Letter from Dilliwala - to the Mumbaikar
My Dear Mumbaikar Friend,
Jai Mata Di
Now a days I am visiting Mumbai regularly for doing business and learning a lot about that city. Even learning to speak Hindi with bad grammar.
Mumbai people are having to carry lot of burden. The burden to work hard, the burden to being forward-looking and fun-loving. They are also having to carry the burden of living the night life. Also the burden of being very accommodative and adjustment type of people.
Also, the burden on telling everybody that Mumbai is being the only city with life in the country.
Oof, this it very very too much of weight to carry. Becharas, that is why my intellectual friends Dennis and Gogate are having a very difficult time to convince me why they think I am so lazy and ‘laid-back’ and saddi Dilli is Fursatganj.
But I am feeling very sure that they are being very successful in adjusting to people and becharas are not having too much good things to eat ' only wada pau and pau bhaji. That is the reason even Pancham Pooriwala (near VT station) is being written in papers. And food reviews are being written about poori-sabzi. Mumbai people are calling it poori-bhaji. Here, in saddi Dilli, more than hundred Bihari and UP people are making too much better poori sabzi, but no one is writing about them.
Since the Mumbai people are not buying cars, and traveling only in local trains filled with too much gentry, they are not having to worry about driving scooter or car. So they are reading a lot. And they are also playing word-making games called crossword. I have never seen anybody playing any crossword game in Dilli.
Here we are having DDA sports clubs and we are going there in the morning and evening to play tennis, badminton and also swimming. After that we are drinking whisky sitting in car or sitting at a bachelor friend’s house.
Here, in Dilli, no one is reading because it is highly risky to read paper while driving.
And if Dilli police is spotting you reading while driving, they are taking 500 rupees ghoos and also giving many gaalis.
I am understanding it is good to have local train so that people are reading more and playing crossword game and becoming intellectual.
My family is wishing hello to prajaiji and telling me to take a 500 Rupees flight ticket to Mumbai by Deccan Airways. But yesterday I was fighting for long time to procure the ticket but madam at the counter tells me she can not disburse 500 Rupees tickets now.
Otherwise I will surely visit you and eat pao bhaji with you on the Chaupatty beach.
Your True Friend
Liked it. Bhaji and the crosswords.
1the collection of letter is too good for me to be able to gulp it all down in one go…i intend to savour them one by one……..mumbaikars speaking hindi in ammchi mubai way is understandable…but do thay also have that effect on your otherwise better dilli wala hinglish??
2:)))))))………wonderful letter ,Vikas.Loved the bit .When will you piblish the next half of this letter— the dilliwala’’s counter letter ??
3Warning to all who land in Mumbai - while generally the taxiwallas in Mumbai wont cheat, the ones right outside the Bombay Central railway station and the airport are complete soundrels. Do not take their taxis under any circumstances.
4Before you land in Mumbai, find out from someone the route and approximate charge.
There is no negotation on price - it is based on what is shown on the meter and then tally it with their rate card. They all have the rate card. But if you get into a taxi from outside the stations or airport, confirm that you will pay only by meter. They usually dont screw up their meters. Do NOt try to confirm this with any other taxis other than station and airport taxis - it is understood that it will be meter charge only. Dont even ask.
If you want to take a taxi from the airport and Bombay central stations, walk out on to the main road and take one from there. 99 % no cheating.
..I never lived n Bombay (the metros I lived are Delhi chennai and Bangalore).. So anything about mumbai is News to me! I had been to mumbai only two times - both times cheated by Auto/Taxiwallas.. Many of my friends settled in Mumbai (including my uncles) vouch for Mumbai.. One of my friend who went to Mumbai (it was Bombay then!), came back - forever - (to say,in the speed of a tennis ball bouncing off a wall) curing about the train journey to office. Seems his new shirt was torn in the crowd, dunno which way his purse disappeared… Well, this could happen in all cities, though…
And its amazing to hear about 500 bucks a ticket from Delhi to Mby!
5and the debate goes on between amchi mumbaikars and saddi dilliwallahs
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