Mumbai traffic and a jolt from Vodafone

Client visits in Mumbai

We had some client meetings in Mumbai yesterday. As there were seven of us + driver, a Chevrolet Tavera was the vehicle of choice. Got up at 4 am, boarded the vehicle by 5 am, and we were already out of Pune within 45 minutes or so. Perfect start to the trip.

We had planned some meetings in South Mumbai. There was a traffic jam due to a minor accident, and it took a while for us to get there. From then on, everything went as per schedule. We were ready to leave Nariman Point by 6.30 pm, all of us anticipating we’d be home by around 10.30 pm, or 11 pm at worst.

In hindsight, sheer wishful thinking!

Usually, the traffic in Mumbai is “organised chaos” but yesterday, we were caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic throughout. In the evening too, there was a small accident which held up traffic. To top it off, we were quite unlucky with the traffic signals as well. In the time we would have reached Pune, we were just about struggling to get out of Mumbai.

Aftermath of 26/11

It did feel somewhat surreal to pass by CST Railway Station and the Trident Hotel,  my first Mumbai visit since the terror attacks in November last year. Daily life seems pretty much back to normal. There was silence for 10-15 minutes while each of us thought about and replayed the events of 26/11.

Security of course, is tightened all over, like at the Taj President, Cuffe Parade, where we had separately organised a conference. All visitors had to pass through a metal detector and baggage screening. It is not an easy task to have watertight security at places like CST, which have several hundred thousand commuters thronging the entrance points, but that is a problem with any public location anywhere in the world.

A jolt from Vodafone

Just as we were moving out of  Mumbai, my Vodafone cell phone signal conked off. This was a surprising as they have a network in Mumbai and decent network coverage even on the highway.

However, what took the cake was when my family tried to contact me (to know my location, if I’d be home for dinner etc), Vodafone played out a message saying,

Your call is being routed through a satellite network. Call charges will be levied at Rs. 500 per call.

Needless to say, you can visualize the jaw dropping scenario as my Mom instantly disconnected the call 😉

Other than that, it was good fun and banter all the way. We didn’t want to delay things further by ordering fancy dishes with a high preparation time at the food mall. The steward said Chhole Bhature and Aloo Paratha would be quickest, so we went ahead with those. Decent stuff and thankfully not too oily.

It helped to satiate the hunger pangs by the time we finally reached Pune around 1 am, 21 hours after setting out.