From CST to Nariman , with hate...

i am pretty sure that i have been bragging a lot about my train travels to CST among other things....however there is also an interesting dimension to look at when you see my travel from CST to office which is located at Nariman Point.

First and the most important thing is to decide on how to reach Nariman point from CST Station.( I mean using public mode of transport here....i have still not purchased my BMW).So you have 4 options to choose from

1) The most preferred one - Share cab
2) Rent a cab- i mean the normal cab carrying just you & the driver taking you around
3) Bus Number 1 - the desired 1
4) Simply walk to office- the most practical

So when i joined this firm and was all motivated beyond reach to reach office i startted with the first option ( this i tried for a few days)
So if one has to reach office in 5 mins from CST station , this is the most preferred mode. However there is a special cost attached to such a travel.I mean not the Rupee cost but...the cost of discomfort. I know i cant be any more unclear here...so let me speak precisely. One has to board this share taxi after fighting with many others who are waiting for it and board in as one of the five people (apart from the driver). There are 1/5 probability you get in first.But really speaking...probability distribution is not for sitting in share cabs.
Even when u are the first to board the cab or the last,...discomfort is completly guarenteed.
If you sit in the rear seat you would either be sitting on one half of your side or on someone's lap,.. If you sit in the front seat...either the door will hurt you or the driver will constantly ask you to move aside from his steering wheel.

Secondly its the normal cab. Now the issue with this is it would cost you Rs 25 to reach from CST to Nariman point. Forget you paying the cost...but when the driver charges Rs 10 per seat and kicks in 5 people in a share cab, he makes Rs 50 for the same trip.
So,very logically one would not get a cab to reach Nariman point unless you have reached there on a holiday or at odd hours.

Bus number 1- This is my new found love. This is usually a double decker bus which will take you around a lot of places before reaching Nariman point in 15-20 mins time.But believe me for Rs 4 that is charged...you can sit comfortably and if you happen to sit in the upper floor of the bus,,,you can feel like a king being taken around in an elephant.
I usually try to get the first seat in that bus.....so its like sitting in the number 1 seat in bus number 1 ( the mathematical side of my brain is very satisfied with such a travel)
Then there is this beautiful morning breeze which kisses your face...you can also see lot of people rushing for their office...people selling snacks by roadside...and the most striking of all is when you cross the Azad Maidan area...here you can see joggers,cyclists, people playing cricket...i even see a group of girls playing cricket ( this happens only in Mumbai)...then there are these Fat rich guys trying to play with their Fatter dogs (Why do rich people always want to loose fat and in the same time they want their dogs to look fat and shiny, i wonder)
But all this luxury comes with the cost of standing in the long queue which takes 15 mins to accomplish.Given the urgency to reach office this is a bit of a task for me.

Lets not hope that i get into the last option which i have stated. I know i am growing fat,, i know i have no exercise except that to my jaw ( while speaking and eating, that is), In my previous job i atleast used to type...now even that has been reduced to like less than 20%.
Given these facts people close to me have been trying to convince me to start walking. Initially they said i should start walking to and back from office. When i was reluctant, they said "ok try walking while going to office"...then it came down to "atleast try walking while you are done with work".
I kept looking up the sky and continued whistling ...when they finally gave up.

The Great Weekend.

...so after a hectic week, filled with analysis , reports , maket ups , market downs,client meetings and even more client meetings.... what one would look ahead for is a calm and peaceful weekend. So there would be no worry about the 7:04ST train which i need to catch, no worry to push a million people to get a little leg room, no worry to keep the three news papers nicely folded and held at various possible places a body can accomodate, no fear of somone picking my cellphone or purse while boarding the train and many such things.

So practically by the word "peaceful" i would mean this:
I wake up at around 9 or 10 in the morning. Have a nice cup of hot tea.
while having tea read all the hopeless things which were shortlisted to become the days news.
Read about why India lost again in the cricket, football, hockey and world literacy games.

Read a review of some pathetic movie eg Pyar impossible or Dulha Mil gaya..which got a highest of 2 stars from among the 4 newspapers i usually read, and feel happy about reading the review.If you see each review for such movies is excellently worded to help the general public understand that the 100 odd bucks spent in buying air bubble solution would be more worth more than the same money spent seeing the movie.

Then have a nice breakfast and burn the time doing just nothing.

There are times in life when you feel happy about doing just nothing.

Take a nice afternoon nap and take an evening stroll to meet old friends who are always happy and have more knowledge about "Fun-filled life" and "cricket" ....always.( All my friends have)

Then in the night see some movie , have dinner and off to bed.

This was what i had visualised till Friday. However this was what happened

I had to work over the weekend as well. So woke up at 6 as usual. Went to take bath and the electricity went off. So had to take bath in the cold water , which reduced the time i would have otherwise spent in taking bath ( old science funda- cold contracts, heat expands)

Gulped my break-fast,very fast and ran to catch the train. Now as usual you have this pathetic service of Central Railways which will sting you when you want it the least.
So it found Saturday to be the perfect day to play with commuters and my 7:04 was cancelled. I caught the next train which came overflowing with human beings and their sweat odour.
i was compelled to board this train and for no reason had to pick up fights with people whom i dont know.
The most striking thing was that i managed to get a place (For standing that is) and the person who was sitting in my nearby seat would in constant interval , see around in quick succession and tighten his grip over his bag. This would give an average person a feeling that this chap is going to get up now and you will get the seat. This he did till he reached CST station.(bloody pig)

Then i got into a more-than-capacity filled taxi as the 6th person.( no it was not a six seater- it was the usual Premeier Padmini model which was used as a SUV by the driver). These are time times when you feel, Is Raj correct?? ( i mean Thackrey)

Then i will skip many details in between but would like to say that i returned home at 4 in the afternoon, after which i was already too tired to even read the review of a hit movie. Review of Pyar impossible was really impossible to read.

Then came a relative of mine at 5, who was explaining how merrily he spent the morning cruising in his new Bajaj Pulsar 180CC bike. And how he saw 3 idiots again (4 time, he confessed) just to spend time with his friends.
By the time he had left, i had to rush for my music class and then i came back at 9.
All i remember after that was i had again gulped my dinner and rushed to bed so that i can wake up early to check and gather the Income tax declaration documents which was to be submitted on Monday.

Happy weekend to me.
Someone suggested the title to be put as "New year,,,new weekend" when i protested this was not a new weekend, this was kinda usual.