India so far ....

If one word can describe my 14 day stay so far in Mumbai - it would be "competition". Just as you step out of your house there is a competition to find an auto-rikshaw, as soon as you reach the train-station there is competition for a seat in the train (the unwritten rule of mumbai - if you are not in the train till the time it stops - you would have to stand till Dadar on the Borivali-Churchgate train). Once you step of the train, you need to compete for a Cab whose fare is still not fixed by the government and you need to pay whtever amount is demanded from you. Finally you reach for an interview only to realize there are atleast 20 other resumes on the desk of the interviewer and you need to compete with those for an eventual job. After living outside India for 4 years now, I must say some of these experiences are truly overwhelming!



However, home is home afterall and you come to terms with all of it gradually. Slowly you learn to share the auto-rikshaw and cab's, you find a group of friends in the train who talk all non-sense - right from the stock market to tv-soaps. No one has no idea about anything, but definitely has an opinion about everything :-) Just yesterday on my way from Churchgate to Borivali in the 6.17 local, I happened to discuss so many things with fellow passengers .. finally I also started talking non-sense and was damm happy about it.


Finally the job! Must say I've got lucky to find one here in Mumbai. One thing I have realized is that despite so much of economic growth there aren't plentiful jobs in India nowadays and its really difficult to find something unless you are really lucky. While I was sitting at the Abu Dhabi airport for the final flight to Mumbai, somewhere within myself I was scared of the challenge ahead. The feeling was like when you want to jump in the pool without knowing how to swim. And now, I am just glad that home has embraced me with all its colors and warmth. Someone up there is definitely watching me and has helped be at the right place at the right time .....


(Meanwhile for people in Mumbai - my contact number is 9619531233 and I know I have loads of friends to catch up with) .....