Back in Mumbai after two and half years and it was absolutely amazing. Transitioned seamlessly, almost as if, I never left. At first it was a little scary trying to get across the street without any pedestrian crossings or STOP signs, however, within a matter of a couple of days, I was back dodging the B.E.S.T buses, rickshaws, motor bikes and numerous cars.
Mumbai is fabulous now, the splendour in the restaurants, malls and places of interest is great. Even Mumbai airport which once resembled and smelt like a massive urinal is now a clean, user - friendly and state of the art airport. Comedian Russel Peters will now have to change his famous piece where he says that the moment the plane doors open you are greeted by this strange smell, almost like telling people to s*@t, s%#t and go! Now, there is no smell and the place is clean and tourist friendly.
Interestingly, the overall cleanliness of the city has improved. The underground passes at Marine Lines (Dhobhi Talao) are spotless. They are extremely well planned and it is so easy to get across the streets whether you want to get to St Xavier's college, Crawford Market or Princess Street.
Three years ago getting into downtown Mumbai by road during the day was something that I would never dream off. However, this time around, it was completely different. I could get from Central Mumbai to VT Station or Crawford market in under an hour.
What has changed for the worse, is the traffic and the congestion. Almost everyone in Mumbai seems to have forgotten how to drive. Although I never drove a car in Mumbai, I always rode a Kinetic Honda, I would never get behind the wheel over there, not even if I was guaranteed the Lotto Max millions . There are at least a 100,000 more cars on the road and maybe 500,000 rickshaws and two wheelers. Nobody follows the lanes or traffic signals, though the roads are well marked now.
Getting into North Mumbai, (Malad or Kandivili) is a nightmare. Even though there are numerous flyovers built on that stretch, the sheer population size living in that area seems to have grown ten-fold.
Another noticeable fact is the people of Mumbai are displaying their wealth. The fancy cars, the lavish apartments and crowds in the malls show that there is more expendable income in the hands of the people. I saw more 5-series BMWs on the city streets than I have seen in Toronto. It does not look that the people even know that there is a recession going on in the WEST.
The other irritating part of Mumbai is television. There is practically nothing interesting to watch. The TV channels have gotten bolder and the News Channels sensationalize every little piece of information. During that time I was there all I heard about was the boycott of Shahrukh Khan's latest film.
Overall it was great to be back, see all my friends and feel the buzz again. The great part was that I did all that when I was on holiday.
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