Mr X secures seat in SPJIMR which is one of the leading B-School in India placed in Mumbai. He decided to go to Mumbai alone. His parents also accepted his decision. There is only week left to go. He don't know any one in Mumbai but the only confidence is three years ago he went to Mumbai with his friends. He came to know the place of the college by the college website and he searched in the net which is the nearest station to the college. Now the problem is with the accommodation, one fine day when he was visiting the college website in the alumni list he find the company called "Bridge Accommodations" which will provide the PG's in Mumbai. He opened the official website of the company and called to him they said they are not providing the Accommodation in andheri, but there is a alternative, we can provide the accommodation in goregam which is near to the college by train there is only one stop between andheri and goregam he replied k then book the accommodation and said the date when he will come to Mumbai. So every thing is fine now the problem is with train reservation he is going alone with two heavy loaded bags to minimise the risk he decided to go in three tire AC compartment he went to near village to get the Tatkal ticket on one day before the journey he get the ticket every thing is fine till now.
The departure of the train is at early morning 5.30 from the place he live it takes one and half hour to reach the railway station by bus so they decided to go in car. They felt by car we can reach by half an hour in early morning. He woke up late in the morning and he get ready and started journey with his parents by 4.40 they felt no problem we can reach in 30 min but due to winter season the roads are fully covered with fog the driver unable to drive the car fast so all are in tense weather they reach in time or not luckily after some time the fog is cleared then the driver drives the car fast they went to platform by 5.20 by chance the train is 20 min late. The train will stop for 20 min in that station they stepped in and sit in their compartment by the time train start mom and dad was given the send off and stepped out from the train. He was slept when the train started the compartment is cold and berths are separated by the curtains the journey is for 22 hrs and he will arrive to Mumbai at 3 am he was not thinking about that and slept happily at 10am he woke up and had his breakfast at that time only two berths are filled out of six they both are not from his region he don't know Hindi much just he can manage with the few words he hope at least one in rest of the three will be from his region but rest of the three are also not from his region so no one is there to speak a regional language with him so he stared reading the "Turning Points" book written by Abdul Kalam. Later boy brought the lunch after lunch all started to sleep he chooses the upper berth this time, the compartment is very dark even in the mid day. At night boy came and woke up them and provided the dinner after eating he was waiting for the boy to pay the bill the boy came in 10 min and said INR 160 each meal INR60 and tiffin INR40 so he paid the bill and slept again he had a long sleep from afternoon to next day morning he know only three places names in Mumbai one where he has to step out the train Dadar , second the place where the accommodation is provide Goregam and the third where the college is placed Andheri. The lights in the compartment is switched on by the passengers by that he woke up and asked
" Agala station Kya hey"
Replied "Dadar"
So he came from the upper berth and get alert to step down from the train. The train is stopped but the station is Thane so he waited next stop is Dadar unfortunately the train is one and half hour late it favours him the train stoped in Dadar.
