Where them rains at

 It's been cloudy in Mumbai since the past few days. It's quite unusual for the clouds to gather up in mid-May in the city so it could possibly be an early monsoon.
 However the rains might be, the roads still seem to be unprepared to face the monsoon action. It won't be surprising at all if this year too provides a bumpy ride while we travel.
 For now, all I care about is to see the dip in mercury level when the rains come. I took this snap on Western Express Highway which clearly tells us that the rains aren't too far. So excited to feel the Mumbai monsoon.

             "The wet soil, the cool breeze,
               the humid days of summer when cease,
               is what I want, what I gain,
               Here comes the rain, here comes the rain..." ©

The Hidden 'One'

 Stepping out on a sunny summer afternoon could look like quite a challenge when you stay in Mumbai or in a city with a climate anywhere nearer to it.
 Although the streets and trains are barely crowded in the noon-time, surviving after an afternoon journey could feel like an achievement to many.
 It was another lazy Saturday of my vacation. Out of the blue, I came up with an idea of wandering aimlessly on the streets and somehow managed to pull one of my friend into my plan.
Jobless as ever, we ended up travelling our way to Andheri which is quite a hotspot for Mumbaikars.  Afters hours of roaming and careless window-shopping, we decided to head back home. Checking out for our return tickets, we walked our way to the station area.
 Not quite familiar with the station, we looked up to the boards in the main bridge which connected the platforms which could help us catch a Borivali-slow train. We could spot several trains leading to Churchgate and Virar but the one meant for our journey was on platform number 1.
 Judging the presence of the platform by the direction of crowd, we ran to the end of the bridge. As my friend began to walk down the stairs, I held her hand and pointed my finger to a board on the platform which read the number '6'.
 Confused and disappointed, we walked to the other end of the bridge to find the platform. As I walked, I couldn't help but notice the error in the arrangement of platforms. I wasn't much surprised when we found that the first platform wasn't numbered '1' but '2'. The presence of 8 platforms in the station was enough to make things our search a hell of a ride.
 Confused as ever, we asked some people around where the platform could be. Cluelessly, they misguided us and we ran to and fro on the bridge but couldn't find any signs of the missing '1'.
 We lost all of our hope and decided to wait for another train which wouldn't arrive on platform number 1. With only a couple of minutes left for the train to depart, we could sense more of people rushing to the last stairway. Following them to platform number 6, my friend randomly asked a lady where platform number 1 could be. That's when the lady pointed out to a place where we could've never seen standing on the bridge. It looked more of a hidden platform, squashed uncomfortably between platforms 6 and, maybe, 5. The train was already epically crowded and we had to eventually wait for another train to arrive. But this part of experience has managed to find its place in my memory and maybe in a few years from now it would be something for me to laugh about.