Surviving Mumbai Locals

 
  

Morning crowd building up on Andheri station bridge, Vada-Pao stall on Platform2 Andheri, A relatively empty train on Platform3 Andheri, A local pulls up at Grant Road station

One needs to survive the Mumbai local trains in order to survive in Mumbai ...

Thankfully over the years my personal dependence on this most important of Mumbai's lifelines has gradually diminished ... but there was a time when I was one of the 6.6 million daily commuters !!! No other urban railway system in the world handles ( or is capable of handling ) such mind-boggling numbers. 

In the peak hours, there are trains every 90 seconds, each packed with 6000+ people vs capacity of 1500. People spilling out of the doors and somehow hanging on with a toehold somewhere is common sight ... the chilling statistic here is that more than 3500 people die annually due to local train mishaps. 

That was the gory part ... so what makes these locals indispensible ??? Mumbai is a linear city with the business district concentrated at the southern tip and suburbs mushrooming northwards. As a result traffic is primarily uni-directional ... in the morning there is a mad rush southwards and viceversa in the evenings. Roads are perennially clogged and the only way to get to work is on the local trains ... 

So you get the drift ... you need to work to survive in Mumbai and to get to work you need the local trains :-)

I used the local train last week after ages as I had some work @ Napean Sea Road and had to get back to my Andheri office before lunch time for some urgent meetings ... the local train was the only way I could be sure I'd make it on time ... so I parked the car in the office and took the 8.20 Fast from Andheri to Grant Road ... and was back well in time for my meetings at noon !!!

Couple of tips here : 

1) If you're new to Mumbai / have not mastered the art of boarding locals ... plan to take originating trains, if necessary travel for a few stations in the opposite direction ( at any point trains in the oppostite direction will be relatively empty ) to get to a station from where there are originating trains ... In Andheri there are always trains which go to Churchgate and start from Platform 2. 

2) Buy a vada-pao from the platform vendors before boarding your train ... gives you instant energy and these are the yummiest vada-paos in Mumbai.

Slugfest @ Indian domestic airlines : Kingfisher, Jet and Indigo fight it out

 

Soft drink brands are infamous for advertisements which focus on spoofing the rival brand's copy ( think Pepsi vs Coke, Mirinda vs Fanta, 7Up vs Sprite ) ... hence the term "Cola Wars". Understandably, with sugared water its difficult to create meaningful new USPs ... so this is probably the easiest way to ensure sustained recall and interest  in the target consumer's mind.

With increasing competition in the Indian domestic airline sector here are a couple of intersting "Cola War" type of ads I've noticed recently :

1) Kingfisher takes on Jet ( before they decided to work together for synergy savings earlier this month ) : Jet put up the first hoardings announcing changes in their branding graphics, crew uniforms, in flight entertainment etc. Within a few days Kingfisher had hoardings erected right above the Jet hoardings claiming that Jet's change was actually forced by Kingfisher's superior services.

2) Indigo takes on Kingfisher :  Kingfisher's brand tagline is "Fly the good times". Of course with the economy in doldrums, rising oil prices, high operating costs the times are not really good. Jet and Kingfisher decided to put their rivalry on the backburner and save some money by synergizing operating costs, laying off personnel,  rationalizing the routes / # of flights between city-pairs and jacking up airfares. 

Indigo one of the leading "low cost" domestic carriers, capitalizing on the situation announced that they continued to exceed consumer expectations in terms of service quality and pricing both in "good times and bad". Just to really rub it in they captioned the ad "Let the bad times roll" !!! 

Both these counter-ads, though confrontational are factually correct. Jet was forced to transform a number of their services in order to stay competitive post the launch of Kingfisher. Also with the price hikes across the domestic airlines Indigo continues to offer the best deals ... at least in the Mumbai-Kolkata sector ... I speak from personal experience coz I just bought Indigo tickets for our mini-vacation in Kolkata this November :-)

Lokhandwala Durga Puja, Mumbai 2008

 

The Lokhandwala Durga Puja started by Abhijeet is the most happening puja in Mumbai ... the puja of choice for all the bollywood beauties and tv soap opera starlets who ensure that the glamour quotient is always high !!!

It also has the yummiest food stalls and the grandest evening cultural shows ... this is one pandal where we'll surely spend more time in future ...

 

On the left here is the Poonam Nagar Puja on Mahakali Caves road ... we had a tough time finding the pandal. This puja has a nice homely and para feel what one would expect in a neighbourhood pandal in Kolkata ... see all the mashimas and kakimas decked up in saris participating animatedly in the puja proceedings !!!