He stepped down with two heavy loaded bags it is very difficult to carry those bags he is not believing the kuli so he want to carry the bags even though they are heavy loaded he asked one person in the platform
" local train ke Jane keliye platform number Kya he"
Replied "chaar"
It is opposite end to the station so he need to fly the flyover while walking in the platform so many taxi drivers asked for taxi but he was not believing them so he refused to take taxi and started flying flyover to catch the local train and asked one person
" local train ka ticket counter kidar hey"
Replied " samne javo"
He found the ticket counter with long queue even though he stranded in the queue with language
He asked " Goregam Jane keliye ak ticket"
Replied " a counter nay opposite counter chalo"
He was irritated and helpless he is feeling very difficult to move with the language he stand there for a minute and decided to go in taxi he was searching for taxi no one is there so he came out from the station so many taxi's are there he get into one taxi
He asked " Goregam Jane keliye kitana rupee "
Replied 300
He barged for 220 and then he put the bags in taxi and step into taxi after sitting in the taxi he asked the change or INR 1000 I said I have only five 100 notes he said to give and he gave INR 1000 note. Due to some reasons he shifted me to another taxi which is in running so with in seconds he gave back my notes and he was taken his note back the taxi drive was moving fast I said to driver I will pay 220 he replied in Hindi I came to understand by his words that I need to pay per meter I was irritated and I said the address to him "Goregam, gokuldham, Aarey bhasker garden, daya sagar complex" he replied " garden malum nie gokuldham malum" He was fully irritated but helpless gokuldham came he said "bas bas" and came out from taxi driver said 300 by meter he find only three 100 notes in his valet and he came to know the previous taxi driver manipulated and stolen two notes he paid to him and from that time he was very alert for every situation he catcher the auto and said the address driver asked INR 50 he have only 50 rupees with him at last he reaches his destination in auto he call the kul preth the MD of Bridge accommodation he replied the office will be open at 10 am now it is 7 am so he need to wait for 3 hrs so he decided to stay in the garden and started walking with bags he got a call from kul preth he said that I will message you one number he will guide you he said. He felt happy and called to that number he replied wait there only I will come in 5 min his name swalin. Swalin came in few minutes and opened the office and finished the formalities swalin said he need to pay 6500 first month rent 3000 for registration and 15000 advance he said I will pay 10k now and afternoon I will pay rest of the money he accepted swalin take him to apartments on his bike it is one km away from the office in a few minutes they reached to apartment. He observed so many apartments in the way with the average height 25 stares it feels strange to him. His apartment is only 7 stares and his flat is in 7th floor in the lift they went to 7th floor and entered in to the flat. He felt very happy by seeing the flat it is triple bed room flat and six members are going to stay in that flat so in each bed room going to stay two members there is a TV in each bed room and fridge, Stove, cylinder, heater etc every thing is available after showing the room swalin went away. His room mate went to office and rest of the rooms are locked inside and they are sleeping all are employes. He was hungry so fresh up quickly and stepped out from the apartment.
The place he was living is called Riddhi gardens and around ten plus apartments are there in Riddhi gardens and entire place is filled with full of trees and it is completely residential and decent place. So he came out from Riddhi gardens and started searching for hotel to have breakfast there are so many hotels but all are looking small in size and the roads are full of crud and looks like entire population in India are seams to be in Mumbai all shops are conjusted and adjacent to each other after some time he find one decent hotel. In Mumbai if the food court is furnished then the closed room with tables is called as restarent there are only two options to eat weathered to eat in the footpath or in restarent. Generally in his region only lower middle class and poor people only will eat in the footpath stops with that assumption he entered into a decent restarent he saw the menu vada INR 50 and idly INR 20 all dosa items are more than INR 80 so he ordered vada idly he felt very expensive and expected he will deliver two vada and two idly but he delivered only one vada one idly by seeing that he was shocked and no words to him at least one forth part of the stomach is also not filled with that stuff he was taken couple of sambar cups extra with that half of the stomach is filled and rest of the stomach is filled with water, the idly and vada is very tasty but small in size he paid the bill and came out and he felt this is the first and last time to come to this restarent later he started searching for hair dressing saloon every saloon is looking like expensive he found one small saloon and get trimmed his hair he charged INR 100 at. That time he realised that why there are still hair cutting stops are in footpath like in a village generally he used to see the road side hair dressing stops in villages. He felt every thing is expensive in Mumbai and went back to room and finished his bath, after that he want to buy a mobile and sim card to maintain both romping sim and local sim so he went to mobile shop and buy a mobile generally mobile prices will be same at any place later he asked for the sim card he said that not there after stepping o four mobile shops he came to know that sim cards will available only in the stores like Vodafone store etc.
