Feeling of being a 3 year old MUMBAIKAR !!!

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       For the whole night, I was awake and brisk. The excitement to see the new sun bringing a change in life was creeping on very deep inside me. Everything seemed as if I am leaving a bad past to bring on a transmogrification in my loser life. For the whole night, I kept browsing my Mobile's contact list to find a name to whom I can send a text and tell the amount of excitement and zeal I had in me. It was not the first time that I was to travel by train. Neither was it the first time that the shifting was taking place in my life. My father being a very risky person keeps changing his job every now and then, resulting in change of city and then the adaptation takes place. So, it was one another phenomena that this was happening. But, it was a rare moment this time. At 5.35 AM, I and my parents caught the train at Nashik station. After half an hour, my parents slept, but who had the daring to make Mr. Excited close his eyes and rest his body. I started messaging selected friends and tried to show the exact feelings my heart was going through- "Hey buddy, its one hour and I would be in your city for the whole life" and what I got back was more exciting than this- "Wow. I am coming tomorrow to meet you" "Hey, are you really shifting? Was waiting for you from a long time" and many different messages trying to depict the same feeling and meaning. And finally, on 15th April, 2009, at 9:10 AM, I stepped on the land of Mumbai. :-)

            Being in a colony campus at a backward region in Maharashtra for first 16 years of my life, then being in Aurangabad for several months, and then is Nashik for 2 years, I always had a dream to reside in Mumbai. But it wasn't getting possible because of several dramatic situations that were going on with my super-duper amazing life. But, finally, when my father said to me that "You and your mother will have to shift to Mumbai as I am trying to take several jumps in job. So, it's better that both of you shift to Mumbai and you take your professional education there so that you get a good one" . He may not have imagined but rather than education, I imagined almost everything of Mumbai that I saw in movies and news channels. The names like Andheri, Bandra, Colaba, Matunga, Malad, Parel, Churchgate, Mumbai VT, Gateway of India and several others started revolving around. The film city, the origin of Bollywood, the residence of Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, Sachin Tendulkar, Chetan Bhagat and several other idols started capturing me like a passion captures an artist's mind. And out of all this, the most that excited me was the Monsoon of Mumbai and Traveling by Local Train. Other additions were innumerable malls and multiplexes in Mumbai. As I lived for first 16 years in a backward region of Maharashtra, the radio channels which we got to hear there were the one of Mumbai's. So, right from my childhood, I had a virtual and long-distance relationship with Mumbai which turned into reality at 9:10 AM on 15th of April, 2009.

            Today, its 3rd anniversary of the most cool and exciting tag that I achieved of being a "MUMBAIKAR". Here, when I see people speeding towards their work in the early morning, I get a push to be as speedy as them. In the evening, when I see people having some snacks and soft-drinks before catching their final train of the day, I do the same to kick all the exhaustion of the day away from me before showing my face to my family members. In the season of shower, when I get dipped into water, I feel so proud of being a part of this rain which is famous all over India. When I step up into a mobbed coach of local train, I feel special to be one of those commuters who are being talked in newspaper almost every 2nd day. Sometimes when I travel by road, and I get trapped in traffic, rather than getting frustrated on losing the precious time of my life doing nothing on road, I feel myself as a real Mumbaikar getting stuck in traffic and being late to wherever I am up to. :-) This is the level of craziness I have in me. :-)

             Here, when I find several passionate flocks of people, I find myself to be one of them. Sometimes, I find a group of rockers in train having guitars on their back. Sometimes, I find some management guys in their formal uniform talking about how to fool their boss for their next promotion and increment. Sometimes, I find some freshers having their resume and lots of certificate declaring their success in the past. :-) Sometimes, I get to see businessmen doing some financial transactions through their laptops or palmtops sitting in the local train or a crowded platform. I see troops of strong girls returning from their dance classes or a competition. I see small children of not more than 10 visiting malls without any guardian and talking smartly with the counter-boy. And, then I look in the mirror, and assess myself to be one of the achiever of being in the vindication of this non-stoppable merits. I have certain dreams that I want to achieve. I don't need them in life but this city asks me to go beyond my capabilities and thoughts, and achieve something which may give me a name in the "FAME LIST" of this city. And, as I can see the amount of fledged-ness and development in me in the last 3 years, I think I will improve lot more. 

            Mumbai has changed me. Now, I more believe in the company we be with rather than the destiny God has written for us. The environment of the previous cities/towns in which I passed my life isn't too achieving and motivating. And hence, I used to be happy with whatever small I achieved. The exploring life that I get to live in Mumbai definitely is missing there. And therefore, when someone asks me if I would ever like to leave Mumbai and live in some other city or hill-station with silence and peace later on, my answer is a straight NO. I love the running people here. I love the population here. I love the danger of terrorism here. I love almost everything I get to deal in with this city which seems to be Irritation to other outsiders/insiders in the city. I feel so blithe and joyous to tell all of you that I am a 3-year old child of this city now. And, years are just going to proliferate from here. I wish to get buried in the land of this city. Sorry, in our custom, we are burnt. So, I wish to turn ashes on the land of Mumbai. :-) 

    Enough spoken. 

   Thanks.

  ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU