The City That Never Sleeps

|By Shweta Moghe|

Mumbai, the big city. The city with millions of dreams struggling on the streets. Many find a path to success, many get trampled under the pressure of the city. Every day thousands of dreams transit to reality while a much larger number of dreams die. There are so many terms given to Mumbai- the city that never sleeps, the city of firsts, the night city, Maya Nagri, the city of dreams, and so on. I’ve always had a fascination for media. So that’s what decided to study. Since Mumbai is the hub of mass media, what better place to study the same right? It’s been about a month since I shifted to Mumbai. It’s BIG. The travelling takes hours, people never stop walking, they don’t have time. They’re always in a rush, always moving. Everything is in continuous motion. The day one for me in Mumbai was not tough per say, but amazingly fascinating. Understanding the locals and their paths was a hell of a task, harbour, central, western, trains. Oh my god it was so overwhelming. There are apps obviously, to make life of a new 'Mumbaikars' easier and I am glad. The next big thing after figuring out the routes was figuring out how to travel in locals. I was so scared that the first time I put my foot on platform four of Thane, I saw a tremendous amount of men, women, and children standing in a queue, with their bags in front with their hands on their bags, walking in a posture similar to pregnant ladies or maybe waddling penguins. Then came the local, and in that moment, I saw those people keep their hands firmly on their bags, with determination across their faces and feet ready to be put. They took a stance similar to athletes. It was as if they were on a racing track (the platform) with the finishing point being the train seats. Now, getting on the local wasn’t that big of a trouble seeing all you had to do was stand in line and mind your footing because the people in Mumbai are so helpful, they practically push you until you are on the train. After boarding the local, there starts a rearrangement, kind of like when your mother brings the groceries, she arranges the heavy items at the bottom of the bag and the lighter items on the top. The people in the local, arrange themselves station wise and the process isn’t as easy as it sounds, there’s a lot of sweat, swearing, pushing, pulling and dragging that takes place before the people are arranged. It’s still fascinating nonetheless. Mumbai is a city where nothing stops, the trains, the inflow of people, the locals, the buses everything keeps moving, one after the other, day after day. The city never tires out. But most importantly, the people here, never stop dreaming. “Life goes on" is probably the best phrase to describe Mumbai.