Oh my God! you stay in Airoli?!!
Author :
inquisitiveguurl
Blog :Delirium- the madness saves me.
Date: 10/10/2011 10:26:00 AM
My house is 5 minutes from Airoli station. I usually have to wait only 4 minutes at Airoli station for the train at peak hours. It takes 8 minutes to go to thane via train. Thane is the station where all fast trains halt to go towards Dadar and CST. I get off at Dadar and change the train at western lines and catch a fast train for jogeshwari if I am lucky. I am fine with a slow train for Jogeshwari also, which takes 20 minutes from Dadar. Then it’s a 10 minutes ride to my destination- my office by rickshaw. Therefore, overall, it only takes me 1.5 hours during peak hours, due to fast trains to go to and fro.
I don’t know what the big deal is all about, about commuting. I am pretty fine with it. I think I am damn lucky it only takes me maximum two hours to reach home at night. There are people staying beyond thane, like kalyan badlapur etc which takes more time than me. I really empathise with them. I also think the development is totally distorted if everyone has to commute towards town for work and reside in really far-off places because they cant afford it. Nowadays, everything is in Andheri- east and west. The world practically begins and ends there!
I take my word ‘far-off’ back. What do you mean by far-off exactly? Dombivili, Kalyan, Vasai, Virar, Navi Mumbai is supposed to be far-off. Why so? Is something I always think. The people staying in these areas live in bigger houses, better localities and have a pretty good scenery around. These places are also relatively quieter and peaceful. They are quite content and happy with their home. Who are we to tell them that they stay in a far-off place? How do we gauge that it is a far-flung place? By comparing it with places like Andheri, South Mumbai, etc? A lot of people staying in these areas which are ‘far’ have homes which are very easy to go to from their respective stations (if you leave out Thane, which is an entire different case altogether). They only happen to be working in places not so near.
While I thought that its only a figment of someone’s imagination, but there really are people who do not know places beyond bandra and beyond the western line. Gawd!
I am writing this article while being on the verge of shifting to Andheri west where my office now is, as it takes a bit more time during peak hours to reach the station and the trains are absolutely crowded at this time. Plus, during the days of shoot, I am going to come home late like 1 or 2 pm also. Due to erratic timings of our industry, all the people related to this field need to stay near Andheri itself. But I would like to still commute from my home to my office anyways, if circumstances permit me. I have a nice home, I have my family there and everything that I’d need is very close. I had shifted to Kandivili for similar reasons and it used to take me 40 minutes to reach Jogeshwari. I was almost forced to stay in Kandivili instead of someplace like Andheri and I had a very tough time commuting from there, more than from Airoli. The buses were overcrowded on SV road and it wasn’t really convenient in any way. I wasn’t even getting my salary and I only ended up paying more during those three months.
Commuting for me, has never been a problem. I have been commuting since 5 years. My college was in Churchgate. It used to take me the same amount of time as it is taking me now. I had a pretty good time, in short, travelling everyday with my best friend and talking about everything under the sun. These are some of the good memories I have while I was in college.
I am only ranting because I am tired of people saying- ‘Oh my God! You stay in Airoli?!! that’s so far!’ You must be spending so much time travelling everyday? How do you manage? Dude, relax. I manage, and very well. Its not as frustrating as you think it is. Not a lot of people will agree with me about my views. I know that. But to each, his own. Being in the midst of a crowd of a hundred in a carriage meant for 50 and everybody being so sweaty all the time in Mumbai is not easy, do how will every possible soul stay in and around their workplace?
There are many other pros to commuting as well, I reckon. I have been commuting for some time and know that its one of the best places to observe and study people. I really like people-watching and you learn a lot from them. Also I have managed to read entire books, in trains and I bet I’d never had found that kind of time while being at home.
I think it’s time to accept the vastness and the beauty and the diversity of the city and come to terms with it.