Training at Mumbai in 1982- snippets
I worked as Service Engineer in Chennai for a Mumbai based reputed for three years in Chennai after completing BE from College of Engineering Guindy in 1982. As a trainee , I was sent to Mumbai for a three month training after a few months of field work at Chennai.
Nobody used to bother about us during training at Mumbai. My aim during training in Mumbai was to fill my stomach. I would report in the morning and hog the vada paav / bread omlette breakfast, would hang around till lunch at Vikhroli premises and scoot after lunch.
I could not understand a word of Hindi though I could read well. I used to board buses going to city and used to buy ticket to the terminus. Not knowing where I am headed for, it was a safe thing to do so that ticket checkers would not create an issue !
The first such trip was on a double decker to Backbay Depot. After travelling for more than an hour on the top deck , I suddenly saw tall buildings to my right at a reasonable distance. I knew the clutch of buildings was at Nariman Point from the photos in newspapers and magazines. The bus was passing through open spaces with no stops in the vicinity. I jumped out of the bus when it slowed at a turning and proceeded on foot to Nariman Point.
On one such trips, I got down at an intermediate stop which had a lot of shops and some modern buildings. It was near Worli and after roaming around the place I realized that where I got down was a one way road. I had a tough time finding out the bus stop in the opposite direction. After this experience, whenever I got down mid way on my “roaming” trips, I alighted only after making sure that buses were plying in the other side of the road too !
While waiting at bus stops and railway stations, people in the public used to ask me for time of the day. I used to wear short sleaved shirts then and was a sitting duck for such queries. I could count spontaneously in Hindi till five but anything beyond that I had to start counting in Hindi in my mind from one. Then the choice of “sava”, “sade” and “poune” had to be grappled with. So once I zeroed in on a response, I used to stick to it for the whole journey and anybody asking for time of the day during the entire journey would get a stock response !
A month into my training, somebody noticed that I was wearing my watch only after reaching the office and was pocketing it before leaving the office. He was curious to know the reason.
Once a passenger seated next to me in the local bus- a typically clad rural guy with a Gandhi cap- asked me for time of the day. Wanting to give my Hindi “search” engine much needed rest, I held my watch dial close to his face so that he could read the time for himself. The guy said he could not read a watch and wanted me to tell him the time ! For the rest of my training stint, I never wore my watch in the public !
I had mugged Hindi numbers in multiples of five before I embarked on the first journey to Mumbai. This was not much help in office and factory premises as the subsidized vadaa paav / tea was served by guys speaking only Marathi. The first helping let me foxed as I was asked to pay pannaas paise. I gave him a rupee and he returned the change. From this transaction, I learnt pannaas meant fifty in a practical way.
There were some batch mates working in Mumbai in some reputed companies. We used to get together and roam around the city on holidays. Negotiating with road side vendors was tough. All of us were poor in Hindi. If the vendor drops the price from Rs 40 to say, Rs 32 or Rs 27, we would walk away. Chances of striking a deal was better for vendor if he had said Rs 35 or Rs 30 as all of us knew numbers in Hindi in only multiples of five !
We used to roam around Colaba- Nariman Point- Backbay area and when tired, used to take rest in the lobby of Oberoi or Taj Mahal Hotel ! We used to use the rest rooms there “liberally” not tipping the guy guarding the pots of gold and pee pots !
One could order a pot of tea at the Coffee Shop in Taj Mahal hotel those days. Once, three of us ordered a pot and sat around for an hour. It cost us Rs 9 and we tipped the server Rs 1.
We always sat in separate seats in buses on our “roaming’ trips with the fond hope that some “young thing” would find us good company. We had no such luck despite repeated attempts.
We used to gawk at couples fondling one another at paanch gardens Dadar and Sea front, Bandra. We stopped this activity when one of batch mates saw his immediate boss as one of the “fondlers”.
On the train trip to Mumbai and back, whenever I found a travelling vendor selling something of interest to me, I used to follow him or her till some passenger negotiated and struck a deal in Hindi. Once the transaction was done, I used to extend the same amount as change ( I had no clue of how to demand for return of balance amount ) and complete my transaction !