He asked " Vodafone store kidar hey"
Replied " station ke pass"
So he catches the share auto and went to the Vodafone store he came to know that he need to pay INR 550 to get the new prepaid connection and 520 rupees balance will come when it activated he finished the formalities and they said that it takes one week time to get activate the sim card. He was surprised because in his region the sim card will get activated in a few minutes, he finished the formalities and return back to the Riddhi gardens and stared searching for restarent which will suit for his budget this time he went to the small restarent and saw the menu all items are expensive the didn't find the meals in the menu so he ordered the sambar rice later he saw one member neighbour to him ordered the meals so he called the waiter and said cancel the sambar rice and order meals waiter asked puri or chapatti or roti he said no need waiter said need to choose one so he ordered puri the order is delivered quickly he found five small puris and small cup of rice and two curries samar and dal food is very delicious but rice is in small quantity after lunch he paid the bill of INR90 he came to realise that getting a rice in mumbai is very expensive and tuned his mind to have chapati daily and came back to room still two bed rooms are locked and they were sleeping inside he was very tired so he was also slept and he woke up at 7.30 pm he observed that the two bed rooms are unlocked and they were not there so he was alone in the room. Swalin came to the room to collect the rest of the amount he paid the amount and he planned to see the college which makes easy to go to college tomorrow. He catches the city bus at Riddhi gardens to go to railway station he collected the ticket in the counter and catches the train and went to andheri he came to know that there is only one stop between andheri he went to andheri bus stop and waiting for the bus to go to SPJIMR he waited for 10 min bus didn't came he felt that it is getting late and he want to go back to room any way he can go by auto to college he felt and he went to ticket counter and given INR 10 and said one ticket Goregam he was given ticket and instead of going change he was given the token he don't know what it is any way he was taken the token and cathed the train and reached andheri he had the puri on footpath stop he felt that on footpath also food is very tasty and have good quality and came back to room back to room. He felt that there is no one in the flat after 10 min his room mate saurab who is working in the HDFC came from the office he was a nice guy he feel comfortable with saurab and he came to know rest of the four guys have the night shifts every day he was sleepy and slept after having a general conversation because he need to go to college by 9am.
It is Saturday for his room mate Saturday and unsay is holiday as usually rest of the four members rooms are looked inside and sleeping so quickly he get ready and without breakfast he went to station he found that there is a three types of upma's selling in the footpath stop he asked one type of upma he served in the small disposal cup generally those cups are used in the temples to serve the prasadam in the temple he treated this as a prasadam and had two cups o upma and paid INR 20 it is also very tastes and had a good quality he realised that in Mumbai every where we will find with a good taste and good quality. Due to lack of time he ran to station and he don't know how to convey the token as the ticket so he stood in the queue and taken a ticket for andheri and reached andheri there a less time so he called the auto and said to go to SPJIMR in it is just 2 Km from the college with in 5 min he reached to college
He stepped into the college and he came to know that his class is going to conduct in the 5 th floor so he went to 5 th floor in lift the class is looking great and seating arrangement is also very nice it look like a board meeting room seating arrangement is in the U shape all 28 students will sit in that seating arrangement. The room is very cold because all four air conditioners are switched on. After that the course organiser was entered into the room she addressed her self as the benal and guided us on each and every desk half litre water bottle is placed. Benal said to collect the name boards which are placed in the shelf we have to place the name boards on our desk. Later benal said to we need to choose two course coordinators coco voluntarily one girl neha raised hand to be as coco for the second coco he raised the hand so these two are the coco's for the course they need to take the responsibilities while providing materials, partitioning groups, collecting ppt's etc. After few minutes chairperson Mr M.S.Rao entered into the room to address us and he said students in the class need to choose the coco at the end of the day we need to choose the coco. In a few minutes prof Radhika Narayanan was entered who is going to handle the morning session the session is from 9.30 to 1 pm the session is great and very interactively she said that in SPJIMR claps are not permitted we have to beat the desk instead of claps for appreciation he felt its interesting the time runs very faulty and between lunch there is a tea break they will provide the cookies and tea and lunch also provided by them afternoon session is started at 2 pm and ended at 6 pm session is really very interesting by the end of the day every one become very close and with in a day every one became very close they was chosen neha and his as a coco he found two of them in the class are from his region one in them dropped him in Riddhi garden and in the journey he guided how to live in Mumbai and how systematic the Mumbai will be finally he is very happy because the course and college is very nice and good place he came to know that life in Mumbai is very systematic and peace but it is expensive comparatively with in two days how was habituated with that life and leading the life exciting systematic and happily. By the by I didn't address the person in the journey he is none other than the admin of the blog.
- Divvela
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