Postcards from Mumbai - Episode I

A little over a week in Mumbai, and it is hard to remember how different life was just a fortnight ago. Suddenly there is an incredible amount of discipline and routine largely evident in ever single day. It doesn't help that office starts before 8 am each day.

By 9-10, it already seems you are well into the day (fancy thinking that till very recently this was hardly wake up time!). Breakfast at the desk, accompanied by coffee. Going through statements of one firm after the other trying to understand their fundamentals - steel this, regulation that! Keeping tabs on all alerts for stock moving events, missing them at times and then making amends.

Surprisingly, I have taken a liking to following the market movements. Interesting times for metal stocks these days! Sonia Shenoy and the others on CNBC ensure that even news of falling stocks is pleasant to see, er, listen to. Anyway, lunch time, food and some chit-chat with other associates. It's nice to see that atmosphere on the desk has been peaceful and friendly. Leave office by 8.

At times the most uncanny of elements can bring that much wanted change in this rut of things. So one fine evening, on my way back from office, I happen to meet this taxi driver who seemed almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a cabbie. His perfect command over Hindi made me ask him if he was from U.P. or the like. And of course he was!

I told him of the good number of years I have spent in Meerut and Kanpur, and thus sparked off a barrage of witticisms, anecdotes and profound analogies from him, some of which deserve to be recorded here:

1. On the fact that loads of people come to Mumbai to struggle and seek a livelihood -

इस शहर के समुद्र की लहरें जब पत्थरों से टकराती हैं तो यह कहती जाती हैं की चाहे जो कठिनाई आये संघर्ष करते चलो! मैं यू.पी में बहती गंगा से सीखा की निरंतर बहते चलो, और यही पल्ले बाँध कर मैं वहां से एम्.पी और आगे मुंबई आ गया |
(The waves of the sea crashing against the rocks teach us to struggle inspite of all odds. Having seen the unimpeded flow of the Ganges in U.P, I learnt that one needs to go with the flow of life, and that is what brought me all the way to this city.)

2. On how the educated can potentially be a cause of greater ruin than the illiterate -

Here he quoted a Sanskrit phrase: साक्षर: विपरीता राक्षस: भवती ||
This is a clever play on the word साक्षर: (Literate) which when reversed turns to राक्षस: (Demon), signifying how an educated mind, if it turns devious, can serve to cause havoc like a demon.

The guy mentioned how he was a little dissatisfied with his current occupation, yet spent his free time reading everything from religious books to stories from the likes of Premchand, Jaishankar Prasad. He had quite a few comments to make on the political scene (coincidentally his name was Akhilesh Yadav which led me to talk of how another Akhilesh is rocking the UP political scene), on how Mumbai takes everyone and anyone in its folds and feeds them...

It was truly refreshing to meet a guy like that in the most unlikely of positions. And a brilliant motivator after a tiring day at work! :) It's often nice to be in a city like Mumbai - a veritable melting pot, offering these unique experiences, anytime, anywhere!