A Journey of Experience.

How my day was is something I would struggle to answer, especially the ones when you remember somethings from your past. Today was no different. On an otherwise fine day, tears shed as memories took the front seat to drive my emotions! In an instant & impulsive decision I walked out of home to just get into a bus (yeah you read that right a bus, seems like it has become an integral part of my stories, like Sooraj Barjatya's stories have dogs/birds etc!)

I hadn't planned which bus I would take or where I would be going, the bus that takes me out of Mulund would be the one I would take first. I waited for half an hour to get the bus. I got into 303 which would take me to Bandra Terminus. I was back into the mode which I love, I was back on the road which I once frequented while going to office & returning. I was back on the road where I had seen a lot of people every morning while I went to office for days days together. I was back on the road which did have some memories I guess I would never forget in my life.

The bus ride would stand out for two factors
1) It was my first bus ride without thinking about the destination
2) The driver was the most awful one I had ever come across in my life!

The route is one of the most busiest in Mumbai called the L.B.S. Marg. It passes through L.B.S. Mulund-Bhandup-Vikhroli-Ghatkopar-Kurla and then gets into BKC and from there to Kala Nagar and Bandra East Station and finally Bandra Terminus.

I really didn't know why I had taken this bus but as I sat down I thought it was high time I set some things straight in my life. Decide a few things. Conclude a few things. Completely close a few things. Deal with all these few things! But as I settled into the journey my eyes wandered onto the roadside to see people around and also the way they existed. People with different kind of actions and reactions are there on the road. People on different vehicles travel. Some in urgency, some with neglect and some without anything decided like me. The one thing that came to my notice immediately is that people weren't celebrating like how it used to be earlier during Ganpati. I don't know if it is the medical effect or the financial effect which has brought down this Celebration Sector. I wonder if ET/FT would carry some news article about the up/down sale of Pooja articles. I always thought they were for sure recession proof because divine powers is something for which people wouldn't shy to spend especially in a religious country like India. So is this industry still shining amidst all the downfall?

There was a point when the bus reached quiet close to Shreyas Cinema,opp.Maruti Showroom on LBS, just before the Ghatkopar Junction. It was a predominantly Muslim area and I saw kids playing by the roadside. I was happy to see some girls playing with plastic toys. It is really gladdening when I see kids especially girls being able to enjoy their childhood. But the same thing changed as soon as the bus entered on it's last lap, a lap I had never visited in my 27 years of existence in Mumbai because I never had the need to. My perception about India developing and shining and progressing was put on a serious doubt mode when we crossed Kala Nagar and entered the road to Bandra (E) station. The area had filth covered all around and in between that I could see vegetables and fruits being sold. Why cannot the Municipal Corporation have a proper cleanliness program in such areas? I know they are not educated and changing habits are the most difficult in the two extremes of the society but if there are dust bins which are kept at more frequent intervals and if vans to clear these are sent more frequently would it take time to instill faith in these uneducated people? What the BMC lacks today is faith like every other Government machinery but who is to be blamed? BMC and without failing the common man too. But I am a firm believer that if you take 1 step ahead for some purpose the person opposite would take 2! The BMC wouldn't succeed in the first go and maybe they would suffer losses in terms of the dustbins being stolen but a persistent effort on the importance of cleanliness would help to improve situation at such places. Who doesn't want to live in a clean environment?

Even more disheartening to see was the way the children were neglected in these areas. Kids, hardly 4/5 y.o. walked freely on the road with their shirt buttons open and walking in a manner that reminded me of the central characters in some underworld movies. Isn't that an easy guess that they have been influenced by the people who live aroung them? Why would it be so difficult for the Government to formulate a team/ group to have a Project Shiksha implemented for the Urban Poor as well. I know it is existing in certain Urban Municipal Schools but why not do it for each chawl? Why not do it for each city? How much would it cost the government?I don't think anything related to education should be seen as a cost, it's after all an investment! If it wouldn't have been for education how would the IT sector have looked today? what would the financial sector have looked today? Would there have been so many Indian led start ups in silicon valley? Would we have seen a certain
"Bhat"the co-creator of USB as the lead model in an advertisement of an IT Giants? If the government is putting emphasis on IIT's and IIM's it is sad that nothing is being done for the Urban Poor in the form of education. (Well I started writing this post on 25th and spilled over to the 26th of August but guess what I found on twitter PritishNandy: Where are the green shoots? Urban poor in Maharashtra to rise 11% to 146 lakh, India's highest! All India figures to rise 18%. )

