My Dombivli

I am sure every one of us has at least one experience in life where we have resented something, someone, someplace in the beginning, but eventually our views have changed.

Until about 20 years ago, I used to be a proud resident of Mulund, Mumbai. Even today, I love visiting my family there, and having spent the first 23 years of my life, including my childhood, school, college and the early days of my career in Mulund, the suburb will always carry a special place in my heart. In those days, Mulund being the last central suburb of Mumbai, any suburbs further north were considered as a bit under developed. I had a lot of friends from places like Thane, Dombivli, Kalyan and even beyond, and we Mumbaikars used to often tease them as "gaon waale" or villagers. Of course it was just for fun because we never really let any geographical boundaries interfere with our friendship.

But more than that, whenever we used to visit any friends staying beyond Thane, we dreaded the crowd in the trains. Going to Dombivli felt like a humungous task. And yet, we had several students in our college who came to study from far off places like Badlapur, Ambernath and beyond. I always used to think about how miserable the lives of these people is because they had to spend so much of their time just travelling to college. Similar were my thoughts for my colleagues from these locations at workplace too when I started working.

Well, destiny has a beautiful way of bringing you close to what you resent. My wife Dimple, whom I met at my workplace and fell in love with happens to be from Dombivli. I recall teasing her a lot about how her Dombivli seemed like a village as compared to Mulund. Most people staying in Mumbai city limits may feel the same even today, and though many don't realise, it is just a matter of perspective.

After marriage, we had to search for a house since our Mulund home wasn't very large and my parents preferred that we took on the responsibility of staying independently. This task proved easier said than done. Initially we stayed in an empty residential flat of a builder we knew well, and just had to pay the building society maintenance. But after about a year and a half, the flat had to be alloted to a Government servant, which is why we had to leave it. Even though both of us were earning reasonably well, the rent in an area like Mulund was just too much for us to bear the burden of. After much searching, we decided to check out some rental properties in Dombivli. We were able to get a flat on leave and license for 11 months. For the first few days I found myself struggling to cope with the additional half an hour of travel from my Dadar office, but eventually I got used to it. I also then realized that overall Dombivli was a less expensive place to stay in and we were able to better manage our monthly budgets. We therefore started searching for an ownership residence in Dombivli, and within 5 months we moved into our own house for which I had taken a loan.

Eventually I made new friends in Dombivli and started taking a liking towards it. Consisting mostly of working class and high literacy rate, Dombivli has been the most desired abode for many others like me. Eating out on weekends is never a problem, and the bill doesn't burn a large hole in my pocket.

Watching movies is better too, with Gopi talkies in the west and Tilak Multiplex in the east, all of which offer much affordable ticket prices with comfortable seating.

Another advantage here is the quality of education. We have some really good schools in Dombivli, which ensure decent education for the next generation.

The only problem until now has been commutation. While Dombivli is just about 20 minutes by slow train from Thane, getting here by road is challenging. No matter what route one takes, Thane, Mulund and even Navi Mumbai is atleast an hour's drive. Due to this if the trains are not working on a rainy day it becomes almost impossible to travel to Mumbai. Thankfully these woes are about to end soon.

Dombivli is all set to become a smart city. The construction of the Dombivli-Mankoli bridge scheduled to complete by 2019 will bring Thane at a drive of just 20 minutes. Another flyover from Dombivli East Manpada will connect to Airoli at a 10 minutes drive. With strong infrastructure progress, connectivity of this one time town with the main city with improve significantly. Obviously, real estate prices too are expected to increase soon.

After all that Dombivli has given me in the past 16 years, I am a proud Dombivlikar now.