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Mumbai: The City of Broken Dreams

I just returned home a couple of hours ago after spending a day in Mumbai. It was my first visit to Mumbai so to speak, well, not that I haven't seen Mumbai. But never really had the chance to dig into the Juhu Beach sands with my shoes or create water ripples. The latter didn't happen but the former did. And to my dismay, I spoiled my boots. The Juhu Beach wears an ugly look in the wee hours of the afternoon. Mumbai is a replicate Calcutta, and to break your hearts - for those of you that want to compare Mumbai to Delhi, get yourselves a life. So Mumbai didn't really impress.

I still keep wondering where I'll be off to, once my parents decide to return to Calcutta sometime next year. Delhi is in a league of its own with the country's best infrastructure in place. Every other city appears just so bleak. Mumbai has that old-world charm to it though, that which you find in places like Bangalore sans its greenery and well-chiseled turns around its roads. And Bangalore successfully manages to maintain a neo-look with its Software IT Parks in the Electronic City and mega-stores around M.G. Road. Something of an effect that Mumbai failed to create in whatever little I saw of it yesterday. One positive thing I observed about Mumbai is its cheap means of transport. What could well take around a hundred rupees in Delhi doesn't amount to anymore than a fifty out there in Mumbai. And auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers unlike here in Delhi aren't rude and often go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. My mother wasn't wrong a few years ago when she proposed that I should marry a Marathi girl, they are usually very warm and polite. It was years ago, and quoted here just metaphorically. Anyway, so I went to the Juhu Beach yesterday and saw the big waves pile on top of one another. Also saw behind the big waves, dozens of couples seek shelter in the sands. Funny incidents happened with the Mumbai weather though. It was raining torrentially in one part of Mumbai while in another part, a few kilometers away, there were no signs of the monsoon. Mumbai is not as beautiful a place as Delhi, it doesn't share the colonial legacy of Calcutta nor does it boast of the greenery that Bangalore once promised. Indeed what is that one thing unique to Mumbai? So far, just the Red Best Buses.

My meeting took place. I'm happy I got a chance to wake up early morning yesterday and rush to Mumbai. Been there, saw the beach, the roads, the Mumbaikars and felt lucky moments after landing here in Delhi at around midnight for the sheer comfort of getting back home to what is perhaps the biggest achievement of Delhi - its wide and well maintained roads coupled with fast transportation. And if you're looking to remain prepared for a visit, know that most people in Mumbai speak crude Hindi that is not pleasing to the ear. The weather is cool sometimes due to the breeze and the rains, but it can get obnoxiously hot there in Mumbai for you to actually enjoy travelling on the roads at the cost of your sweat. And the very thought of having to relocate to Mumbai leaving behind the delights of Delhi makes me want to sweat.
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