I got down at Bandra Terminus and decided to check what options I would have but alas nothing to go to Bandra (W) neither to V.T./Churchgate nor Mulund(apart from the bus that I just came in). I wanted to still wander, for some unknown reason and decided to start walking back the way I had reached Bandra terminus and check out my options on the way.

As I walked I noticed how small the roads were. Some part of the road was used to parking. Some part of the road was used by people to releave their body wastes. Some part of the road was used by animals like goats, dogs etc to wander. Some part of the road was used to accomodate the speading vehicles and whatever rest was left was for the pedestrians. Walking on such roads was a full fleged war with my concentration. Kids came on the way in between, running after one another. It was chaos to say the least. Thankfully my mind was diverted for sometime from the topic which made me leave home impulsively.

I walked further only to turn and look behind to find a bus to Anushakti Nagar. I quickly jumped in and since the bus was empty I could choose my seat. Having made myself comfortable I started my next journey towards Chembur.My final stop this time was Diamond Garden in Chembur where my plan was to sit in Barista and age old healing centre for me when I am in deep shit. Somehow the place even though, now, noisy used to help me relax and gives me strength to come out of the mess that I would be in. Probably it has got connections with my failures during engineering and coming out of it confidently.

The bus struggled to come out of the area due to the narrow roads and the occasional fights with the other self declared owners / Maharaja's/ Shahenshah's/ Emperor's of the road. This one was terrible too, thankfully only the bus! It made such noise while on top speed that you feared if one nut is loose the whole bus would come down and maybe you would be riding on the seat in open air!

It passed through quickly with some earlier accquainted areas of Urban poor, Dharavi. For some reason these places looked much better than the ones I had seen outside Bandra (E). One of the other reasons why I feel these initiatives of the BMC would succeed is because these places have enormous unity. Yes I agree they are also the breeding grounds of communal conflicts but then doesn't it make sense to start an education program right at the place where it matters the most? Why doesn't Mumbai have something like Project (something like) Hole in the Wall (I hope I got it right) started in Delhi? Research shows that crime rates decline in these areas and there is social upliftment.

My bus reached Chunnabhatti in no time. I had never ever come to this side of the city as well. But there was a stark difference in the way people lived here. There were old buildings and was traditional way of living in the city and I loved what I saw. The roads were small but yet it was clean. Oh and I also encountered the old style railway track crossing where you see the vehicles waiting till the trains crossed! Ah my heart gets happy whenever I see an existence of old things!

We made our way back to the highway and reached RCF and drove into Chembur, the same route through Vivekanand College. ah my KT exam centre! Gosh! I would have visited this place more than my engineering college. :P

Chembur was again the more affluent cousin among the others in the Suburbs. But what was standing out was the way the transition took place. From a place outside Bandra Terminus, I cannot get out of mind due to the neglect, to BKC which has the highest per sq.ft. cost for commercial space in India, to the largest slum in Asia called Dharavi, to a typically middle class area called Chunnabhatti and reaching Chembur an upper class area in most of its parts! The diversity of these places were just too difficult to avoid. Infact it made me think about a particular incident when my ex-girlfriend asked me "Why does he have to do that job jaan?" when she saw a man on the Kurla-Kalina Road searching for something in the gutter. And it was a terrible sight. Probably that answer to her would best suit this moment. God really wants everyone to value what you have. If you just have something without knowing how it would if you don't have it, then probably you would never value what you have in life. That is God's way of balancing life.

I got down from the bus even before Diamond Garden had come. I didn't need to go there to find an answer for my current crisis. I had found my answer as I got down at Fine Arts and walked all the way to Amar Mahal to catch a cab.

A journey which began with impulse uncertainty had been completed with a journey of realisation.

Today I face, whatever I do, so that I realise what it is like when you don't have something, so that whenever I have something I realise it's value and respect it.