Jaygovind Sahu

A view of Traffic@Mumbai

Almost four months back (on 18th April, 2010) I reached to Mumbai to join in my company. This is not my first visit to the most stylish city of my country. In fact, I had seen most of the beautiful places in this city in the visits I had made before. This visit is obviously very different from those; I am here for work, to build a strong foundation for my work and career. When we had got our posting options as Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai, it hardly took 10 seconds for me to decide what I was going to choose. I was already fascinated by the life-style of Mumbai, and with friends around it would always be fun. My elder sister being there, I was sure I would be able manage things easily. After coming here I found that it was much more than that. I have not been able to visit the famous places in the city with friends, but I have seen and realised, what it takes to be in Mumbai and what you get in return.

On my very first day at Mumbai, I found a very helpful man on my way to office who helped me get to the railway station. Taking time out of his fast walk to his work, he took the pain to divert and get me to my place. I was very happy and that is the first time I realised that people here are very helpful. After four months also, I feel exactly the same. It is not like I have not had any bad experience till now, but you know, that all count as parts of experience. It really seemed very wonderful to me to find people so professional yet willing to help strangers around without making any business analysis (in the time and resources utilised, if any).

When someone like me, from a small and slow town, comes to a huge and fast city like Mumbai, it takes time for adaptation. Travelling in local trains and BEST buses gives a new idea how professional and accurate in time travelling services can be. I used to ask at least four or five times about the stations and timing to different people (taking care that the person I have asked once does not notice it) in a single part of my journey. Today, people ask me the same kind of questions and I feel very happy helping them. Managing time to get to the office in time is yet another challenge when you travel through traffic which at times seems completely impenetrable. Crossing roads through the speeding vehicles, tearing the crowd to make own way, finding the right way to be the first in a queue – these all serve the purpose of the exercising the reflex action of brain.

I feel that Mumbai has a very strong soul in form of the people living in it. The resilience it shows to the forces against it shows its strength. Time and again, terrorism has tried to keep this beautiful city in its grip and make it suffer but it is the spirit of the people in the city, and the believe that everything will be fine makes it strong enough to heal from injuries and smile as ever. I was very happy to hear that Tata Group has spent more than 1.5 billion rupees to renovate the Taj Hotel and is planning to reopen it today, on the Independence Day of the country. People are never afraid either to roam in the Marine Drive or to travel in the local train. That is the victory this city celebrates everyday and will always do.

The Taj Hotel

Happy Indpependence Day. Proud to be an Indian.