Nobody used to bother about us during training at Mumbai. My aim during training in Mumbai was to fill my stomach. I would report in the morning and hog the vada paav / bread omlette breakfast, would hang around till lunch at Vikhroli premises and scoot after lunch.
I could not understand a word of Hindi though I could read well. I used to board buses going to city and used to buy ticket to the terminus. Not knowing where I am headed for, it was a safe thing to do so that ticket checkers would not create an issue !
The first such trip was on a double decker to Backbay Depot. After travelling for more than an hour on the top deck , I suddenly saw tall buildings to my right at a reasonable distance. I knew the clutch of buildings was at Nariman Point from the photos in newspapers and magazines. The bus was passing through open spaces with no stops in the vicinity. I jumped out of the bus when it slowed at a turning and proceeded on foot to Nariman Point.
On one such trips, I got down at an intermediate stop which had a lot of shops and some modern buildings. It was near Worli and after roaming around the place I realized that where I got down was a one way road. I had a tough time finding out the bus stop in the opposite direction. After this experience, whenever I got down mid way on my “roaming” trips, I alighted only after making sure that buses were plying in the other side of the road too !
While waiting at bus stops and railway stations, people in the public used to ask me for time of the day. I used to wear short sleaved shirts then and was a sitting duck for such queries. I could count spontaneously in Hindi till five but anything beyond that I had to start counting in Hindi in my mind from one. Then the choice of “sava”, “sade” and “poune” had to be grappled with. So once I zeroed in on a response, I used to stick to it for the whole journey and anybody asking for time of the day during the entire journey would get a stock response !
A month into my training, somebody noticed that I was wearing my watch only after reaching the office and was pocketing it before leaving the office. He was curious to know the reason.
Once a passenger seated next to me in the local bus- a typically clad rural guy with a Gandhi cap- asked me for time of the day. Wanting to give my Hindi “search” engine much needed rest, I held my watch dial close to his face so that he could read the time for himself. The guy said he could not read a watch and wanted me to tell him the time ! For the rest of my training stint, I never wore my watch in the public !
I had mugged Hindi numbers in multiples of five before I embarked on the first journey to Mumbai. This was not much help in office and factory premises as the subsidized vadaa paav / tea was served by guys speaking only Marathi. The first helping let me foxed as I was asked to pay pannaas paise. I gave him a rupee and he returned the change. From this transaction, I learnt pannaas meant fifty in a practical way.
There were some batch mates working in Mumbai in some reputed companies. We used to get together and roam around the city on holidays. Negotiating with road side vendors was tough. All of us were poor in Hindi. If the vendor drops the price from Rs 40 to say, Rs 32 or Rs 27, we would walk away. Chances of striking a deal was better for vendor if he had said Rs 35 or Rs 30 as all of us knew numbers in Hindi in only multiples of five !
We used to roam around Colaba- Nariman Point- Backbay area and when tired, used to take rest in the lobby of Oberoi or Taj Mahal Hotel ! We used to use the rest rooms there “liberally” not tipping the guy guarding the pots of gold and pee pots !
One could order a pot of tea at the Coffee Shop in Taj Mahal hotel those days. Once, three of us ordered a pot and sat around for an hour. It cost us Rs 9 and we tipped the server Rs 1.
We always sat in separate seats in buses on our “roaming’ trips with the fond hope that some “young thing” would find us good company. We had no such luck despite repeated attempts.
We used to gawk at couples fondling one another at paanch gardens Dadar and Sea front, Bandra. We stopped this activity when one of batch mates saw his immediate boss as one of the “fondlers”.
On the train trip to Mumbai and back, whenever I found a travelling vendor selling something of interest to me, I used to follow him or her till some passenger negotiated and struck a deal in Hindi. Once the transaction was done, I used to extend the same amount as change ( I had no clue of how to demand for return of balance amount ) and complete my transaction !
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