While driving around on Dussera morning in Juhu we saw an effigy of Ravana all ready and waiting to be burnt up in the evening ... Ma told us a very interesting mythological tale connecting Durga Puja to Ramayana :

Ravana had abducted Sita and was holding her captive in Lanka. Ram, Lakshman along with Hanuman and the vanar sena immediately waged war on Lanka. One by one they vanquished the Lankan stalwarts like Kumbhakarna, Meghnad, Indrajeet et al ... finally it came to the crux ... the battle between Ram and Ravana. 

Ram was not too sure of his prowess vis-a-vis Ravana so decided to seek some divine intervention and started praying to Durga for her blessings. Now this was not the usual time of the year when devotees prayed to Durga so she was kind of taken by surprise and was a bit peeved ... also she had a soft corner for Ravana who inpite of all his follies was also a great scholar and a bigtime devotee of Ma Durga !!!

Durga decided to put Ram's devotion to test ... so she completely ignored his tapasya for the first 8 days of Ram's puja. On the ninth day Ram sent Hanuman to get flowers for the puja, with instructions that he should get the rarest of flowers which would hopefully appease the hard to please Durga. Hanuman, scoured the world and found a lake in the himalayas which had exactly 108 unique blue lotuses ... and got all of them for Ram to offer in his puja. Durga played a trick and removed one of the lotuses ... so when Ram started offering the flowers he fell one short of the magic number of 108. 

At this critical juncture Ram immediately decided to offer one of his eyes as the 108th lotus offering to Durga ... he took out his dagger and was about to gough out one of his eyes when Ma Durga appeared before Ram and assured him of victory the next day ... so on the 10th day Ram fought with Ravana and defeated him.

Thats the reason why we have 10 days of Durga Puja just as Ram did ... with the 10th day celebrated as Vijay Dashami or Dussera ... signifying the victory of good over evil !!!

 

Inner Circle Quiz 2

Feedback to Quiz 1 a) Questions are too lengthy b) They are too easy to Google !!! c) KISS ... so here's some shorter, simpler trivia :

Acknowledgements : The questions are either sourced from quizzes I've participated in or from those posted on the net.

What was Mark Twain referring to when he said “this day on which are reminded of what we are on the other 364”?

April Fool's day

Which country singer took his name from the capital of Colorado?

John Denver

We have heard of a 'Mexican Wave'.But what is a 'Mexican raise'?

Promotion but without any salary hike !!!

What is the similarity between Levi Strauss and Fevicol?

Fevicol logo has a globe being pulled by elephants and Levis logo is a pair of jeans being pulled apart by horses

This fast-food gets its name from a nobleman's addiction to gambling which resulted in its creation ?

Sandwich. The Earl of Sandwich preferred that one of his hands always be free to hold his hand of cards.

In olden days, the Arabs believed that the entrance to Hell was somewhere in or near which geographical landmark ?

The Dead Sea

In cricket, what does the term spectacles mean?

Duck in both innings

In what way did the Central Bank of Sweden celebrate its 300th anniversary in 1968?

Started the Nobel Prize for Economics

In his last first class innings, W.G.Grace walked off the pitch without being declared out, when his score stood at 93. What was the reason he gave for this?

This was the only score between 0-100 at which he had never been out ever before in his career.

Who said this "Scientific Problems are familiar to me, but I have neither the natural capacity nor the experience to handle human beings" on being offered the presisency of Israel ?

Einstein

Inner Circle Quiz 1

Here's a quiz I conducted @ Inner Circle :

Acknowledgements : The questions are either sourced from quizzes I've participated in or from those posted on the net.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States of America once took time out for a hunting trip to an area near Little Sunflower River in Mississippi. His hosts captured a bear cub to present to the President who in turn ordered it to be set free.The press gave wide coverage to the incident. A cartoon of the bear cub became Roosevelt's mascot. The name given to this mascot is now a popular English term. ????

Teddy Bear

He was born in France in 1882. An experienced pilot, he was the first Frenchman to cross the Mediterranean by air. On the outbreak of the First World War, he was sent to serve on the Western Front. He invented a gun mechanism which helped french fighter aircraft achieve superiority over german planes.He was shot down and killed at Vouziers on 5th October 1918. He is connected in a BIG way with the French Open. Who?

Roland Garros

Who's the only real life character to ever feature in a Tintin comic book ?

Al Capone

Shipping Billionaire named after a philosopher. Had a long drawn affair with the opera singer Maria Callas. Married another very very famous celebrity. "He married her for her fame , she married him for his money" or so the tabloids screamed. Who are we talking about ?

Aristotle Onnassis

The name of which Japanese company literally means "three diamonds"?

