16th January 2023
‘VT you beauty,’ he wrote after taking a picture of CST, while stuck in a signal, and posting it in Instagram. While he didn’t mind referring to the city, which was called Bombay when he moved in 25 years back, as ‘Mumbai,’ Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus continued to be Victoria Terminus in his head.
1996
He got off at VT station. His first trip to Mumbai. The first solo trip in his life. He had come to Mumbai to present the findings of his MBA summer project. Along with an air bag that belonged to his parents and which had his clothes and toiletries, he carried a big plastic jerry-can full of water. The sales head of the Calcutta office of Balsara felt that the water of Kolkata made one of their products perform at sub-par levels and had sent water through him to the head office to test. He walked down the platform when the can of water, which he had careful carried from Calcutta fell, on the platform and burst. His career as a water bearer ended ignominiously. He sheepishly took a cab and reached the office located behind a bar called Kandeel as per directions given. His destination was Balsara House, most of which was occupied by tenants according to the pagri system, had very space left for the actual owners. The company that sold Promise, does not exist anymore. Kandeel still does, but he has never gone there.
1997 (or 1996)
His second trip to Mumbai. This time in non AC instead of the 3 tier AC that he travelled in the previous time. He and a group of his classmates from B School had come to Bombay to hand out placement brochures to companies in Mumbai, hoping that they would come to campus to recruit students. Everyone headed in different directions after getting off at VT. The money for the trip came from the student funds which is why they came in Non AC and were staying in the houses of acquaintances and relatives instead of in a hotel. He headed to Colaba to the house of a couple who were the niece of his neighbour, and her husband. They took really good care of him, as they later did in his initial years in Mumbai.
1997
This time he travelled to VT in an AC two tier coach. Tickets paid by office. The market research agency he had joined was having an offsite training at Manoribel near Mumbai. Hence the trip to Mumbai with his peers at work. The first 2/3rds of the trip was fun. They ate the treats from the Taj Hotel patisserie brought by one of them whose sister worked at the hotel and got a discount. They only ordered non veg meal on the train. Unlike the veg thalis that he would have as a student. Chicken curry and roast chicken. Job number sponsored. They drew the curtain at night and had the vodka and rum that they had carried.
What followed was a catastrophe. No, not because of the booze. It was raining heavily in Bombay and nearby areas. Tracks were flooded. The train waited for ages. They were out of food. Finally they reached Nasik and the relative of one in the group brought food over. Luckily he could be reached from a payphone at one of the stations. Mobiles belonged only to the bold and beautiful back then.
They finally inched towards Mumbai and reached Dadar. They got off to rather than wait to reach VT< took a taxi and headed to Manoribel. Stopping in between to buy kebabs to have when they reached their destination deep into the night.
Little did he realise that he passed by the house of the girl he would marry 4 years later.
1998 to 2001.
Trains to Mumbai later meant a return from a furlough at hometo office and the real world. He was shrouded by melancholy as he stepped down from the train. Very different from his earlier train rides to Mumbai when he disembarked filled with excitement and anticipation of the unknown.
Bombay was no longer a mystery to him. He knew better than to get off at VT. He would get off at Dadar and drag his Strolley to the IMRB office which was then at Mhatre Pen. A stretch back then was characterised by open defecation. Tulsi Pipe Road has been moderately gentrified now. The IMRB office has moved to Orb near the airport where all WPP offices have gone.
2023
Today he passes VT by car or in a cab when he travels to town from his apartment in Bandra. Admiring its beauty when stuck in traffic. Taking photographs to post on Instagram. Or in his blog.
He is a Mumbaikar now. A former Kolkatan.
Trips between the cities are made flying in the sky, far above train track
PS: I don’t know why I wrote this in third person. JLT.