The first meeting and getting to know you - How I met Mumbai for the first time, and then the second, third and fourth (Mumbai Series Part 2)

With some free time at hand and the blog having been untouched for months, I decided to write a blog post. While starting to write, coming across a topic was fairly easy. While there have been many new events in my life in the last 3 months, the one that came as my biggest surprise was the city I came to live in. Now, I am by no means a frog in the well (direct translation of Kupamanduk: a fro that lives his whole life in a well and considers the well as the extent of the universe). I have stayed for extended periods in three metros in India - growing up in Kolkata, graduation in Delhi and the post-graduation in Bangalore) - and visited a lot more cities across the world - New York, Paris, Singapore to name just a few - in fact even Mumbai. But nothing had prepared me for this city. But if I said that this was my first visit to Mumbai, I would be very far from the truth. I had, in fact, been to this city on four previous occasions (not counting the one time I came for house hunting since that is an extension of the permanent move). And it is those four times that I want to talk about here.

My first visit to Mumbai happened when I was still in school. My father had a conference in Mumbai and all of us (being Mom, my sister and I), came with him for a short trip. We stayed in the convenience of Grand Hyatt (my dad's conference venue and my first and only five-star stay during school) and while my dad attended his conference, the three of us moved around the city and acted exactly as tourists do. We went to Gateway of India and took a ferry to the Elephanta caves, then drove along the queen's necklace at dusk, went shopping to Colaba Causeway and Bandra Linking Road and had Gola on Juhu Chowpatty. At the end of the visit I felt like I had met the city, but was barely even introduced to it. Like the many people you meet at a friend's party and say hi to. You may even share a dance during the night. But the next day, along with the hangover, the image of the faces and mostly even the names fade from memory. I had touched base with Mumbai. But barely.

My second visit was in my final year of college. I was here for an interview at TIFR (I know it's a surprise given that continuing with Chemistry was never in my scheme of things, but it's called keeping options open) with Srinivas (I know it's an even bigger surprise for those who knew me during that phase). As different as possible from my first visit, we were put up in a working women's hostel in Bandra. The two of us were students on a short budget. So every morning we made our pilgrimage to Colaba on BEST buses (Srini and I had a fear for local trains bordering on paranoia). Food was frequently roadside. In 3 days we had had more Bhel Puri, Vada Pav and Gola than the number of potholes on Mumbai roads. And we saw the city on foot. Mind you, we didn't do the usual sightseeing routine. Rather we walked. The February weather was perfect to walk about without much strain. Srini was also an avid photographer (and I am sure he still is) and so we walked the streets of south Bombay with its old Portuguese architecture and quaint charms. We went to St. Xavier's college where I had a friend studying and did an extended tour. We also went to the Chowpatty, walked along marine drive, went to Juhu Chowpatty, bought 7 pairs for Oshos (a pair of slipper-like footwear made of jute with a brightly coloured velvet strap and border, and all the seven pairs were not for me but rather for my entire gang of girl friends in college) and generally walked the interesting cobbled streets of Bandra. That time I saw Mumbai for what it is. I walked through the slums and walked past the high rises. I sat on the rocks bordering the sea on the TIFR campus, which was a beautiful oasis of green at the southernmost point of Mumbai's concrete jungle, and lapped in the beauty. I ate at dingy restaurants and seedy hotels. And yet, I felt like I had finally touched the pulse of Mumbai, even if it was for a second. It was like Mumbai and I had had our first meaningful conversation.

The third time I came to Mumbai was in just after my first term at business school, for the finale of the Johnson and Johnson Case Study Competition, which my team of four had managed to crack. It was a moment of glory for us. We were flown in for the competition and were put up in Dadar in the hotel attached to the Institute of Hotel Management. Of course the greater part of the day was spent in the confines of the boardroom at J&J as we made the presentations of our life. And we had flights to catch early next morning. But that trip introduced me to a totally new aspect of Mumbai, one I had heard a lot about but had not witnessed before, in fact barely witnessed anywhere. It was the famed Mumbai nightlife. The evening started, I remember, with me, Kartik and Isha going over to Leopold's. Leopold's was always a dream. And once there, it was another dream to order their long tube of beer (it's an alternative to the pitcher only more interesting. It almost looks like a gigantic test tube, which to this Chemistry graduate seemed like a hilarious method to serve beer). What we hadn't factored in then was that the fourth member of our group wouldn't join us there and Isha was a teetotaler and was to leave pretty early. So, the onus fell on Kartik and me to glug down the beer and in record time too. Those days, I was not a great beer drinker, and so let's just say that the beer had a greater effect on me than beer is supposed to have or would have now. But of course, Kartik was far from satisfied. So we made our way from Colaba to Juhu in a taxi to a bar and cafe with a pool table and very late hours, where Birla was waiting for us. It's a different thing that I don't remember the name of the place at all. But it was that night I learnt the basics of how to play pool. I also had some amazing chocolate mousse cake. Finally, well past midnight (would be around 2), we were joined by Isha and the four of us went to Juhu Cowpatty for Chaat and Gola before calling it a day and going back to our hotel for an hour long nap. Oh, and did I mention that we came second in that competition and won around 75K among us? But that was the trip where I was introduced to the lighter side of Mumbai. I had learnt to have fun with the city.

But whoever told you that the city was all fun and no work, didn't have his facts correct. I was soon introduced to this in my fourth trip to the city. I came here during my internship between my first and second year at business school. My primary client site was Pune, but for two of the days my team had to work out of Mumbai. As per tradition, the client took care of accommodation. But contrary to tradition, it was not at a swanky hotel but at a service apartment meant only for the top managers with the client. This apartment was on the seventh floor of a building right on Worli sea face, with nothing between the building and the sea but a small private park belonging to the building and a few metres of rocky sea-line. The building was called Samudra Mahal and each apartment was a 3 BHK unit. Each apartment also had 2 associated people for cleaning and cooking. That night I found out that the flat next door had been sold less than two months earlier for Rs. 36 Crores. Now, many of you will say I was short changed by being kept in a service apartment as opposed to a five-star. But since then I have stayed in multiple five-stars in the line of work and I can vouch for it that the hotels just do not match up when it comes to personal touch that apartments can give you. The beds are as comfortable, the view even better and the food completely tailored to your taste and healthy too.  But it is the work that took me completely by surprise. The day started at 8.30 and work never ceased before 11. And in the three days I was in Mumbai I saw that this work ethic extended well beyond just our team. I realised while Mumbai knew how to party, it worked hard too. I had met the worker bee in Mumbai.

While I don't claim to have a full understanding of the city and its working. In fact far from it, I think the city will remain an enigma. I do believe that those first four meetings with Mumbai did open some windows for me. And those visits also served for a first impression that has carried onto my move to the city.