Mumbai Meri Jaan

Introduction

16 others I have never met before. All with the same purpose: Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge 2011. Witnessing events, people and passing through 180 cities. Literally crashing into millions of Indians, of varying shades of brown (not racist being here, I blend in pretty well actually), language and traditions. No doubt diversity equates to India.

The Indian Chauffeur

Mumbai Taxiwallah: Mr. Sushant Singh

Could it be a marketing gimmick?

Mr. Singh actually said, my stuttering, grammatically incorrect hindi, randomly strung words from Bollywood hindi was impressive. 

Unless, like I said my understanding of the language was so poor the comment he gave with a smile sounded along the lines of 'impressive'.

2 days later I learn, I was ripped off. I paid 450 rupees for a 200++ trip from Santa Cruz to Churchgate. There I was all excited to explore one of the most densely populated cities of the Indian subcontinent only to be cheated on my arrival itself. 

On a positive note, he never failed to point out sights that I might have otherwise missed. Yeah, yeah I hear you go an extra 200 bucks for pointing out sights is largely over rated. Lets just say, I would like to think I was not cheated and that probably Sushant is an otherwise honest man. 

I forgive that dude.

Reached Chateau Windsor, where it was fully booked and I ended up hanging at the roof top terrace with my newly made friends and travel companions for the next 17 days.

All 17 squeezed into a single cabin (Image by Troy Floyd)

Pre-trip pose with half the gang (Image by Troy Floyd - the dude in the front)

Drama Begins

We were greeted to a band organizer by our own Ryan, a Mumbai native, and an unofficial guide for us. The band started playing Indian film songs that (I think) was pictured with  trains in the background. 2 songs and the trip's organiser, Mark, started showing his Bollywood moves. What next? A crowd had formed around him and the band.

Mark with the band

Soon, a man wearing khaki uniform joined the crowd. Not to dance, but to stop it.

"Not allowed to play music!" 

He was the Railway Inspector, and apparently dancing at the entrance of the railway station is not allowed. While he was making his point across, some of us had started taking videos and photos of the drama which prompted him to wave his arms at us to stop recording the scene.

Funny how location matters for dance and music, considering this was India. Interesting.

Reluctantly, the crowd and us together with the band were beginning to disperse when Rachael showed up. She was the reporter from Times of India covering the trip. There she was with her professional photographer. 

Now, how do we get the Inspector to believe that this girl was actually writing for Times of India? She was English.

Either way, we managed to get a photo shot for the paper (which never appeared for some reason), together with the crowd, and the now silent Band.

Pretty eventful.

Now the 150 rupees shouldn't go to waste right, the band was herded towards the exterior of the station, far from where the uniformed men were. Settled somewhere along the roads, right infront of a parked bus, the band started playing. Stares we invited many. Crowds we invited many.

Mark was urging us to join in and dance as he was already grooving to the trumpets and drums, while the remaining dudes and dudettes were busy with their cameras. 

Don't you love their uniforms?