Mumbai runs on lines, not distances. A student four stations up the Western line is a nearer job than one that looks close on a map but needs a change at Dadar, and the locality on a posting — Andheri, Borivali, Ghatkopar, Chembur — tells you more about your evening than the subject does. Space is the other thing to weigh: many lessons here happen at the dining table with the household in earshot, and where a family already knows that will not work, they usually mark the requirement open to online.
The hour matters nearly as much as the line, because no two students here keep the same timetable. Many schools run morning and afternoon shifts, so one child is free at eleven and another only after seven, and once a student moves to junior college after Class 10 the whole pattern is rearranged again. A standing weekly slot is what makes the travel pay — a single session an hour away rarely does — so tutors here usually fix two or three days with one household and build the rest of the week outward from that, keeping the sittings near enough to each other that the evening is not spent on platforms.
The last mile is the part that gets underestimated. A house four stations away is still fifteen minutes from the station at the other end, in an auto queue or on foot, and that stretch decides whether a back-to-back pair is possible at all. The rains make it worse for weeks together, and a household that would not consider online in April will ask for it in July when the trains are running late. The homes run from a room in a chawl or an older redeveloped building to a tower flat with a security desk downstairs, and it is worth knowing which one you are going to, because it changes how long the walk from the gate to the table takes.