Vada Pav – Poyayov! First hand report...
So much for the VadaPav! Okay, I agree,
Mumbai is cool. The beaches are nice, B-schools better, people (you know what I
mean) best! :) For some reason, for locals, VadaPav tops
everything else! At least, that's how I feel.
I wanted to taste one of those. But I
didn’t. End of story, at least for now.
I went in Mumbai by train. Like every
Indian, after 10 hours in train, I started talking to the nearest passengers,
can’t help it. It just happens. Two jains – who came to Chennai on a business
visit; one malayali – settled now in Chennai, going for work purpose to Mumbai;
two more guys – one surely Bengali and the other one is surely Mumbai. And
yeah, all male. (Damn you, IRCTC) Why am I mentioning all this? Because
corporate world’s favorite word is ‘takeaway’, even though the so-called
takeaways are forgotten in no time! Here are my takeaways – it’s not a big deal
if I continue to not know Hindi in Mumbai, they don’t talk in Hindi much anyway
(that’s a great thing to hear); there’s no problem for Vegetarian food (most of
them are Jains, and they don’t even eat potatoes you see! That means, I won’t
have a big problem. They also said Jains make Mumbai – doesn’t matter, there’s
a fair amount of Vegetarian population!); I got the Mumbai guy’s phone number
(networking); my would-be university was by far the most popular among the
Mumbai-common-man (that was quite heartening); that’s enough.
Next night, I was waiting to board my
return bus to Chennai. This is when the ‘real’ Mumbai slaps you on the face!
Boarding point – Sion Circle.
Bus time – around 8.30 PM
Apparently, this is one of the busiest places for long distance buses. ‘So?’, I thought… every place that has a long distance bus boarding point is busy. But no, this is Mumbai.
“Mumbai has lot of multi-storey buildings; why Chennai doesn’t have?” “Because there is SPACE in Chennai” – this was my reply during the train journey. The depth of the answer was right in front of my eyes now. The buses were not moving. I was hungry. My bus did not reach. I texted my friend who boarded in Bisleri. “7.40 it started”, I got the reply.
Boarding point – Sion Circle.
Bus time – around 8.30 PM
Apparently, this is one of the busiest places for long distance buses. ‘So?’, I thought… every place that has a long distance bus boarding point is busy. But no, this is Mumbai.
“Mumbai has lot of multi-storey buildings; why Chennai doesn’t have?” “Because there is SPACE in Chennai” – this was my reply during the train journey. The depth of the answer was right in front of my eyes now. The buses were not moving. I was hungry. My bus did not reach. I texted my friend who boarded in Bisleri. “7.40 it started”, I got the reply.
I waited, texted him and waited.
I waited, texted him and waited.(switched on GPS)
I waited, texted him and waited. (Got hungry)
In between, I saw many vada-pavs on my side, a man with a guitar, a band playing loud music (this does NOT happen in Chennai, I wish it happens! :D), a foreign couple (okay, not sure, man and woman) waiting for a similar bus, one passenger spitting from a bus window (little far from me!) and more traffic. You need a lot of patience, tolerance and more patience to wait in such an atmosphere. The noise and traffic are just maddening. You cannot see a vacant spot in your eye range. Frightening. The Kathiparas, Vadapalanis and OMRs are NO match for this. This is by far the best (READ: worst) traffic, at least I have seen. That too, when I am ‘not’ travelling.
I waited, texted him and waited.(switched on GPS)
I waited, texted him and waited. (Got hungry)
In between, I saw many vada-pavs on my side, a man with a guitar, a band playing loud music (this does NOT happen in Chennai, I wish it happens! :D), a foreign couple (okay, not sure, man and woman) waiting for a similar bus, one passenger spitting from a bus window (little far from me!) and more traffic. You need a lot of patience, tolerance and more patience to wait in such an atmosphere. The noise and traffic are just maddening. You cannot see a vacant spot in your eye range. Frightening. The Kathiparas, Vadapalanis and OMRs are NO match for this. This is by far the best (READ: worst) traffic, at least I have seen. That too, when I am ‘not’ travelling.
Finally the bus arrived. And my friend had
VadaPav. Apparently, no recession or inflation has affected the prices of
VadaPav. Forget the Big Mac Index, you really need a VadaPav index!
And I have not yet experienced much, the Mumbai local trains. What about the buses? Anything rectangle in shape with wheels is a bus here, I think – the one striking difference compared to the ‘classy’ buses in Chennai and Bangalore, and whenever I saw them, I found them crowded. I am a theist, God save me! :)
And I have not yet experienced much, the Mumbai local trains. What about the buses? Anything rectangle in shape with wheels is a bus here, I think – the one striking difference compared to the ‘classy’ buses in Chennai and Bangalore, and whenever I saw them, I found them crowded. I am a theist, God save me! :)
How will I manage two (or more) years here?
Surely, there will be other things to
compensate (with counterplay!) for these! Education, Fun, G_, H_, I___ and what not! Amchi Mumbai! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment