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Mumbai Life - Final Take

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Mumbai city is called "City of Dreams". It's not just the city or the ample of opportunities that make this a dreamland for many, but the people and their attitude towards life make this the "Business Capital of India". People here understand one thing "To work". So if you want to work this city will provide you what you seek for. It is said once someone comes here, the city engulfs that person and it becomes very difficult for that person to leave this city. Well this is true! And what is the secret? No not the vada pav or the pav bhaji, not the Bollywood glamour, not the Marine Drive, not the high end lifestyle but the right attitude of the people who live here. Here you will not only get whatever you seek but you can lead a life without being judged and stay focused on your goal. I came here 3 years ago, but now I just don't stay here, I live here! Mumbai life is incomplete without its weekend hotspots. Weekend destinations are so many. F...

Covid 19 or Corona Virus - Need I say more?!

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Covid 19 has disrupted our lives. Govt has ordered supply of only the necessary/ basic items i.e grocery and medicines would be there. But the irony is that the idea of basic need is different for different sets of people. Let's look at the following set of grievances: A: "My maid is on leave. Thank God I have my house keeper who works here for 24*7. But how much can she take up the work! I have to help her in pulling curtains sometimes. Struggle phase for me, phewwww!!!" B:  "Parlors are closed. Oh God! Why they had to close the parlors! Are these not essential? Plus now I have to help my Mom in daily chores! I hate Corona!" C: "No maid in the house plus we are working from home. Double work for us. Over and above this since, we are staying at home all the time due to lack of physical activity we do not feel hungry. God knows when this phase will end!" D: "So much pressure now what to post on social media, as I cannot hang out with...

How to survive in the next 21 days

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When the biggest doubt is "Will you survive?" then why not make use of the time that you have. Think these 21 days in this way - what is it that one thing you wanted to do provided you had time. If this is the last few days of your life how you want to spend these days without going out of your home. What is it that makes you happy, actual happiness, bring joy to your soul, may be tears in your eyes! Each of us will have different answers. After reading these many of you would think "Where is the time for all these, Boss? We are working from home plus since there is no maid we have to do the household stuffs on our own. Double work for us!" But I am sure amidst the schedule you get sometime in a day to look through the news update on Corona Virus or Covid 19, you surely take out time to browse through Amazon Prime or Netflix, you surely browse for one or two innovative cooking recipes in the internet. So why not think about that one thing which has kept you...

Mumbai Life - Part 3

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There are two disappointments about Mumbai: 1. The crazy traffic 2. Mumbai flood During office time an half an hour distance will take 1.5hours to cover. Yes, the traffic is that frustrating. No wonder why the Mumbai residents are used to walking. That's because you can easily cover half an hour car distance in 90 minutes by walking. But walking is not easy when there is knee deep water. Why even I am talking about knee deep water? That's because Mumbai floods are famous in the country or should I say infamous. Here, during rainy season it rains very heavily and continuously for days and you would suddenly find this city has turned into Venice- there is knee deep water everywhere resulting into, yes, resulting into definitely more traffic!!! Sometimes the only commuting medium in the rainy season are the local trains, which, of course, have to be stopped for half a day because of water logging. Talking about trains in Mumbai, you simple cannot avoid the trains if you a...

Mumbai Life - Part 2

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Mumbai is the India's most expensive city to live in. Mercer's  25th Annual Cost of Living Survey (Mercer is American HR Consulting firm) indicates Mumbai is among the top 20th most expensive cities in Asia. Just to give you an idea - here a maid servant earns 25k on an average per month, also these people have their own flats in this city. After knowing this I was wondering why do at West Bengal we have so many engineering colleges. For those who are not able to connect between engineering college and the income level of the Mumbai maids, let me tell you an engineering fresher earns less than 25k in hand per month. I was not only shocked but also in awe after listening to their stories.  The secret to their wealth is: In Mumbai, probably the easiest way to get ownership of a real estate is to live in a chawl. The reason being, a construction developer would evacuate the chawls for the purpose of building flats. Usually the developers come up with two types of f...

Mumbai Life - Part 1

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I was born and brought up in West Bengal. My entire education and initial part of career was spent in Kolkata. It's only after marriage that I came to Mumbai. Before this I spent 2 years in Mangalore and 3 months at Indore for study and work purpose, respectively. Hence you can clearly understand I didnt have much cultural exposure. Before relocation to Mumbai, my interaction with this city had been just with its airport - due to connecting flight. There were no direct flight from Mangalore, hence every time I traveled between  Kolkata & Mangalore my connecting flight was at Mumbai. The first time I actually landed here at Mumbai to stay and the moment I was on my way to my new home, the first thing that struck me were not the high rise buildings of the city, nor the auto rickshaws which flooded the roads, but the dish tv antennas at every house or rather at every "chawl" on the roadside. Chawl is the other name of the slum houses of Mumbai. In my opinion dish ...

When You Are 30

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When you are at 30, you realize that you have already built up your own choices, When you are at 30, you realize that you have your own preferences, set of beliefs, When you are at 30, you probably are very sure how you want to live the rest of your life, That''s because you probably have spent the 29 years of life either experimenting, or, Have taken so many risks that now you know exactly how things work with you. At 30, you tend to enjoy more the real things rather than the artificial ones, At 30, you probably enjoy more at the houseparties and not at pubs, At 30, that rebellious teenager inside you vanishes and now you probably Try to observe more and understand better your parents, Thats because you know some day later in your life you would be in their place. At 30, when you look around you suddenly find you are no more wearing the latest trendy clothes You would find several younger people wearing far better fashionable clothes Thats because now you tr...