Back to blogging after a looooooooooong time now... I have been having a very interesting time in Mumbai, both in and outside of work.
First the travel experience...yours truly got into his first tussle with an over-enterprising autowallah as soon as he landed in Mumbai; not bad though...managed to escape unscathed. Otherwise travel in the Mumbai suburbs has generally been a breeze ( I travel against the direction of the rush (in trains)). On one occasion however, I managed to get myself into a squeeze (literally) in a Dadar-Sion train - OH MY GOD! That experience showed me the limits to which a given confine could be crammed with tons and tons of human mass. As individuals, we lost our identity into that throbbing mass and were probably crammed tighter than the proverbial sardines. But then, what is Mumbai without its crowded trains?
If there is one thing to be said of Mumbai's public transport, it is its unparallelled efficiency. Distance here is measured not in kilometres or miles, but in minutes. This is a tribute to the train system which has made large distances seemingly inconsequential...believe me, if I had to travel these distances in my home town, I would have spent at least 4 hours travelling each day.
Now for the accomodation here...we have landed ourselves in one of the best pieces of real estate in Mumbai. We are staying in Wilson College across the road from Chowpatty "beach" at one end of the Marine drive. Note the usage of quotes for the word 'beach'. Chowpatty is one of the dirtiest, shallowest and most feeble beaches (in terms of waves) I have ever come across. However, there is at least a semblance of a breeze to keep us nightwalkers happy. In addition we get a lovely view of the queens necklace in the night (For the uninitiated, the queen's necklace does not refer to a museum piece, but to the lights lining Marine Drive).
As far as the infrastucture goes, the accomodation is pretty decent. But it cannot hold a candle to the awesome infra we have at IIMA. Like one of my friends, I will be a lot happier to go back to IIMA this time round. We never realise how much of a good thing we are getting unless we see something worse :-).
Coming to the all important topic... FOOD! (yes, you saw it right...Food IS the most important thing, especially for thin people like me). There are a few places which we haunt on a regular basis...one of them is called Crystal. It is a small, dingy looking restaurant overlooking the beach. The food they serve is very good though and there is always a queue lined up at the entrance. The crowd that we get outside is pretty much our age as well. It is unbelievably hot inside, especially if you are unfortunate enough to get a seat on the mezzanine...once, after dinner, I came out knowing exactly how it feels like to be a tandoori roti. Despite this , we enjoy the food there. I wish I could be like Sidin and embark on an enthralling narrative of my gastronomic adventures, but words fail me. Ahhh! If only I could describe how it was to have cold kheer trickling down my throat when it was around 45 degrees Celsius inside that hell-hole, or how it was like to roll delicious aam-ras around in my mouth before letting it sink into one satisfied stomach.
Lunch is generally had at office itself and it is nothing to write home about. But we interns generally have a lot of fun chatting with each other and generally forget about the food. I was out of office for a while during which I had to hunt out some decent eateries. Fortunately, it was not long before I found an Udipi Hotel serving some edible south Indian food. That gave salvation to my wandering gastronomic soul.
My adventures with food have been as interesting as they have been varied...I guess I can write more about this in another blog.
Let me now turn to the company I work for. My project is a forward looking strategic project, which was the last thing I expected in a Corporate Banking Division of the world's largest financial services provider. But, having been here for a while I realise that there is a lot to be learnt from doing such projects. The interactions with people and the relationships you develop form the basis for successful networking in the future. More importantly, there is a lot more information stored in the minds of people than you can google for in a lifetime. Talking to people gives one varied perspectives on the business, the industry, the job and much much more... it has been a thoroughly enjoyable time so far and a lot of credit must go to IIMA for the way it refines our social skills... (some may disagree with this statement, but to my mind, IIMA and its courses have taught me to guard my tongue, which I feel is the most essential part of social behaviour).
This blog has become quite long already...so rest in next. Expect some musings on friendships, physical exercise and movies there.
