Bumbai Transport

Greetings to you, my fellow commuter. If you are a Mumbaikar, you are gonna love this article. Infact, you would be knowing all this beforehand. Even if you are not a Mumbaikar, it's my pleasure to welcome you, to the inside stuff of transport in Mumbai, or in short ........ Bumbai transport, as they call it.

Let's start with the best option of transport, the local train. It's not big by size, but by the sheer number of the people who use it. Running the local train transport in Mumbai means big bucks, as millions............. yes, millions and millions throng the station daily. When it's monsoon, you have got to expect rush and jam packed crowds in the compartments because the trains get delayed as they need to slow down on wet tracks. A couple of years back, I went through a similar experience. I was eagerly waiting for a train on Andheri station, so that I could reach Matunga. As fate had it, I waited for an hour( If you have travelled on trains before, you know this kind of waiting spells doom). So it was my luck that I could manage to get my foot on the train when it arrived. There was absolutely no chance of going inside at that point. One hand on the bar and just one foot, out of the two, on the floor, my entire body was outside the compartment. As the train swung, my body, with my bag at the back also swung. It was almost a borderline between life and death. Luckily, that time I had no glasses otherwise they would have gone with the wind. A couple of stations later, I decided I had it with adventure, so I pushed my way through, only to find out, that double the amount of crowd had entered the compartment, and made it impossible for me to move. When my station was about to arrive, either it was intuition or common sense, but I decided to start off pretty early towards the exit of the compartment. What can you do when you are sandwiched from all sides? I couldn't move my body, even an inch. I finally reaped the fruits of going to the gym, as I managed to push and punch my way through 50 people.

Let's move on to the local bus transport., known as the BST Bus. The big problem you can encounter here is, if the frequency of the bus is not good. It's really maddening to wait at the bus stop for more than 5 minutes, especially if you don't have company. The bus would eventually arrive. Do not be shocked to find it packed, again. Some of them aren't, it just depends on the route. If it's packed, be ready with the money before you enter because I assure you, once the bus moves, it's pretty difficult to go for the change and cling onto the hanger at the same time. The deadliest moment is when the bus driver brakes. It's as if some hefty hoodlum has pushed you from behind. You must be a lucky chap if you get to sit on a crowded bus. You can almost visualize the phenomena of completing a 100 metre race, when a fellow passenger leaves a seat vacant. The seat is the gold medal, for which a dozen people, aspire to accquire.

Frankly speaking, there are no problems with the Taxis or Autorickshaws. You get them almost everywhere. You can share them with other people, if they are going in the same direction. Only problem is, you would have to shell out much more than you do on a train or a bus, but that disadvantage goes away with the shared autos and taxis.

If you do not have the propensity for local transport, then you better have your own car. A couple of problems come along with the A/C and music in the car. Traffic is increasing at an exponential rate. A few months back, I was driving from Churchgate to Matunga. If you have time to waste, try what I did, or travel in the reverse direction in the morning. A 20 minute journey went on for a shocking 100 minutes. In the previous paragraph, if you thought Taxi and autos were your friend in need, they are your worst enemies, when you are behind the wheel. Add to that, the gundagiri of the bst buses. What can you do, they are bigger in size. The biggest problem, which irritates even the most patient of all, are the people walking on the roads, when they have a nice footpath available. For some strange reason, people like to walk on the road. For the past few months, they have also been displaying some antics. Once I was just driving around 20kmph, and suddenly a couple of kids who wanted to cross the road, cross it just as I was going to pass. On the way, they show their hand, instructing me to stop.

Well, that's about it. I can't go on and on, but yes, Mumbai transport isn't all that bad. These were just a few occasions. Otherwise, it is really fun to experience it. In the years or decades to come, no matter what the condition is, Mumbai is always going to remain close to my heart because as the song goes, " Aye dil, hai mushkil, jeena yahaan, zara hatke, zara bach ke , Yeh hai Bumbai, meri jaan" .

