On My Way to Work: Mumbai

All photos by Neha Puntambekar

On my way to work you take the bus, the steer as well as the taxi. On my way behind you take the bus, the steer as well as the rickshaw. you get the lot of celebration of the mass done in between.

The dilemma chaiwala pours milky tea into the glass. The potion is filled usually median the apportionment is called cutting. Behind the cart the younger boy, he doesnt look some-more than 11, is rinsing out used glasses. Next to them is the tobacco stall. Two yuppies, ready to go in grave clothes, ties folded in their front pockets, mount with freshly illuminated cigarettes. Since singular cigarettes have been available for the rupee, or less, depending upon the brand, dilemma smokers have been the common sight. you walk past them as well as cranky the highway to the sight stop.

The Bus

Tikeett? The transmitter half barks. The steel box land ticket coupons is strapped across his brown uniform. He clicks the ticket puncher with his right hand ticktickticktick as well as waits for me to handover my Rs.5 sight fare to the railway station. He barely jolts as the sight moves.

We expostulate past residential colonies; pockets of organized, multi-storied suburban dreams. We expostulate past the large slum; residents as well as small-scale businesses (vada stalls, the make-shift fish market, rickshaw service shops) spill upon to the road, nudging trucks, buses, cars as well as bikes into the jam. We expostulate past newly programmed residential colonies built over demolished slums; construction goes upon all day as well as all night.

The Train

The 7:50 slow has usually pulled in. Most people burst in prior to the steer stops. you never leaned how to do that, as well as as the outcome you usually manage to find the dilemma seat.

This is the Ladies First Class. It has softer seats. you recognize m! any of m y associate travellers. They have been regulars often bankers as well as students as well as Ive pieced together their stories from overheard conversations. They have been steer friends. A class has shaped during our every day commute. They discuss marital problems, trade unwashed jokes as well as have potluck breakfast parties. When they move Prasad, food offerings done to the Gods after special prayers as well as during the festive season, they share with the rest of the cell too.

Because its sunrise rush hour, there have been no vendors peddling knick knacks or fruit. They will come later, with their big baskets, as well as stay upon cell the final train. From the griddle window separator you can see into the General First Class compartment. Some men look during the women. Others fiddle with cell phones.

With every stop, the windows get the small some-more closed off. Sometimes its so swarming its tough to read. Sometimes its so swarming you give up my chair as well as go mount by the doorway where you can breathe. Sometimes its so swarming the steer moves prior to you can get off.

The Taxi

The taxi queue underneath the Dadar Flyover is the usually component of sequence upon the highway crammed with office goers as well as vendors offered fruits, gajras (flowers strung together as well as fixed by women in their hair) as well as alternative knick knacks. When the metropolitan automobile comes they make use of the series of coded calls to container as well as empty out in minutes; it was during the single such raid/run which you realized the street was essentially wide enough.

A guy joins the line behind me. Share Taxi, na? he asks. A shared taxi runs in between the preset track as well as carries 4 passengers, any will pay Rs.10 for the ride irrespective of where they get off along the route. Its some-more gentle than the sight as well as its cheap! er than receiving the taxi alone.

Im sharing the taxi with the pin-stripe pantsuit, an orange salwar-kameez as well as the green tee-shirt. The taxi is old as well as its insides feel tired. The window is stained as well as usually opens midway. When you stop during the trade light the child approaches me with the stack of pirated books. His garments have been sick fitting. His grin is wide; he has seen the open book upon my lap.

Didi, best books for half price. Didi! he yells as the light changes.

We cranky dual worlds during the stretch of dual trade lights. On the single finish have been the community housing projects, open schools as well as gaudy store fronts. At the alternative have been MNCs, showrooms as well as malls; Mumbais textile mills once stood here. Ive listened the stories from my Dad of the good years, of the strike as well as how many mills shut down in the years after. you catch the emotion prior to he shrugs as well as says, anyway

At the finish of the street, the taxi comes to the noisy hindrance dual minutes divided from my office. you accumulate my bag, my jacket as well as paperback, pay the cabbie as well as get off. Today you have the leaflet to finish as well as blogs to read. you punch in my key card as well as head behind out for tea.