What Are Some Facts About Mumbai , You Never Know?

Photo: Wikipedia

1. The rent begins where your imagination stops- It’s practically impossible to find a half-decent place in your budget. No matter how much the budget, you’ll always overshoot it.
2. The bachelor locha- If you are a single woman/man, you can’t find a nice place without unfair restrictions even if you are ready to shell out some extra money. Actually you’d be lucky even to find a nice place. Bachelors are considered sub-human by the urban khaps called societies.
3. Living in boxes- Houses or the bungalow, as it’s called here, are either very old dilapidated ones, or are owned by the Kapoor family and other bollywood stars. Everyone lives in flats. If you tell your colleague that you’ve an actual house back home with a terrace and everything, you’d be considered seriously rich, and extravagant.
4. The 1RK phenomenon-There exists something even smaller than a 1bhk. It’s called the 1rk- one room kitchen.
5. What is a balcony? Having a balcony is a privilege that very few have. There are entire apartments without any balcony. Sometimes a big window with a parapet will be called a balcony by brokers/owners.
6. Pack and move- Everything including tea can be packed and taken home.
7. Vada pav- is nothing but a aloo bonda or vada inside a pav or loaf of bread. A few places may give you some chutney along, but that’s it, mostly!
8. The pav factor- Mumbaikars love their pav. To the extent that they have samosa, pakoda, omelette and sometimes even bhel with pav. A lot of vada pav walas find it weird if you order a samosa, just a samosa that is, without pav.
9. Two idlis in 1 plate- Only in Mumbai is it possible to serve two small idlis and call it 1 plate and price it at Rs 60. You do get idlis at the road side joints for lesser price and more quantity, but dare you order it at a veg eatery or restaurant.
10. Liberty- In spite of being highly segregated, Mumbai manages to be the safest city for women in India. I mean, imagine going from Colaba to Kandivali at 1.30 in the night in a local train, that too after some serious clubbing! Nobody tries to grope you, no obscene remarks or ogling, people just go about their own business.
11. Need for speed- Mumbaikars don’t believe in slowing down or waiting. Therefore when a train arrives at a station, even before it comes to a halt, everyone starts jumping in. Once inside the train, the crowd will either push forward or block the door, because the next priority after getting in, is getting out, even if there are 6 stations in between.
12. Off hona- If your neighbour tells you, ‘mere dadaji pichhle saal off ho gaye’, it doesn’t mean s/he disliked the grandfather. It simply means he passed away last year.
13. Monsoon is unromantic and many times anti-climactic- If you live in Mumbai for a couple of years, all your romantic associations with monsoon will be washed away in no time. In Mumbai, if it rains it doesn’t stop till the next morning and there is a good chance that the train lines will be flooded by the time it does, which means it’s a great excuse to skip work. In most scenarios, you cannot go for work even if you are a sincere employee. But the incessant rain is depressing and gloomy. It’s not the kind you’d enjoy with chai and pakoda.
14. East or West- the Eastern side and Western side of any place is as far as two separate islands. So if you are planning to work in the east and live in the west or vice versa, you should consider a change of plans. It’s easier to live on the same side, than in the same area.
15. Just how big is the carpet? There is a super built up area, built up area, and carpet area. #justsaying
16.  Bombay vs Mumbai- There won’t be any angry mob scenario if you call Bombay as Bombay. Mumbaikars are actually very hospitable and not jingoistic at all.
17. No change, no problem- Unlike all the cities have been to, Mumbai auto walahs and taxi drivers would let go off that 1 Re change. Chutta nai hai, koi baat nai. At times, the auto drivers have been kind enough to exempt even up to Rs 3. And they’re always there, wee hours into the night, early morning, always. There are those who would reject you if you want to travel a short distance. But then, they always go by metre, there is no need to bargain. They are more willing and even more professional, unlike their brethren in other Indian cities, like someone mentioned in the comments. So if you’re a single woman, new to the city, fear not and trust in the auto wale bhaiyaas.
    Bombay, or Mumbai as it is called now, reminds me the opening lines of W.H. Auden’s poem Refugee Blues.

    

    
    

    “Say this city has ten million souls,
    Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
    Yet there is no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us.”
    Unlike the Germany of Auden’s time, Mumbai has a place for everyone. You probably won’t like the place, you probably would live in the said holes or the boxes, and every night you’d smoke the poor man’s cigarette, and watch the smoke spiralling upwards towards the mansions that have no place for you, the mansions that are symbolic of both opulence and hubris of the city. But eventually, it accommodates you.
    Source: Quora