Mitsubishi

His first name, which came to him by mistake, was an abbreviation of his intended name, George, which was misread by hospital officials completing the birth certificate. He was editor of the house magazine of the Cadillac Motor Co. He went on to form his own agency and was in the habit of purchasing 100 shares of stock in every new client. Name this ad guru.

Leo Burnett

This young visualizer at the D.J.Keymer ad agency in Calcutta created several popular ads for brands like ICI's anti malarial tablets. he later became world famous thanks to one of his creations which was subsidized by the West Bengal Roads and Buildings Dept. on a technicality. Name him.

Satyajit Ray

Inspired by their Professor Fred Terman, two people started a small electronics company in an old garage on Jan 1, 1939. Their first product was an audio oscillator which Walt Disney used to produce sound effects in his movie "Fantasia". The name of this company was decided by the toss of a coin. Just name the company.

Hewlett Packard

"Ugly Rumours" a relatively unknown rock band was founded by a future Prime Minister during his college days. Apprently he was inspired by the cover of the Grateful Dead album "Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel". When held upside down in front of a mirror, the graphic on the front of the album cover appears to say "Ugly Rumors". Who is the Prime Minister we are talking about.

Tony Blair

This was started as a research project at Stanford university, created by Ph.D Candidates. Its staff include a former neurosurgeon, a rocket scientist. Another of them had the job title "Spiderman". Name this company(or institution)?

Google

Tech Quiz 1

Few trivia questions from VP :

1)In 1938 DAVE PACKARD and BILL HEWLETT released theirfirst product called a RESISTANCE-CAPACITY AUDIOOSCILLATOR which tests sound equipment.Name the famoushollywood legend who bought the product for his movie?WALT DISNEY FOR "FANTASIA".

2)Which indian created the first anti-virusprogram RED ALERT ?NEVILLE BULSARA

3) How do we better know the COMPUTER TABULATINGRECORDING COMPANY, which was formed by the merger ofThe Tabulating Company ,The Computing Scale Companyand The International Time Recording Company. IBM

4) In word processing ,what are WIDOW and ORPHAN?WIDOW - THE LAST LINE IN A PAGE THAT JUMPS INTO NEXT.ORPHAN - THE FIRST LINE OF A PARAGRAPH WHICH IS LEFTBY THE REST OF PARAGRAPH AFTER SWITCHING TO NEW PAGE.

5)IBM 1620 HAD AN ACRONYM "CADET".CAN'T ADD DOESN'T EVEN TRY.

6)What gets fabricated at the Halifa design lab,israel?INTEL CHIPS

7) The Silicon Valley companies have invested millionsof dollars in offshore companies worldwide.Out ofthem,India is at the top,name the second place? IRELAND (Supposed to be the next upcoming SiliconValley)

8) Who are collectively referred to as Mark,Clark &Bark? NETSCAPE co-founders : Mark Andreeson,James Clarkand Jim Barksdale

9) This product from TI India has been universally accepted as a pioneer in its field.Name the product aswell as the field. "Ankoor" the first DSP (digital signal processor) on chip.

10) A sitter, What does CE, in Windows CE stand for? CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

11) Complete the following sequence Abracadabra, Cadabra, Cadaver : These were the names toyedwith before arriving at NAPSTER.

Biz Quiz 1

The other day I picked up a quiz book ... found some interesting trivia -->

Vindhya Valley is the brand of spices co-created by Hindustan Lever and the MP government.
Parle G is the world's largest brand of biscuits.
Tata India is repackaged as City Rover in the UK.
Common to Ajile, Shristi and Annabelle : Store brands of Pantaloon.
China Garden : First Indian Chinese restaurant with a franchise outside India owned by Nelson Wang.
Dandi Namak was the salt brand launched by Kunwar Ajay industries after their Sari business stagnated.
"Balance" is the name of Rohit Bal's pret & accessories line.
GM launched Daewoo Nubira as the Chevrolet Optra in India.
Bombay Dyeing aired the first color ad on Indian Television in the year 1982.
Tommy Hilfiger helped design the "Flying Machine" jeans by Arvind Mills in India ... also their first brand. Later brands : Ruf & Tuf, Newport, Excalibur.
Bijlee is the brand of refrigerator launched by Electrolux Kelvinator for the rural market ... can work without electricity for upto 12 hrs.
Ramco Software's "Marshall" ERP package was endorsed by Bill Gates.
Cibaca is now owned by Dabur.
Hertz - Carzonrent, Avis - Mercury Car Rentals
"Expressions Matrubhasha" the range of vernacular greeting cards launched by ITC.
Yogi Deveshwar, CEO ITC served as CMD of Air India from 91-94.