Mumbai Ma’am & Share-é-Taxi

Classification of one of the most complex creature on the earth, normally known as Human, has been done on various grounds. In Mumbai, everyone’s life is attached with local train. People are classified on the basis of their level of attachment with the local trains. First Class: The ones who don’t travel in local trains. Second Class: The people who travel in local train. And Third Class: The fraternity who lives beside the local train Tracks!! People say the life is fast in this city, everyone runs. Indeed. Everyone runs for a different cause, especially in the morning. First Class people (as described above) run (read jog) to maintain their physical and mental health. Second class people run to catch the local train. And third class people run to find a place where no one has shat before!!

Wot-eh-ver!! It’s Mumbai. 

The life has started becoming repetitive. Everyday waking up at 6.45 am, snoozing the alarm thrice before getting up, getting ready in next 45 minutes (not required to mention, inclusive of breakfast) and heading to the station to catch 8.03 ki local. Then again 42 minutes of talk-less travel which is quiet enough to turn you off from your mood to kick-start your day.

As mentioned earlier, the city has its own characteristics. The other modes of transport in the city, apart from local train, are Buses, Auto-Rickshaws and Taxis. The southern part of Mumbai, after Bandra, does not allow the Auto-Rickshaws to ply. (Don’t know why!)  So over there, the options left out are Bus and Taxi. To be mentioned here, the bus transits system B.E.S.T. is one of finest networks in the world. It covers over 430 sq km of the city, efficiently. But I hate busses. 

It takes almost double the time than normal to reach at a particular destination, and it never takes the route which’s simple and straight. So for me, the only option left out is taxi. One of the very famous office areas, where my office is situated, is known as Ballard Peer. It’s one of the costliest commercial areas in the town. One Sqr Ft would approximately cost around 1.5 Lac INR. It’s a secondary question to ask that whether any property is on sale or not. There are hundreds of Second Class people who come to fulfill the desire of those so called First Class people, devastating their own aspirations. 

So, to make it convenient for those hundreds of ‘9 to 5.30’ creatures, there are taxis which ply on the share basis. Rs 5 per person per ride, and it’ll drop you nearby your office. It’s the only Indian city where Fiat Padmini is still in existence, in such huge mass. The queue of those Black and Yellow colored vehicles would wait for their Annadatas. Each taxi would take 4 passengers at a time without giving preference to gender, religion or age. But majorly seen figures are of Guys, Aunties, Bosses, Chachas and some times, Ma’am.


It was again one of the very fine mornings in the same hope to travel the distance of 2 mins and 37 seconds accompanied by a female. Needless to say, how she should be. I was the third person to get into the taxi and took the seat in rear beside a middle aged gentleman. (And as expected, he was under some unseen and unexpressed stress.) Every one was looking at the watch, 3 mins to 9. God sake, I don’t want to be late. And than..

“Balard Street??”

A sugar coated, honey dipped, chocomelo voice that took everyone’s attention. There was an unexpressed smile on everyone’s face.

“Harroz jaati he fir bhi puchhati he, huh.”  Said driver, in a subdue voice.

“Yeah please get in, hurry up.” None other than my fellow passenger replied trying to be (over)smart. (Now let me tell you why I proclaimed him an over smart. There’s an unwritten rule in we guys that if YOU reply to the question asked by a Good Looking lady, YOU are smart. And if other guy does it, he is over smart. Simple.)
Yes, She was sitting beside me, taking the right side window seat. The following ride was the shortest learning ride I’ve ever had: What a woman can do in two and a half minutes?? Getting adjusted in the seat – thrice, finding out a compact make-up utility box from a bulging bag, touching up her looks looking at the miniature mirror, fumbling for hair-brush and mobile phone at the same time and brushing hairs and making phone call, again at the same time. Hewf. Such a multi-tasking personality.

I would say she was good looking, say 8 on 10. She was smart, 7 on 10. And she had attitude, 100 on 10.

On the route to the office, there’s one crossroad, where the taxi drivers invariably try to accelerate to break-through the signals and than break hard to find someone else doing the same, better than him!! So it was the time when my Shoes touched her Sandals. Note my words. It was not-at-all my fault and those were only shoes that touched her (Sandals). That’s it. The remaining time was the hardest one to kill.

Finally, by the mercy of the driver we could reach 25 seconds earlier than usual, and I took the breath, aloud!!