Life In A Metro -2007- (HOT - 2024)

This was the true metro hour. After work, you didn't go home; you went to "the mall." 2007 was the peak of the Indian mall culture. Select CITYWALK in Saket, Inorbit in Malad, or Forum in Koramangala. These weren't just shopping centers; they were oxygen zones. You walked the glass-and-marble corridors just to feel the air conditioning. You bought a coffee at Barista or Café Coffee Day (CCD) for Rs. 50, which felt decadent. You watched a Hindi film with an "intermission" because multiplexes hadn't killed that tradition yet.

You woke up to an alarm on a phone that was also your alarm clock, your music player, and your snake-game console. Breakfast was a vada pav from a corner stall or a parantha rolled in foil. The morning commute was a war. In Gurgaon, techies jammed the toll plaza on the NH-8 in their Maruti 800s or company-provided Tata Indigos. In Bangalore, the phrase "Silicon Valley of India" was already a cruel joke about the Outer Ring Road traffic. In Kolkata, the yellow ambassador taxis with the black-and-yellow livery still ruled, their meters a mystery of applied mathematics. life in a metro -2007-

Life in a metro in 2007 was exhausting, expensive, and exhilarating. You were broke but you had a "permanent" job. You were far from home but you were in the "city of dreams." You didn't have a GPS, so you got lost. You didn't have an Ola, so you walked. You didn't have Instagram, so you actually saw the sunset over the flyover. This was the true metro hour