My Daily commute in Mumbai Local Train

My everyday commute starts with churning some thoughts in my idle brain to wake it from hibernation. That (when I say churning) by the way reminds of a beautiful hindi word – Manthan, which literally means introspection through the process of push & pull of thoughts, through deliberation. I specify (by using "literally") this because of the usual twisting of words, meanings and there usage that at times I tend to indulge in, which by the way does not in any imply that I am good with words, it simply means (as of my good old college friend use to say) that spend them very casually.

Every day travel by the Mumbai local train is a manthan (again in the literal sense of the word), especially considering the twisting, churning and all such similar motions that one experiences inside a local train compartment. So much goes into it in different forms, at various stages of travel, here is a what a process flow of my daily train journey will be like –

· Stage 1 : Getting started – This is a stage is initiated/ triggered at the defining moments of my bus ride to the station. The moment I step out of the bus and start to walk towards the station a sudden realization of the crowd around, dawns me.

· Stage 2 : Brainwave at Platform # 2 – This is a stage at which I find myself in the safe company of a majority of Kanjur Marg civilization (civilization – coz of the sheer assortment of people you can find standing there – no offence intended) and I start to think why is that all people have developed a sudden liking for the 08:11 CST local. Is it that HT Café (a tabloid which seems to be the staple source of news and current affairs to people who travel via various public transports AND who have mastered the art of reading the newspaper while standing/ pushing/ pulling/ enduring a stampede/ engaging in or being audience to a verbal duet) have collectively declared it to the most happening train ride. I wonder.

· Stage 3 : Getting into the local – After using all my strategic intelligence (whatever is functional at that glorious moment) and tactics, finally I align myself (now I have started to understand how did study of trajectory and projectile motion become an integral part of 11th grade physics; off course not mention, like everything else this is also become outdated and irrelevant, I propose including Chaos theory of Modern Physics to make this subject more contemporary and applied) with a bunch of people. As soon as the train halts, something happens in the span of next 30 seconds. This span of half a minute is an acid test of whatever you have learned thus far about the art and science of traveling in a Mumbai local during peak hours (which usually span from 4 am till well past midnight). If are able to apply is correctly, you are in the train or else wait for the next local (which effectively means, you are back to stage 2).

· Stage 4 : In the line of fire – Stepping into a compartment is just half the battle (you still cant say whether you have won or lost). There is an all together different dynamics of motion that is followed, the inflow and outflow of the people in a fluid motion of high viscosity seems to be governed by an all together different intelligence. No where can a better live example of collective consciousness in motion be found. The constant shuffle, sort, re-arrangement and filing has a beauty of its own (which by the way, one day I got lost in admiring, and found myself promptly downloaded two stations before my destination).

· Stage 5 – Destination ahoy – This is a logical resultant of following at the previous steps, managing to stay steady in the compartment for 35-40 minutes and last but not least remembering to get down.





This is in short by typical one way journey to office :o)

Google Adwords Seminar

Finally after a weeks wait, got a confirmation for Google Adwords Seminar on pay- per-click online advertising to be held on March 1st in Mumbai at the NCPA auditorium.

Something that got me excited and woke me from self-hibernation.




PS: When you are lost and in the blues, its time for a good scolding ;)

Thank god its a MONDAY.....

Mind is good when money is concerned;
mind is good when war is concerned;
mind is good when ambitions are concerned;
but mind is absolutely useless when love is concerned.
Money, war, desire, ambitions — you cannot put in the same category love.
Love has a separate source in your being...

[ So read the No-Thought of the Day ]

[Flashback]

On any other day these soft flowing words would have elicited a wonderful visulisation, some tender thoughts and the usual inablity to express them in words. But nothing like that happened. I was, as usual amazed at my ability to amaze myself when I least expected or thought, I could.

[End of Flahback]

Had a especially boring weekend and was disappointment with a book that I had been planning to read for a long time (atleast the first sixty pages have been nothing more than personal cribbing about the state of everyday affairs in the city of Mumbai).

Monday seemed to have a different plans. The moment I stepped out of my current .... well.... (the only words that comes to my mind are stop gap/ pit stop). I was greeted by a overclouded sky. My haggle for change with the corner newspaper vendor made the perfect backdrop for a light drizzle which became a downpour by the time I entered the local. Got half wet in the process of getting down and reaching office. And then adding to the drama, was the climax. As soon as I entered the washroom to dry myself and looked out of the window, and of all things what I get to see is the sun shining in its complete glory....

[Background Music Credit- Film: Karz, 1980 ]

The last one hour of my life flashes by in quick frames forming a Picasa style collage in front of my eyes. And only then did I realise the meaning/implication/depth of the saying "Sum is greater than the parts". Truely unbelievable, I gasped, infact I am still in a state of delirium, so I took refuge in the wisdom propounded by none other than one of the greatest mystery buster to have ever existed in the world of fiction (when reality hurts, only fantasy comforts), in the words of Sherlock Homes "Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."

[Flashback]

On any other day these soft flowing visuals would have elicited a wonderful visulisation, some tender thoughts and the usual inablity to express them in words. But nothing like that happened. I was, as usual amazed at my ability to amaze myself when I least expected or thought, I could.

[End of Flahback]

[With the camera rolling a long shot.. gradually I come back to focus in the frame]

Back to reality.... today being the first day of the week, I woke up all pepped up, braved the rain and reached office 30 mins before time only to find that there was no work for me and all that I had planned had long since gone haywire. Spend the first two hours reading through the entire epaper edition of Times of India (err the first page of the main paper and then the entire Bombay Times, for some, eye sight, oops... inside, damn... insightful news... insight indeed :X ) and then the Economic Times most read articles section (after all I am a management student).

With 30 mins to lunch I looked like the busiest soul in the office. Deeply engrossed on my laptop screen (which by the way, was positioned at a strategic angle to prevent any kind of visual trespassing).

Post luch, shot a email to my project guide as a follow up of a long since over issue and within a short span a second one which was a follow and update on the previous email (I have yet to figure out the analysis and the bar diagram that went with the sencond one, so dont fancy any questions on either of them). As soon as I satisfied my guide about the hard work that went during the course of my entire I was back to my workstation. Since I was busy with my laptop the rest of people around thought I was busy, leaving me in peace ;)

So here I am, after spending an entire monday, sitting at my workstation, winding up this post and packing the rest of the stuff scattered around (printouts, notepad, stationary, my wristwatch).



[Postscript]

On a monday evening, after a hard days work, moral of the story: Never start a monday morning jumping from bed with excitement and anticipation (the thing is, they might come your way but in such a different way that you would pefer the monday blues and fighting them off instead). And last but not least, never spend a workless monday with a ineternet enabled laptop ;)

ohhh... and totally forgot to mention, my discovery of the day was Hindi Search Engine - Raftaar . Still wondering at its name and search capabilites, more on this and other niche search engines in a different post, which is still pending in my drafts btw :(