Mumbai 2008 A.D.
Feb 12th 2008.
Two persons both on the opposite ends of the city eerily were caught in similar circumstances, this is their story………..
Both of them were happy. One had just graduated into a new life, from a small job in a small town to a new job in the city of dreams. With a substantial raise, he was hoping for a nice change, a new way of life. Wife too had managed to get a new job, the company had arranged for the admission of their children into the city’s best school. Life was never this good.
The other had just graduated into his relationship with his pretty girlfriend; he had successfully taken his relationship with the girl to another level. After months of homework, pleading and good old fashioned emotional blackmailing, her girlfriend had finally succumbed to his demands of coming with him on a two day trip to Goa, just the two of them. Ready to graduate from a boy to being a man, he was especially in a good mood, expecting a lot.
The new job one was brought back to harsh reality with a resounding noise of a taxiwallah right near his ear. And suddenly he found himself amidst a crowd of people ready to cross the road and enter the railway station. Almost mechanically he made his way into the station for the first time, he felt as if he was a programmed machine, following the crowd into the station. His friends had warned him about the chaos at Mumbai’s stations, but still he was dumfounded at the sheer density of people crowded in a tiny strip of concrete bounded by railway tracks….
The other too was harshly brought back to reality as he found himself outside an exclusive women’s lingerie store in a crowded mall. All he could see were women inside those glass doors going about their usual business. Not usual for him though, he thought. His friends had warned him, that buying lingerie for the first time wasn’t easy, but still he was dumbfounded when the female security guard asked him to check whether he was about to enter into the correct store….
The man at the railway station was in total confusion, he was at a loss to understand and comprehend what was going on around him. All he could make out were trains zipping past him in either direction. People charged up as if preparing for a war, but all that they were actually doing was to cross the hurdle of jumping off the platform into the train. Bizarre he thought, absolutely bizarre…
Bizarre thought the man at the lingerie store, how could she have asked such a question in front of so many other women, who were right now chuckling and some who were bluntly laughing aloud? After recovering from the embarrassment he managed to utter that he was not blind and knew what he was doing, the female security guard, with certain amount of skepticism allowed him into the lingerie store.
“What do you want?” asked an irritated co-commuter on the platform. He politely answered that he was new and would like some information on how to reach this particular place. After an unexpected lecture on how outsiders were ruining the fabric of Mumbai, putting load on the existing infrastructure, he finally managed to answer what he had initially asked and guided the man to reach the last platform on the station, which was across the other side. Looking at the prospect of crossing the over bridge, he hung his shoulders and started walking towards the over bridge…..
“What do you want?” asked the courteous female across the counter, with a more than normally visible cleavage. Her smile was so inviting that he was left wondering if he would end up buying lingerie or something even better. But as soon as she adjusted her top, he knew he was caught staring and would have to be careful in this alien place. The girl guided him across the counter and started showing all different varieties of women’s innerwear.
The man at the station was on the designated platform. Wondering as to what to make of the odd timings, 19:27, 19:31 and so onwards. More so he was wondering what the abbreviations C, Bo, D, F, S etc stood for. He wondered if a man qualified in cryptography could be found in this crowd, but he dismissed it with a quiet guffaw….
The man at the lingerie store was in utter confusion. After ogling at the innerwear. He was facing a more fundamental problem right now of how to decode the A, B, C and D’s with a two digit number ranging from the minimum 32 (if he had heard it correct) to a maximum of which he did not know (and did not wish to know), when asked to choose, he had trouble imagining her girlfriends breasts because now it was not sexual, it was purely arithmetic. Finally after paying a considerable sum for a set of innerwear, and managing to hear murmurs and laughter after he had stepped out of the store. He finally left the store. In peace and in dreams…..
The man at the station had finally boarded the platform and after much difficulty had managed to get down at his destination. A man who was trying desperately to get inside hit his shins hard. “I am sorry. I did not mean it.” He said. “It’s ok” he replied back. “It has been a hard day”
Saying this he exchanged smiles with him at started on his way back to his residence.
The train meanwhile had started moving; the man who was trying desperately to get inside, holding his prized possession in a polyethylene bag, his gift for his girlfriend, and quietly muttered “It has been a hard day for me too”
Both proceeded to realize their own dreams. Life goes on in the city as it used too