Roller Coaster Rides!

Wow! That sure was a bumpy ride. Oh! Hi there. In case you were wondering what was that first line for, well, I have just got off a Roller Coaster. Amidst all the fun and thrill during the roller coaster ride, I happened to enlighten myself upon a few facts of life. It's just amazing what a simple Roller Coaster ride manages to portrays, to the one, who has an eye for detail. Now, during the course of this article, you must not think I am some kind of maniac, who has nothing to do in this world. My sole purpose of sitting on a roller coaster is to have fun and nothing else. It's just for the blog, that I decided to sink in deep into the intricacies of an average, yet spectacular, roller coaster. So, enjoy the ride.

Firstly, I consider an entire ride on a roller coaster, analogous to life. The obvious truth you all must have chanced upon by now is, there are many ups' and downs' in life, as in a roller coaster ride. If you would have noticed, neither does the coaster remain entirely up or down. Every down is succeeded by an up, and vice versa. Of course, the really successfull manage to keep it up, for most of the time. But the fact is, nothing is permanent. If you have the mind for it, you can convert your downs' to ups'.

The above truth, I am sure, you all would have been aware of, but hang on, there is more. Let's concentrate during the phase when the roller coaster is slowly moving upwards. If you would have noticed while sitting on a roller coaster moving up, your eyes slowly light up. You can feel that increment from the bottom every second. At the same time, there is that lingering thought at the back of your mind, about the journey after you reach the top. At present you would be having no idea whether the coaster would go down or remain up for sometime. The same applies to life. When climbing the ladder of life, you never know what's going to happen in the future. So while climbing, your mind is in the hybrid state of excitement (or happiness) and anxiety. Let's see what's the situation is,when the coaster goes down. When you reach the top, and you stare at the depth from which you have climbed out of, your immediate reaction is to open your mouth, in happiness for achieving the feat and in fear or shock to brace for the steep fall. Same thing happens in life. When you know you are going to go down, that shock hits you. But as said before, every down is succeeded by an up. So don't worry. As they say, "Darr se mat daro, uske aage bado".

So far, we have discussed stuff external to the roller coaster. But there are facts to be extracted from within the coaster itself. This is applicable if you are in a roller coaster train.If you are sitting in the front, then you get to experience all the ups' and downs' firsthand. For you, it comes as a surprise, while for the rest, they know what's coming after seeing your position. If I could juxtapose it with life, then I would term you as the leader of any organization, because, the leader has to face all the hurdles firsthand, experience it, find out some solution, and only then can he direct his sub-ordinates on the correct route.

Another interpretation is, when the first car of the train, goes down, there are a quite a few cars behind, to take the powerful vacant postion. They are all waiting for that car to go down so that they can get a taste of the real stuff. Similarly, in any organization, once the leader steps down, there is immense competition for the successor. However, like in a roller coaster, only the next powerful postion can succeed. In life, people wait for the leader to go, so that they also can get to experience the dream of leading the company.

However, all this starts the empty coaster comes on to board the passengers. In a normal coaster, the person, who wants to sit in front, wants to enjoy it firsthand. Likewise in life, when the empty bus of oppurtunity comes, the person who wants to be the leader, will willingly board the bus first and sit in front.

So, after a lot of twists and turns, the roller coaster ride has come to a screeching halt. I hope you enjoyed the ride. In case, you have sat on a different coaster, it would be great for you to share any speciality, which you have witnessed in your coaster. So, let's have it from you, my friend.

Reading Between The Lines!

