’s unfortunate for them. I think People of Mumbai do have High tolerating Power. You will see the train compartment is thronged with people, everyone is jumping on another. But still there is no reaction. Almost
all having head phone in their ear and giving very very indifferent look. Huh it seems all are alien. When any station comes, they just jumped to each other to get down or to get up. All are so used to it that I even sometime seen people are fighting to get down or get up in vacant train. Its like out of Habit. But its does not mean the people are not helpful. They are indeed. Till now I have not come across any wicked person (expect the unfortunate incident of Police encounter).
Hope not to meet with anyone. Personally I feel in Mumbai, no one is bothered about what other one is
doing. Actually they do not have the time to do it. Hope this does not happen all the time. The city should have a Heart (Like it had when Mumbai was drowned last time).

The city is really surprising. One fine morning you are standing on the balcony of your 15th floor apartment and do not why you just stretched your eyes to see your surrounding. You can see the people living at those places which has very famous name “Jhopad patti”. They are very well settled in those “Jhopad Patti”s surrounding your Housing Complex.

This picture truly depicts the Mumbai life.

The city is yours in one and only condition “Money”. If you have it, all the amenities, fun and entertainments are for you. May this holds true for any part of the world, but in Mumbai it is more apparent. For an example, famous singer “Beyonce” is coming to perform in Mumbai. Do you what is ticket price? Yes Rs, 2750 and Rs.1650. During survey in
slum, I have seen people earning less than this.

My Experience with Truth…

He wrote “R” very carefully on our hand. “R”!! What does it mean? “R” is ROTTEN? Are we “rotten piece” for Society?  Thank God, we got new adjective for our life. Then he took us to the Jail. Jail!! Yes Jail, a makeshift one. The front space of bathroom is converted to Jail. We were stunned. What crime we have done that we are in jail?
 It was Sunday evening. As it was very boring evening, so we decided to hang out in Choupatti Beach. We took fast train from Andheri to Church Gate and thought as it will become slow after Mumbai Central, we will get down at Charni Road Station. But destiny had planned something else. That particular train surprisingly had stop in Mumbai Central and from there, straight to Church Gate. So we had to get down at Mumbai Central Station. It was 8.30 P.M. We saw that the slow train, which would take us to the Charni Road was about to come on 8.31 P.M. on platform opposite to us. There was much rush on the over bridge. So I don’t know what happened, I jumped on the railway track and easily went to the desired platform by crossing the railway track. It was very usual from me and I will not be able to count how many times I have done this it during Graduation. Ravi, my companion, might have not done this, but he also followed me and easily went to the platform by crossing Railway Track.
Now the real story begins. After both were safely standing on the platform, a hand approached to us. “Ticket Please”? a voice came from a Man who was more like Football Player with strong arm and he was in plain shirt and trouser. I was not able to make out who “the man” could be? But still I handed over my Ticket which was monthly ticket pass and Ravi did same. To much our surprise he took both the ticket and put it in his Pocket.
“Chalo Magistrate ke pass”, he told in commanding voice, “don’t you people know crossing of railway track is illegal”?
“Crossing of railway track is illegal”, I could not believe that I am in India. We are arrested for crossing the railway track!! Really it was unbelievable for me. But I don’t know why I was feeling that the man was fake. So I wanted to see what happens in the end.
The man took us to the magistrate. In the way of going to magistrate, Ravi tried to settle the things, but I don’t know I was having the feel that this man was fake. Though my thought was proved wrong. So when Ravi was trying to pursue him I was silent. The man was tough customer or may be we did not the trick of persuasion (How to put Money Matter in persuasion).
So that real man took us to the Magistrate and there before sending to the so called jail wrote “R” our hand.
Huh, we were in Jail. Think the matter; we were in jail for just crossing the railway track without using Over Bridge. We are in India. May be we are used to see the things in other way, so it was unexpected and unbelievable. But frankly speaking, had we committed such a heinous crime that we deserve Jail. In a country where Most Dangerous criminals are getting the respect from Top Cop, Bureaucrat and others, is it not too much to be in jail for what we did. We had wait in the jail for 10 min until our turns came to be present in front of magistrate. The magistrate was like a south Indian hero with strong arm and strong moustache. He took away our Identity card and started to ask questions. The question was just mere introduction, it did not take much time to come in the real acting, yup acting and we were really ignorant. We have read so much about Police and especially Mumbai police; I had the feeling that they can do any thing. The magistrate straight way asked for fine of Rs. 1250 per person. He started to give cool threat that if we don’t pay, even he can spoil our carrier and asked to call our parents. He gave order to search our wallet and see how much money we have?
I was scared and more importantly frustrated. We had enough money to give but see the law (I doubt is there any law which talks about fine of Rs.1250 for crossing the railway track) and see the Magistrate’s attitude. Finally we settled the thing at Rs 510 per person. I don’t know whether the money, he took, will go to the railways or will it be distributed among the so called protectors of our great railways. But what would have happened if we did not have the required money? Rs. 510 is not small amount and is it right to take in that fashion? The other option was to stay in Jail over night and they would took us to the court next day for judgment and the amount court will ask we had to pay. The ironical part is that now if you are not happy with such thing, what will you do? Will you complain to railway police saying that railway police did not give proper justice to you? Will you have much time to spare or so much energy to use to knock the door of alternatives like Court, file a petition or Consumer Court etc? One word answer is NO. So be happy that instead of paying Rs.1250 you are paying Rs.510 and you are being involved in great saga of Indian law and its enforcement!!!