There must be so many times you must have
visited a new place for work, for holiday or sometimes plain return visits to
meet family or friends and when you come back to your habitat: you have lots of
memories; good bad or ugly. You remember them for a few more days or months may
be, upload photos online, keep talking about them and sharing your own list of
do's and don'ts and then one day you get back to routine and commitments
without slightest of remembrance or impression left of that place on your mind
or life, until you dig into your old albums.
When I come to think of my memories
related to travel for work and otherwise, I remember many - cities, towns, homesteads
– some that I don't even remember the names of! I often shift base for work and
long stay, in the last 4 years I called two cities my own, both in their own
rights and now is again that time of my life when I am just a month old in this
new bustling city, this time a new country on top!
Guess this homeless feeling is miserable
and the more I talk about the leaving of my last home instead of going gaga over
this new setting (which is one of its kind to get gaga over, really!) the more greeting
my new home feels, like last time!
I never thought I belonged to this place and
yet a part of me belonged there always. It is Amchi Mumbai! Rightly so!
My first memory of Mumbai - of a winter
vacation trip with family is vague, sick and bland! The city where roads had as
many potholes as the number of people, tall and narrow high-rises in the
labyrinth of a dank maze of ever-narrowing ways covered by a canopy of smog. I
always loathed the idea of holiday in a city of man-made high-rises juxtaposed
against the never-ending slums. The place looked like a rut to me. The local
trains were infuriating, the yelling and elbowing crowd was anything but a
sight to watch and the heat in the month of December was unbelievable! We did
all the touristy stuff right from munching on the vara pav to visiting Haji Ali
and Mount Mary Church (when my mind kept trying to justify the need for
visiting these strange places, as in we never go to a church or a mosque on any
given day in our home town, for heaven’s sake!). We strolled along the marine lines
and mom exclaimed at one such point, ‘this is the most beautiful place on this
earth, wish I could settle down here forever!’ I wasn't sure of mom’s announcement
that time as I personally hated everything at that point of time and cursed
myself over and over again for not insisting on staying back home or agreeing
to the stupidest idea of going for a picnic to the local zoo! Anyway, deep
down, I knew that I and my sister (the two most submissive girls everyone in
the family would give examples of) would never disobey our parents’ decision,
not in this lifetime!
In our last 48 hours of our vacation, mom
was the happiest, my dad disinterested, my sister excited to have more vara
pavs and I could not help counting every nano-second until the last minute. Cheers
to my mom’s addiction to bargain hunting, we ended up stopping at Colaba
Causeway – our last shopping jaunt. She kept on fighting with the shopkeepers
for a rupee or two and we two (me and my little adorable sister) could not help
but gawking. Dad was the only one standing mournfully smoking a cigarette while
keeping an eye on mom, or rather her spending!
Blame the city if I, now, tell you that I
became a little less (okay, far less rather) hateful about city ever since I
gorged on a plate kheema pav at some roadside corner at Colaba followed by the
blue berry cheese cake at the Leopold and most outstandingly, ever since the
last day lunch at Mahesh lunch home and brun maska at the Chhatrapati Shivaji
Terminus (Victoria Terminus, then). I, in a few hours, was completely in love
with the city’s food. The last thought that crossed my mind when our train was
leaving the station (or I was leaving the city, forever) was, ‘how to coax my
mom and dad again on my next vacation, is Mumbai too much to ask for?’ I couldn't think
of anything after that until we came home as my mom says I was ‘wet with
tears and depressed to the core’!
I still keep saying this that I was not
really living until I came back to stay in the city years later!
Yes Mumbai was as welcoming as ever when I
revisited - not as a tourist, but as someone with a promise not to leave again!
Dizziness, uncertainty, fear were translated into ecstasy, gusto, and a dream!
Yet, this time I had a past – of a living
in a beautifully planned city – I was coming from the garden city Bangalore
where the greens, salubrious weather, elegant layouts and real estate, decent
roads and an old world charm meet the modern, pluralistic, tolerant and
cosmopolitan culture. Despite all the ‘oh my’s in my kitty, may be,
just maybe, this time when I came back, I was a little more hopeful
with a little less hang-ups!
I watched the time – it was morning 10
a.m. at Mumbai central - local trains running with people oozing out of its
packed compartments – yes, it was still nerve-losing to me but this is when I suddenly
picked up joy – joy in noticing the people with different backgrounds,
lifestyles, outlooks, age groups travelling together, laughing together,
fighting for others’ seat rights and sleeping together till the destination
comes.
The roads are still the same, now with
more flyovers and sky walkers that I had ever imagined
in Bangalore – well, who cares!
The high-rises are now skyscrapers,
the slums where sixty percent of Mumbai population are living, are still
standing tall (and famous, kudos to Slumdog Millionaire) with dish TV antennae
on every metal-sheet roof! Isn't it great to house around 12 million people
and still be awesome at the same time!
The number of cars
have skyrocketed to a horrifying number and so is the expanse of
traffic, yet that fails to scare me from going to gulch my favourite
Bombay sandwich or drive 30 kilometres to watch the sunset at the Marine Drive
on my first weekend in the city – yes, I undeniably understand now why ‘it is
the most beautiful place on this earth’ (I get it mom!)
With each fleeting day, I was a little
more Mumbaite and I wanted to ‘settle down here forever’ and bring my mom to
live the life with me and my husband!
Surprisingly, every time we headed back to
Kolkata on a holiday to meet our parents, we missed Mumbai (yes, even my
husband missed Mumbai, probably, more than I did!) and we kept checking flight
rates to plan our return. That’s the ‘Maaya’ (magic) of maayanagri that everyone talks
about!
It is not a cakewalk to live in the city,
honestly, but, this maaya makes it easy! Mumbai spoils you with choices, you
name it and the city has it, no matter what your hunger is for! You get to eat
it up right here! You don't feel homesick, you feel ‘which place to explore
next’! Neither do you feel like comparing its ugliness to the loveliness of
other cities - see the truth is it’s you who make it so! You are surprised by
the warmth and kindness of the people here (doesn’t matter if
you don't belong here, you will, one day!) Never mind if
Mumbai keeps you on your toes, it is this city (plus the people, of
course) that gives you enough reason (beyond no power cuts or the rains to get
a lovely soak) to feel lovely amidst all that ugliness of life!
I was given outstanding opportunities to work yet stay calm, endless second chances to
perfect what I couldn't in the first go, Mumbai embraced me when I hated
it the most, it made me who I am today – a human being with a heart
filled with patience, forbearance and gratitude!
Yes, I did it! I even created a whole online album
dedicated to my beautiful Mumbai and I call it ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan’ (I know that’s
cheesy but ‘Jaan’ in a factual sense, you see)!
And when I realise that I left the city
more than a month back, it hurts! It hurts to become conscious of what I might
have lost – something that is a part of me now! I am feeling like the girl
leaving the city years back, because I wouldn't know when I will be back again.
And because I know the city won't even notice now when I am gone. And maybe
because I am not sure if my new habitat would touch my soul the way Mumbai did
– perhaps not – there could only be one soul-mate in each life-time!
Quoting Nonita Kalra, editor of Elle,
would perhaps articulate my current feelings just perfectly - I came to
Mumbai with just two suitcases and my dreams. …I just wanted anonymity. The
freedom to be who I wanted to be. If I changed my mind every single day, so be
it…Mumbai - gave me the greatest gift of my life. The confidence to know that I
might not be the nicest person in the world but this is who I am. Which is why,
the city is my greatest love affair—one I cannot cheat on. Even though I try.
