asialife HCMC 1 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

zunkha-bhakar, rice pancakes
eaten with a hot, polenta-like
gramflour paste, and puribhaji,
fried wheat pancakes with
spicy potatoes, and, of course,
sugarcane juice, sweet, cold,
refreshing and a real treat on a
hot day. Cutting chai, half-full
glasses of thick, sweet, spiced
tea will seal the stomach and
help the digestion. And kulfi,
a creamy frozen treat related
closely to ice-cream, will demand
a return trip. And if you
happen to live and work in the
city, you will very likely use the
dabbawalla service, endorsed by
corporate biggies and lauded
by Prince Charles, and now
considered a model of high-efficiency
networking and business
management. This is run by an
ever-increasing group of men
who bustle from home to office
to home again, delivering lunch
boxes with foolproof speed and
organization.
Perhaps a symbol of Mumbai
is the commuter train system,
which the dabbawallas use to
best effect. The electric-powered
carriages wind their way like
heavy metal worms through
the heart of the city, taking
hordes of professionals from
home to work and back every
day. A ride on one of these
is fascinating, fast, efficient,
exciting, the easiest way to get
from A to B without taking too
long over it and avoiding the
traffic that makes Mumbai such
a nightmare to travel in. There
is always something to see out
the windows—and doors—of
the train; and there is so much
happening inside too, from
card games to prayer sessions
to kitty parties to an occasional
baby birth, a fight, even a death
or two as the unwary dash
across the tracks.
And the train is where much
of Mumbai’s go-getting character
can be seen—there will be
a fisherwoman from the Koli
community sitting by the door,
her ears glinting with heavy
gold and her bejeweled fingers
holding up a brand new, hi-tech
mobile phone to her ear. There
will be an aspiring television
actor learning her lines, patting
her carefully arranged hair into
place, her clothes and makeup
all set to go. There will be an executive
barking orders over the
phone while his fingers scuttle
over the keyboard of his laptop.
And there will always be a
couple staring longingly into
each other’s eyes as they are
pressed together in the crush of
the second-class compartment.
This is the city that never
sleeps, the city of gold, the city
where dreams can come true.
This is Mumbai. As the song
goes, “Yeh hai Mumbai, meri jaan!”
(this is Mumbai, my dear!)
asialife HCMC 49