Mumbai Darshan

This is a one-day trip around Mumbai showing us a few important areas. Organized by college to help all new-comers of Mumbai get acquainted with the place. Mumbai being the commercial capital, it is very important that students of business management are familiar with it. To me this was the first time I went out even 1 month after coming to Mumbai.

We had breakfast at College at 8.30 and supposed to start the journey by 9. But Mis-management started there, the Bus took off only by 10.15. At Mumbai, it is very difficult to sit inside the Bus when it is not moving. Totally 130 out of potential 400 turned out for the trip. 4 buses were arranged, our bus had about 20 people with 1 girl. Most of them were sitting at the back seats, singing and shouting. A few us were with different priorities, that of seeing outside. Tarun, Shaleen, Ashutosh and I were sitting in the front rows.

I was sitting with Ashutosh. He is a Mining Engineering Graduate from IT-BHU, worked in Hindustan Zinc for 3 years. He is a silent guy like me. I tried to kick start the conversation by talking something general. It didn't help in continuing the conversation as he replied them with Yes and No. I then asked him about his company, this enthused him and started explaining about it (Hindustan Zinc). I have been following Business news for the last 3-4 years but haven't heard much about it. May be because I don't track much on the metals and commodities space. All I knew was that zinc prices were rising. 5 years back it had profits of 250 crores when it was completely government controlled. Later it got disinvested and Anil Aggarwal led Sterlite took ownership. Now he says it has profits of 4400 crores i.e 1b$ in profits on 2b$ sales, hence 50% margins. Wow, we know so much about Infy, TCS and Wipro even they are yet to reach 1b$ profits. But don't know about this one.
He also told me a few things about him and his batch-mates. Most of them have joined IIMs or have started their own Businesses. I didn't know much about IT-BHU as a top Engineering college. But he said, selection is through IIT-JEE and one needs to get within 1000 to get Computer Science. He himself had a rank of 2700 and got Mining. This makes me feel so proud because my class batch profile is so good. We have average Work-ex of 2 years, mostly Engineers from various disciplines. Most have studied from NITs and other top colleges.

Then Tarun and Shaleen interrupted us, they are very funny, they cracked jokes we laughed heartily. We reached Bandra-Kurla Comlpex (BKC). It was a totally different place than rest of the places I seen so far. So many companies especially Banks have their Head Offices there. To list a few SBI, ICICI, BoB, BoI, NSE, Workhardt, Kotak, ONGC and IOC. This indicates me how developed our Businesses are compared to the rest of the things. The 15 minutes time that the Bus traversed through BKC was time spent at the paradise. After that traffic jam, slum, smell or normalcy restored. There was a brief stop at Hanging Gardens and Kamala Nehru Park. From Kamala Nehru park one could have a panoramic view of Choupatty Beach, Marine Drive, Nariman Point, BSE etc. It was beautiful. Captured a lot of pictures there.

Next stop was at Gate Way of India, on the way we went through HajiAli, Malabar Hills, Marine Drive, Wankhade Stadium and Nariman Point. The guide was explaining us the significance of each of the places. Wankhade stadium to me is one of the unluckiest stadiums along with Chinnaswamy in Bangalore. I can remember India loosing 3 matches in last 5 years to Australia, South Africa and England. Nariman point is another place where top companies have their head offices. Air India being the notable one. Marine Drive is also called Queen's Necklace because at night when seen from top the lights along glitters like necklace. I myself have seen it while I was flying from Mumbai to Bangalore at the time of Admission. So far so good!

After Gateway of India, we went to Nehru Science museum. Now, this is what I simply don't understand. Why are Post Graduate Management students taken to a children science museum? Anyway we were taken there. There we had to wait for half an hour for buying tickets, time is already 3 now. I had not mentioned about lunch so far. That means we are yet to have it and we are extremely hungry and frusrtated. From the ticket counter musuem is a good half a kilometer far. Then we again had to wait for another 45 minutes to gain entry inside the museum where on ground floor lunch was served. The wait outside was so agonising. Even the clouds were not there to save us from angry mid-day sun. Life is all about ups and downs, as was this day. After people were let inside, strength being 130 and only one food counter. There has to be another long wait. By that time I was used to the hunger. Had lunch and went to museum to see school level sound and light displays. Remembered the basic science principles studied 15 years back. Came back to the bus. Wait is not over yet. There was another half an hour wait for everyone to come back. Whatever plans were there for the rest of the day was canceled including the 4D show. I had lost all the energy and enthusiasm. Slept in the bus all the way back and reached back to college and 6.

What a waste of time. That's why I don't enjoy going anywhere with lots of people. I like to go only with a small group of people with same priorities or even alone or with another friend. Hard to find such people as my priorities are so different from others. To me the basic purpose of going somewhere is to see that place. Not for singing, dancing, shouting, drinking or socializing. I like to visit natural places with rivers, forests, hills and valleys. But I don't always have the choice. I end up compromising most of the times inpite of having spent my time, money and effort.