I had a short term contract at Mumbai, but knowing what I heard of Mumbai I was not too keen on it, but decided to give it a shot. I knew that most of my travel would be on the infamous 'local' or suburban trains where millions of commuters travel jam-packed in congested space daily, where there is no space except for your two feet on the floor. You could opt for Uber, taxi or private vehicle, but Mumbai being what it is, an island city that has grown not outwards from the center but in a linear fashion from south to north, there is no faster way to travel than these local trains where you will be suffocated for several couple of minutes but would be relieved to reach your destination spot on time. From south of Mumbai to central Mumbai (where most Mumbaikars work) would take about twenty minutes and from there another half hour to the outer suburbs (where most Mumbaikars live) outside the 'island'. Mumbai was a way of living and Mumbai did not accept you unless you traveled on these locals (train).
Mumbai is where people from all over India come with big dreams. And those dreams are more or less satisfied, provided that you have it in you to bear what Mumbai throws at you. Anybody looking out for a job will get one, maybe menial, but enough to get food on your plate. You should be willing to grin and bear the congestion, the dirt and grime, the messy monsoon and sultry summers, the people and people every where, the ancient buildings where most Mumbaikars dwell and of course the 'local' trains.
My first task was to look out for a place to rent and I had my task cut out. Real estate in Mumbai is one of the costliest in India and I had to start looking out much before I set foot in Mumbai.
I got a couple of phone numbers on real estate websites and I started calling around to make sure I could start searching as soon as I landed. All of the numbers I got belonged to real estate agents. I found that I could not get the bachelor type accommodation that I was looking out for, but most of these rentals were mini apartments in dilapidated small buildings called co-operatives that were falling apart, each of which housed about a dozen such cramped residences. The cost of each rental was double of what I could expect in Bangalore for the same space and the deposit itself exceeded one lakh plus a lock-in period of a minimum one year. A lock-in was an agreement that you would not vacate the premises before the said period or you would pay rent in lieu of that, adjusted with the deposit.
I did not want a lock-in clause so I had a hard time talking to brokers who could agree to that.
The first question I was asked was to which caste I belonged. I said I was Christian and we did not have caste, but Christian was considered the caste there on and I was officially a 'Madrasi'. Caste and state matter a lot in Mumbai which loves to label people; and localities and ghettos are characterized by this labeling.
I wanted to stay somewhere near my office as I could minimize my train travel so was on the look out for some place near Central Mumbai, but most of these stays especially those near to the railway stations and the main roads have been inhabited by Gujaratis for ages, while other communities reside more to the interior or on the suburbs of Greater Mumbai. Cooking or eating food in a property owned by a Gujarati and especially Brahmin is a strict no-no. However I was not too worried about eating non vegetarian food; and that was a good thing as I would then have limited choices to stay and would be restricted to spaces in Muslim or Christian ghettos where I would be able to fry omelette or bring in take-out biriyani but manage with leaky walls and peeling paint and the risk of the entire plaster collapsing on me.
Finally I talked to a smooth talking hindi-film goon-like bhaiyya character from near Simla called Sooraj who introduced me to a Gujarati family who agreed to my terms. There was a complicated process of signing the rental agreement that looked official enough to seem that I was buying the entire property, complete with Aadhaar verification and thumbprints. One copy would go to the police station they said; Mumbai was not taking chances after the so many terrorist attacks that had taken place in recent history.
I found that the word 'terrorist' and 'bomb' was used in common language as if it was something Mumbaikars dealt with it on a daily basis!
