Two years at sleepless city

"You are required to report to Mumbai". Thats where the journey started,way back in July 2006 when TCS posted me to this sleepless city.The first sight of it gave me jitters as every pal said Mumbai is one place u may not enjoy. Its too crowded and its too expensive and blah blah. But with no other option the journey had to start and the start was a mix. 8 of us boarded Trivandrum Rajdhani to travel to Mumbai and it was one hell of a journey. I still laugh when i hear the song "Bheegi Bheegi si hain raate",with this song playing at the loudest decibel and all 8 of us laughing taking their own connotations out of it and directing it to one poor chap. The excitement in Rajdhani died down after 20 hours as everyone started feeling tired and all wished to reach the destination soon.

About 4 in the morning we got down at panvel not knowing anything about the local trains. We asked one chap " Boss Andheri Jaana hai,kaise jaana hoga" . Reply was aapko pehle harbour line se central jaana hoga (Kurla) and fir vahan se western. Bamboozled at this and with some luggage we decided to board a local to kurla,the first time in Mumbai local on the first day itself. Now after kurla we decided to take ataxi to Andheri,Sakinaka. We asked the cab waala - bhaiya Hotel Metro Chaloge. He tacitly said yes and on the way says bhaiya vaise yeh accha hotel nahin hai. We thought that atleast TCS wud give us good accomodation for few days and now this. He later clarified he meant this hotel was used for wrong purposes.. Gosh!!! TCS and yeh... Sign of things to come.

We reached the hotel at 5 with all red eyes and asked for the room keys. The manager says all rooms are full and you people can only take one after 10. Ohhh Man!!! Sona tha!! As we managed to get our ass on some chairs on the roof here come the great Mumbai rains. It started,stayed and stayed till I slept again next night.Next day I get a call in my room, a young voice says " Bhaiya Maal lagega kya". I said What? Reply - Hamare yahan saab jugad hai. Gosh!! What is this? Wud be safe to say the start was not good.Got to know after some days it was one of my friend who had called from the other room.HoHoo!! Our next task - Get the accomodation. As we tried to walk out the water level had already reached knee level, now what? where do we go? Luckily I managed to get into one of the relatives place walking thru the streets with water completely drenching me. And my frens he he well they had a rough time. The first day we were asked to report to office,one of the pals took an auto but it rained so heavily that autowaala left the courage and offered my fren the drive..

Back to the task to find an accomodation and Man O Man it was tough. We tried our best to stay close to the office and after some of mine futile tries at Thane six of us settled down in Kanjurmarg,the unproclaimed village of Mumbai and 102,1-C was the flat which was to bestowed upon by all of us.. To be Continued...