Ae Dil hai mushkil jeena yahan,zara hatt ke, zara bach ke ye hai Bombay meri jaan!
Every time you hear Bombay, now Mumbai – this song is the first thing you can think of. You have this song buzzing in the background while all the others follow up.
Huge skyscrapers – 40, 50, 60 are no more mere numbers, they are the number of floors that an apartment can have and is really no big a deal!
From millionaires to poverty, from Dharavi to Parla – there is a complete India that runs here. You have a different scene everyday, despite the fact you follow the monotonous routine. Traffic lights are one place where Mumbai seems to halt – otherwise Mumbai is running always, 24 hours, 7 days!
While I was out on a routine day at Dadar, the immense amount of rush, crowd, people my eyes could capture was way beyond my thoughts could actually reach. The only statement that came into my mind was:
BREATHE MUMBAI BREATHE!
Mumbai is a heartland, which is home to not only beaches, heritage touristy places, but unlike any other place, here the heritage architectures are in use. People in their day to day routine use the heritage buildings. Bandra station, Bombay High Court, Bombay Municipal Corporation Building, and The Victoria Terminus to name a few. These are a few knick knacks that people aren’t aware of.
I recently got to know about the Victoria Terminus Tour and Museum, this is one place which a very few people know about despite living in Mumbai for years!
My Ultimate Experience:
Mumbai has been teaching me a lot of things, from living independently, setting up your place, about the psyche of the people, there is a sense of “I have to do it myself” tendency that has now got me running and exploring on my own.
This time when I thought of going to this tour, I was a little skeptical as what will I find there? The crowd running for catching trains, for work, for home, what else?
Well, as soon as I got inside, after purchasing my ticket to the museum I was led by the guide to the railway museum. This museum had a space where the history of the Mumbai railways was explained elaborately. From the first train to the model of the bullet train. There were the models of the coaches, the devices used in the past in the railway museum.
I was guided the tour by the guide, he told me about the letters that were written at those times by the officials in order to increase their wages, how from a 4-coaches train changes to the 12-coaches, so on and so forth.
There were a lot of things, which came to my mind while exploring the tour was that there are a lot of things intact – as it is from the time of the Britishers, however, a lot of our things, which are made recently holds no strength. Why? Well, we all are aware of the answers, nevertheless, those historic and vintage stuff is something I couldn’t miss and you should not too.
The tour thereafter leads you to the second floor, which is where you will feel so astonished yet amazed seeing the view. The second floor shows us the area which reveals the carvings, the arches, and the minute details that went into making the Victoria Terminus. True to its heritage and people using it on a daily basis this place will prove it all.
You see from the first floor the rushing and gushing with people from one counter to the platform, getting their tickets from the EVM machines and what not!”
I was then guided to the balcony area outside which is a beauty in itself! Words might fail, emotions might not be revealed but this will surely be a triumph in making you realize what I am trying to say.
The building is the headquarters to the railway officers and therefore, there is a short time allotted to the tour, additionally, there are very few people who attend this tour. The guide told me that there are just 10 people in maximum per day who come to take the tour. There are reason to it, first and foremost there isn’t much advertising about it, secondly the fees to a museum tour is kept 200 INR, which is somewhat pricey in terms of a museum tour. However, trust me it is totally worth it. You not just get to know about the place, the history, the heritage but it is all about the view.
Where is it?
As you come out of the CST Local station you start moving towards right, that in the same lane towards the Bus Stop. You will find a huge board speaking about the Victoria Terminus and about it being a heritage site. Just 15 steps ahead will be a small gate that will read about the Heritage Tour.
If you want to know about the guide or the get in contact with someone, you can let me know I can share with you more details on the same.
More Details About it
The museum tour is open from Monday to Friday between 2pm to 5pm and is closed on the weekends and public holidays. The price of the tickets is 200 INR per person. You can click photographs, and make videos too.
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