A warm welcome to you, my friend. Well, as they say, bookish knowledge is useless when one treads in the big bad world. One needs to know, that wee bit extra to stake his claim, to make his prescence felt, to aver that the world would miss him, if he were not there. In short, they say, there is no relation between education life and what they call, the 'real ' life. But I say, there is, a thin inconceivable relation which others cannot ................ read. When you were in school or college, you must have encountered the phrase ' Reading between the lines '. For those of you who do not know its meaning, you can pretty much figure it out from the cartoon above ( Fantastic, isn't it?). If you still don't get it, it means ' To grasp the hidden meaning in a sentence '. According to me, the world is a Big Book. The various situations which happen in our day to day lives, are the lines which are in the book. And that's where reading between the lines is of paramount importance.

They say, ' All that glitters is not gold ' . Similarly, situations are not what they appear to be. If you manage to decipher the hidden code, well and good. You have saved yourself from being duped. Classic examples of where hidden meanings are involved are given below. The first and the best example which springs to mind is Politics. Come on, it's a fact. To quote, ' In Politics, things that appear may not be the truth, while those which do not appear, may be the 24 carat gold you are digging for ' . Nowadays, Poiltics is such that you never know when the ministers are telling the truth. Unless you are well versed with political knowledge and tactics, you might find yourself believing everything, only to contradict yourself later, when the truth somehow spills out. Hence debates are held on various news channels, to get both sides of the story, so that viewer i.e. we, can have knowledge of the entire text, enabling us to read between the lines.

For another example, I jump to sports. In sports, when you know you are good, and you don't get selected, and you get a very well versed explanation from the management, you need to read between the lines. Sometimes, when someone indirectly takes potshots at you, well disguised in the form of a nice compliment etc., you need to read between the lines ( Recent altercations between SRK and AB, and SRK and Aamir Khan, justify this). If you don't, there are others who can, and you will ultimately make a fool of yourself. In general, there is always a situation when a person thinks of himself, and takes advantage of you. He may very well, disguise his intentions, in sweet,convincing words. Reading between the lines is a must to escape pressing the reverse button on your career. A lecturer, when he doesn't know the true concept, may put forward his views, using jargons and complex words, so that students don't even think of questioning him. Of course, we can all read between the lines to arrive at 2 conclusions, one, The Lecturer is trying to show off or second, He doesn't know a thing ( To note, I respect all lecturers. This is just for portraying those very few out of a billion).

These were just a few examples. The world is filled to the very last page, with situations where reading between the lines becomes essential. However, not all situations are such. Chats with parents,relatives, friends are always done with no second thoughts. A proffesor, always tries to help his students, without discriminating on any basis. Even this article to convey my views, has been explicitly done. So, I would like your views on........... this reading. And hopefully, I would not have to take the trouble to read between the lines. So, lets have it from you, my friends.

The Half Glass Drink!!!!!!!!

A very warm welcome to you, my friend. Before you reach out for your mouse, and scroll down for the next article, let me inform you, that this article is not at all, about a glass being half full or half empty. Come on, we all know this. It has been a question, we have all encountered at least once. As we know, the aim of asking a person, the question, "Do you see the glass, half full or half empty? " is to test his/her positive attitude. Apropos my earlier article, you can find the detailed explanations in any one of the billion success books. So this article is not about that. What I am focussing on, is that when we enjoy something, does any other thought cross our mind?

As you and I know, nothing is eternal in this world. Suffering or enjoyment, no matter how prolonged they may be, are bound to come to a screeching halt at some point of time. So what is the attitude of the mind in a situation of enjoyment? To commence, I would like to take an example of a drink. Now let's say that you go to a restaurant, and order a drink of your choice. When it is brought, the first sight of the glass being full to the brim with your favourite drink, makes your mind leap with joy. At this point, there is an abundance of the drink. So any decrease is not going to bother you much. You start drinking, and it reaches to the halfway point, yes, the dreaded half. This is where all the problem starts, doesn't it? The enjoyment you felt at the start, has somehow reduced by half. Completing the remaining half, will finish the drink, and hence dry up your enjoyment. And this thought is irritating, isn't it? So we keep the drink, half full or untouched unless its time to pay the bill. Of course, you would finish the drink then.

