The Bombay Sojourn...

Day Zero
Having a quick dinner consisting of Maggi Noodles, I left for Pune Railway Station at 10:45 p.m. on Thursday, 19th April, 2007 , a good 15 minutes later than I had planned to reach there. Having reached there at 10:50 and quickly purchasing a normal ticket to Mumbai CST, I moved toward the platform where the Mumbai Passenger was waiting. The train was packed. Worse still, I couldn't locate the T.C. from whom I wanted a reservation. At last, when I found him, we had a slight altercation when I insisted that I wanted a receipt for the reservation and he responded by telling me that there was no reservation available, even though a minute ago, he had quoted to me a price for the same. We ended with a mutual consent that each of us should get lost. That in a way was a blessing in disguise for me and also a proof that honesty pays, for the Chennai-Mumbai Express which pulled into another platform was almost empty.
Getting my favourite aisle lower berth, I opened both the windows and looked forward to among my favourite activity as the train started its four and a half hour long journey at approximately 11:50 p.m. I managed to stay awake till Lonavla enjoying the night landscape zoom past supplemented with nice cool breeze, the music from my excellent SE earphones further enhancing the experience. I love traveling by trains as it is - and this, was very close to the perfect setting!
I was woken up by a gun-holstering cop at around 2 a.m. who asked me who I was, where I was coming from and where I was headed, and being satisfied that I wasn't one of the terrorist types - proceeded towards the rest of the compartment. On his way, he was checking the empty berths for any suspicious items. I was a little amazed at first, since this is the first time, I have observed such a thing, but at the same time, I was happy that now, I would feel a little safer with such guys doing their duty well.
I overslept at Dadar, waking up just as the train was leaving the station.This would make me loose an hour, but going by the fact that I love trains, I didn't mind it much. Even an 4:15 a.m in the morning, V.T. (CST) station was crowded with lots of people waiting to catch trains. The main terminus' compound too was full of people sleeping on the ground. At a rough estimate there were at least 1000 people asleep there when I walked by. What surprises and amazes me the most about Bombay is that there is a flurry of activity at all times at the railway stations. The local trains I caught to get to Malad, weren't totally empty as I thought they would be and at Dadar Station's over-bridge, there was a guy selling shirts for Rs 10/- at 4:30 a.m in the morning
!! Finally reaching my destination at 6 in the morning, I fell off to a much need sleep...

Day 1
After a few hours of sleep, my dad, my brother Rohan and I set off at around 11 a.m. to Essel World - among Bombay's best amusement parks. Getting there was fun too since it involved a ferry ride across the Gorai Creek. We had a great day there, getting drenched in the Splash roller coaster several times, and getting our systems flushed with adrenalin in the Zyclone, Thunder and the other scary rides. It was Friday, so we were lucky that there wasn't too much rush and we didn't have to wait in big lines for the rides. Getting back at around 6:30 p.m. after having a wonderful time at Esselworld, and after failing to convince my friends to come to a point midway between Malad and Fort, I relented and left for Churchgate at 7:30. Traveling was relatively expensive since the BEST buses were on strike, but fortunately, Malad Station was only 25 bucks away from where I had put up.
I reached Churchgate at around 9 p.m. and after a little confusion which involved me going to Marine drive while my friend was waiting at Churchgate itself, I finally met my friend there. That was followed by a little path-finding since our cab driver didn't know where Cafe Churchill was and our other friends who were waiting there hadn't given us crisp directions. The food at the small restaurant was quite great. I had a 'Prawns Nirvana', a continental dish, which though expensive was extremely gratifying! Thereafter we walked to Gateway of India, spent some time there and then parted ways. I was lucky to enjoy another night train journey, before reaching home at 1 a.m. and dropping off to sleep after a hectic but enjoyable day.

Day 2
I got up lazily at around 9:30 a.m. and had a good breakfast of scrambled eggs. Our family, including our grandad whom I was staying with, then left for Churchgate. There after my dad and got ourselves a couple of electronic items at Lamington Road, we had an awesome lunch at Delhi Durbar in the same area. The original plan was to explore South Bombay for the rest of the day, however, calls from insistent relatives to come and meet them, prompted my parents to decide that they would spend their time there. I had a friend of mine visiting Bombay, so I decided that I would spend the rest of my day on that front.
I met my friend Radhika and her other friends Zaher and Rajiv at Barista at Phoenix Mills at Lower Parel. We then went to CO - a bowling place where I played the game for the first time. I didn't do too badly for a beginner since I came in a close third among us four. We then decided to go to Worli sea face at around 6 p.m. There we were joined by another couple of Radhika's friends. In gaps while they were busy reminiscing of their college days and catching up on old times, I had the opportunity to take in the beautiful sunset-time sea views. Having spent a
wonderful 2 hours at the sea face, we started heading back. Rajiv was kind enough to drop Radhika and me to Dadar Station, from where we caught our respective trains back home. I reached home at 10, by when, even my family was back. The remainder of the evening was spent chatting with my grandad.

Day 3 - Today
Well not much happened today. We got up early, got packed and left for Pune via the Expressway. The journey was comfortable and good, but nothing compared to the night journey I had in a train 3 days ago.
This was my second trip to Bombay this year and though the earlier one was good, this was much better. All in all, it was a great trip, I had a wonderful time and a nice break from my regular routine. As always, I look forward to many such trips in the future!

Do I Care?

The title sounds a lot like a rhetorical question from some popular rock song, but in my case, it is a genuine question I am asking myself. As to why, is not totally clear to me too, but hopefully as the article progresses, we can get some sort of a rough idea at least.
First, let me complete the question - this is not a 'do I care about the world' kind of question. The question in its totality is 'Do I care what others think or feel about me?'
Had I been confronted with this question a few years ago, my answer would have been an outright no. However, as of late, I am unsure of what the answer should be. The thing is, people are always making opinions about you. Most of these opinions are based on how they observe you at a point in time. Sadly, therefore, these opinions are based on assumptions and incomplete information. Moreover, these opinions affect how those people interact with you and value you. Now the answer may seem that - well those who matter - will end up making an opinion about you over a period of time which will be a fair one, while the others don't matter anyway, so why bother? However, this solution weakens, when potentially significant people have to chose whether to interact with you or not. Often, to make this choice people don't have too much time to expend, all they have is their opinion of you in a short period of interaction. Also, in the beginning, people are more averse to accepting your idiosyncrasies than when they know you well. So the question now boils down to whether it is worth living your life trying to make an extra effort in portraying yourself to be something you are not, in an effort to capture potential opportunities or living freely, as you are, perhaps letting go of potentially enriching opportunities at the cost of personal freedom?
I find this a tough choice to make, because I value both equally highly... this is where my quandary lies... I hope to find the answer... but don't really know whether one is possible without making a sacrifice..., which sacrifice to make is a tough choice too...