Mumbaikar
He told me he was from Allahabad, UP. We started talking while he was still driving through the hectic Kalyan shilphata road in Navi Mumbai. I was actually struggling to converse with the limited hindi vocabulary. But he didn't mind, he kept talking as long as I nodded to all the complains he has to tell me about the traffic. The kind of day he had that day, as he was returning from a long journey. Sometimes people just want them to be heard than appreciated, I thought. So I kept listening.
He wanted to know whether I had come to UP, with great jubilation I told him I had travelled long from Delhi to Agra to see Taj Mahal. He told me with great pride Allahabad is on that highway and he has his family there.
"To work in Mumbai is great, right?" I asked him like the fresher who just graduated from college working in a remote city from native place, yet to grasp the idea of living at own earning. I think he got the meaning of my voice. "If anyone has an intention to work sincerely, they will not starve in Mumbai, if one has no intention to work, then he could live nowhere wherever he goes".
I have always mused over his reply for a long time since then. It was true that the city was home to thousands of migrant workers from different parts of India. The city is always awake. Thousands find their livelihood in street business. Cabwalas, chaiwalas, young corporate executives , the crowded streets, the long traffic jams with soundblowing all the time , hustles and bustles everything made the city fully energetic all the time.
Covid-19 has hit the city so hard that majority of the confirmed cases are in Mumbai.
I miss the street chai with ginger after a long day hectic work schedule at Lodha Junction in Shilphata road. Hope the city heals and wakes up from Covid - 19 lockdown soon with the zeal and zest than ever before.
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