The above example of a drink is a nice way of representing the larger scheme of things. When we have good times, we know they are short lived. So around the half way mark, we have the desire to prolong the good. Everyone of us, has the habit of saving. We want to save some good for tommorow, so that tommorow also becomes, as joyful as today. The thought of tommorow being, as good a day as today (which results via our savings) makes up for the remaining half glass of drink, which we had neglected. In other words, our actions then become governed by what gives us temporary satisfaction. This is also applicable in difficult situations. When we have to make a crucial decision, we tend to postpone it as far as possible. The postponing here gives satisfaction to the individual.

You may call me a person, who does not enjoy the moment. But as we all know, every person is filled with virtues and vices. The people of this world are divided into good and bad. In every case, the number half presents itself, and so it does in the glass of drink. In the first half, you think of only the present, while in the next, you plan for the future. Anything in excess is not good. If you think only about the present or the future, your drink will not be as enjoyable or worth the cost, if you had divided the drink into half.

As said earlier, nothing is indefinite. The drink, happiness, sorrow, or this article, they will all end. So I conclude, by raising a toast to you, my friend, for reading this article, and I expect a comment from your side, on how do you treat your drink. So, let's have it from you, my friends. Cheers!!!!

Doing The Right Thing At The Right Time!!!!!!!

Well my friends, we meet after quite a bit of delay or should i say, 'time'. Speaking of time, that is what the topic is all about, isn't it? Doing the right thing at the right time. Well, as you would have probably figured it out by now, there are two interpretations of the title. One is, of course, taking the correct decision at crucial junctures, so as to produce a positive outcome. This includes all the summing up of the small things, you do perfectly at the right moment, to get to the bigger picture. Well, we are not here to discuss the above mentioned interpretation. Frankly, there are a billion success books all over the world which would enlinghten you on this, and it would be not a good idea to get you bored here. So, my interpretation of the title, which I want to share with you all is, ' Why most of us have trouble of carrying out an activity, which we ought to do, at that moment ? '

Please do not be mistaken by the above quote. Its not quite the same thing. What I mean is, why is it that whenever we have some task on hand, the mind desires for the exact opposite. Few of us, have the ability to focus on the situation at present, rather than think about, how would it be if the situation did not present itself at all. I am currently a student, so I would start off with an example of exams. Ask any student during the middle of an examination period (which could stretch till weeks, like for us Engineering dudes, to which I ask myself, 'why' ), about what he/she wants the most. Pat comes the reply, ' Exams should get over, what else? '. Well, Only a geek would reply that he loves the exam. But the question is, why is the mind not entirely on the task at hand?. Simple. Its straying to the fun zone, the exam free zone. We tend to think of doing everything else, apart from studying for the exam. Unfortunately, and for some strange reason, all the good movies happen to occur during exams, all the fantastic matches happen to occur during exam, and every kid on the block happens to come out and play, only when your exams are going on. My friend, Nitin, who is also a blogger, told me, he had got millions of ideas for his blog during the exams, while now, his ideas seem to have all evaporated. Of course, he is still continuing well.

Well, exam is just a small fish in the kettle of life. There are many hurdles to be crossed. The question is, does the mind wander everytime as and when the task is given, or is it because of lack of interest.? Well, the answer is definately the latter. For the mind to focus, the interest is definately the stimulus. When we work for a living, we may or may not love our work, but the idea of our efforts being translated into big money is definately a big stimulus. One may argue that, even in exams, the thought of getting to top the class, is a big stimulus. But Alas, not everyone feels it and sadly not everyone is capable of feeling it, and as everyone knows, power of money is greater than the power of marks. All in all, the mind has tendency of looking for the easier route or for the road to enjoyment.

So whatever you have read above, did you have the mind to read it? Of course you did, because its a common problem and everyone likes their problems to be discussed. I would be keen to know what is your take on the matter. So, lets have it from you, my friends.