Saturday, March 29, 2008

My first time

My first experience of traveling by a train in Mumbai was very pleasant. I had just finished taking my Class 10 Board Exams and was accompanying my father on a business trip. We were staying in a guest-house on Malabar Hill (Fantastic place and whattay view! The view deserves its own post here!) and we were going to visit a relative somewhere near Juhu. It was Ambedkar Jayanti; the reason why we were not visiting our clients on a business trip, and also the reason why the trains were empty!

We took tickets for First Class from Churchgate to Andheri, and easily got seats. Coming from Calcutta, I thought why do people make such a big deal of Mumbai locals? I had traveled in some really crowded buses in Cal, and I was yet to see something more crowded than that.

Another thing I noticed was a middle-aged couple sitting near us. They were both dressed in white, and the woman, apart from having very intricate chikan work on her kurta was wearing seemingly very expensive jewellery. The jewellery may have been imitation, but I had never seen such well dressed people take public transport in Cal!

Nothing very exciting, but that’s all I have to say about that.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

This Blog gets CPR

And I make another attempt at reviving this blog. Like the previous times, this time too I may start off and vanish again. But now, it seems like I have a lot to write about.
The blog, though still suffering from the identity crisis, will have some specific topics that I’ll write about. I thought about starting separate blogs dedicated to these, but let me just get this one going!

The first thing I will write about is about my travails on the Mumbai local train. I take the Suburban train (local version: Local) from Andheri to Churchgate everyday. The next few weeks, I hope to pen down all my thoughts and some of the interesting experiences I have had on my daily trips up and down. After that, whenever I have something to write about, I’ll try and do it the same day.
I will also write about Mumbai, link up with previous experiences in other cities, blah blah…

Food is one of my few passions. I have eaten out at over a 100 places in Mumbai, and though I like to go to new places every now and then, I now have a few favourites. So, a few articles once in a while would be on food and drink.

I have also bought a lot of books over the past few months and now that I have some time, I have a lot of reading to do. Book reviews and my thoughts while reading will get their due in the future posts.

Work however will not figure in this. I don’t think my writing ability is going to attract a fan-base of any sorts, but I do not wish to shoo away the few readers with posts about work.

Now, breathe…