#MumbaiDiary

I got a job in New India Assurance and training was held in Mumbai. It was 17-day training from 1st september to 17th September and I had to report there on 31st August.

Day 1:

On 31st August I reached Borivali at 12:50 p.m. in Karnavati express. Company's hotel was in Andheri, so it was a mistake. I should have gone till Mumbai Central and should have come to Andheri in local but a person learns from his mistakes only. It was raining on that sunday morning and I was in the city of dreams. It was for the first time that I had to spend 17 days there. I was ready to explore the city which never sleeps.

Train dropped me at platform no. 4 and it was raining really hard. I had no protection and had two heavy bags which contained the resources for 17 days. So I just wanted to reach at hotel first before enjoying such a beautiful rain. I climbed up the wet stairs to get out of the station but while climbing down the stairs at 1st platform, I slipped and went down sliding last 10-12 steps. Couple of nails of my left foot was uprooted and I was in some serious pain. I came out of station and started finding the auto rikshaw. I was told not to give more than 150 bucks but auto driver straight away said 400. I started with 100 and noone really agreed to my price. I wasn't finding the auto rikshaw easily. After wandering for 20 minutes and seeing the rain finally I agreed to give 250 bucks to one of the auto drivers.

I thought rash auto rikshaw driving happens only in Ahmedabad but I never imagined in my dreams what's going to happen next. Auto rikshaw turned into a roller coaster and I had a 15 km roller coaster ride. That auto driver in Mumbai doesn't only broke the standards of Ahmedabad in rash driving but he took it to a next level. I finally reached the hotel safely.

I took my luggage to reception and told my name and the name of company. Receptionist checked the list of NIA and my name was not there. Could I ask for a better start? Fall-down, roller coaster ride and then missing name. What a start to the new journey! I showed the appointment letter at the reception then he alloted me the room. The room alloted to me was on 4th floor and it was shared by three. I kept my luggage in the room and was greeted by one Maharashtrian guy from Kohlapur.

On my way to Mumbai I was in touch with a guy from gujarat and he reached there before me. He was alloted the room on 5th floor. So after setting my bags in my room I went to meet him. Along with him two more people from Gujarat were there in the room. It felt like I was among my own people. We went for lunch and by then rain was stopped. It was very difficult to find good restaurant in Andheri on the first day. We settled with street food in the end. I came back and found out that third room partner was there by then. He was from Mumbai only. Lucky guy. It was time to clean that bloody shit from my fingers. I cleaned it up and rested for couple of hours.

In the evening one senior manager and HR head called all the candidates in the restaurant. It was a batch of 21+1(me) but only 13 were present there. I was bit surprised by that number. In that session everybody was introduced with place of placements and at the end of it timings of training were announced from monday. At that time my both roommates were exploring Andheri. They came back in the room after that session and we went for dinner. Then I went to bed after thinking how eventful day it was and was looking forward to training next day.