Varun Nair’s Personal Blog

Mumbai

I came to Mumbai from Delhi to join a new project a little more than an year ago.

It was an exciting move for me. I was going to lead the team. I was moving much closer to home. I was going to the city so central to the Indian mindset, the home of Bollywood, the financial capital of India and the city nickname the city of dreams. I was also moving closer to many of my friends… I had lots of friends in Mumbai and Mumbai is also closer to Bangalore where my brother lived.

Contrary to what is widely believed settling down in Mumbai was much much easier for me than settling in Pune or Delhi. I contacted some friends looking for accommodation and eventually moved in with my DA-IICT junior Murthy who eventually became (and still is) a very good friend of mine. Murthy and I brainwashed a good friend of ours Punit into moving in with us and he shortly did. Jitu was my 4th roommate and we were the residents of a nice 1 BHK flat in the very Gujju area of Borivali. All my roommates proved to be nice and understanding (albeit slightly eccentric) people and I did not have any trouble settling down. I seem to be very fortunate as far as roommates go, I have always managed to end up with nice guys only. The rent is reasonable, roommates good, area nice and best of all I can avoid the horror of commuting in Mumbai. My office is just 100 meters away from my house and I walk down to office every day. Eventually Murthy and Jitu went “onsite” in the great tradition of the Indian IT professional and Punit and I decided that we needed and could afford to have the flat all to ourselves.

The new project that I joined was also exciting. Most of the projects I had been part of till then usually did not involve any explicit leadership or management responsibilities. Of course people skills are always required, especially so for a security guy since his work usually involves ego clashes with others, but this was something different altogether. I had an amazing time honing existing skills, picking up new skills, trying out new ideas, heavy-duty multitasking and in general becoming more confident. Some of my bosses placed a lot of confidence in me, some of my superiors seemed skeptical but in the end I made everyone happy by doing well, stabilizing the team, keeping the client happy and ensuring a smooth ride in general. My team’s efforts (cannot take all the credit for it) coupled with some good work from my company’s management resulted in the team size doubling around in 7-8 months time. A bigger team means more bucks so again everybody was happy. After 6 months or so I moved into a different role within the team and this kept everything interesting for me. The team I built (for this I do not mind taking most of the credit since I interviewed, selected and helped in the training of new joinees) was a very balanced team of techies, positive-minded open people who did not mind additional responsibilities and new challenges and who are willing to learn. All of them are not only colleagues but also very good friends of mine and my life outside of office also has all of us hanging out on a number of occasions.

However the year also involved a lot of downs. Many of my close friends moved out of Mumbai… if they were still around I would be having a better time. Some of my friends decided to go their own ways and I lost touch with them for various reasons. My girlfriend of 2 years and I also broke up and I suddenly felt quite alone in life. I also dated a couple of people but things never really went anywhere. I made a few new friends but not many close ones. I also completed 3 years in my company which is a rare occurrence and promptly became the butt of many jokes in my friends’ circle. I will also turn 26 in a few days… my Mom and Grandma have started the Varun-get-married-please campaign and their aggression and determination sometimes scares me.

I like Mumbai in general. It is an open city with adjusting people. The people around here keep to themselves and do not poke their noses in your life. The people are also helpful in general. Mumbai never sleeps so time is never an issue. Transportation is also a lot easier and even in the wee hours of the morning it is easy to find an auto or taxi that will take you home. Autowaalas rarely ask for anything more than the tariff displayed by the meter and I like that very much since I am very poor at bargaining and find that bargaining often spoils my mood. I also found Mumbai to be cheaper than Delhi. Rent is slightly higher but everything else is cheaper I felt. Also being closer to Ahmedabad meant that I had to could travel more frequently and could conveniently travel by train and save on plane fare. Many of my friends, on their personal and work trips, pass through Mumbai. That gives me an opportunity to meet them, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few days. They are lots of places in and around Mumbai for short and long trips, though I have been on only one such trip. Since I live very close to work I do not have to commute so I managed to avoid the single biggest gripe of most Mumbai residents.

I also dislike Mumbai because of the many unpleasant memories it has for me. Mumbai is the place where my girlfriend lived and I used to come to the city often when I was in Pune and later Delhi. This is the city where I got to know her better, fell in love with her, spent many beautiful and memorable moments with her, grew as a person but also grew distant from her and eventually we went our own ways. Many things and places about Mumbai remind me about some of the best moments in my past, and since I cannot relive them anymore they are often painful.

Why am I writing all this under a post titled Mumbai? In many ways I feel that Mumbai will be a watershed in my life, professionally and personally. As long as I am here I want to enjoy it and be happy and face the demons that it keeps throwing at me once in a while. But I guess once I get out I would not like to return. Maybe I will keep visiting it and maybe before I leave I will check out all the cool and happening places it has to offer. But this will never be my favourite place or a place I want to settle down in.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 13th, 2007 at 9:56 pm and is filed under friends, personal, thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.