Blogging off
Ranga
First the travel experience...yours truly got into his first tussle with an over-enterprising autowallah as soon as he landed in Mumbai; not bad though...managed to escape unscathed. Otherwise travel in the Mumbai suburbs has generally been a breeze ( I travel against the direction of the rush (in trains)). On one occasion however, I managed to get myself into a squeeze (literally) in a Dadar-Sion train - OH MY GOD! That experience showed me the limits to which a given confine could be crammed with tons and tons of human mass. As individuals, we lost our identity into that throbbing mass and were probably crammed tighter than the proverbial sardines. But then, what is Mumbai without its crowded trains?
If there is one thing to be said of Mumbai's public transport, it is its unparallelled efficiency. Distance here is measured not in kilometres or miles, but in minutes. This is a tribute to the train system which has made large distances seemingly inconsequential...believe me, if I had to travel these distances in my home town, I would have spent at least 4 hours travelling each day.
Now for the accomodation here...we have landed ourselves in one of the best pieces of real estate in Mumbai. We are staying in Wilson College across the road from Chowpatty "beach" at one end of the Marine drive. Note the usage of quotes for the word 'beach'. Chowpatty is one of the dirtiest, shallowest and most feeble beaches (in terms of waves) I have ever come across. However, there is at least a semblance of a breeze to keep us nightwalkers happy. In addition we get a lovely view of the queens necklace in the night (For the uninitiated, the queen's necklace does not refer to a museum piece, but to the lights lining Marine Drive).
As far as the infrastucture goes, the accomodation is pretty decent. But it cannot hold a candle to the awesome infra we have at IIMA. Like one of my friends, I will be a lot happier to go back to IIMA this time round. We never realise how much of a good thing we are getting unless we see something worse :-).
Coming to the all important topic... FOOD! (yes, you saw it right...Food IS the most important thing, especially for thin people like me). There are a few places which we haunt on a regular basis...one of them is called Crystal. It is a small, dingy looking restaurant overlooking the beach. The food they serve is very good though and there is always a queue lined up at the entrance. The crowd that we get outside is pretty much our age as well. It is unbelievably hot inside, especially if you are unfortunate enough to get a seat on the mezzanine...once, after dinner, I came out knowing exactly how it feels like to be a tandoori roti. Despite this , we enjoy the food there. I wish I could be like Sidin and embark on an enthralling narrative of my gastronomic adventures, but words fail me. Ahhh! If only I could describe how it was to have cold kheer trickling down my throat when it was around 45 degrees Celsius inside that hell-hole, or how it was like to roll delicious aam-ras around in my mouth before letting it sink into one satisfied stomach.
Lunch is generally had at office itself and it is nothing to write home about. But we interns generally have a lot of fun chatting with each other and generally forget about the food. I was out of office for a while during which I had to hunt out some decent eateries. Fortunately, it was not long before I found an Udipi Hotel serving some edible south Indian food. That gave salvation to my wandering gastronomic soul.
My adventures with food have been as interesting as they have been varied...I guess I can write more about this in another blog.
Let me now turn to the company I work for. My project is a forward looking strategic project, which was the last thing I expected in a Corporate Banking Division of the world's largest financial services provider. But, having been here for a while I realise that there is a lot to be learnt from doing such projects. The interactions with people and the relationships you develop form the basis for successful networking in the future. More importantly, there is a lot more information stored in the minds of people than you can google for in a lifetime. Talking to people gives one varied perspectives on the business, the industry, the job and much much more... it has been a thoroughly enjoyable time so far and a lot of credit must go to IIMA for the way it refines our social skills... (some may disagree with this statement, but to my mind, IIMA and its courses have taught me to guard my tongue, which I feel is the most essential part of social behaviour).
This blog has become quite long already...so rest in next. Expect some musings on friendships, physical exercise and movies there.
Blogging off
Ranga
PS: Btw, the title just refers to the "Summers" project I am doing...the weather is typically humid and not all that sunny here :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment