In past few
days, I could relate very well to what Steve Jobs said about love,
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of heart, you'll know when you find it and like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of heart, you'll know when you find it and like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.
My
first impression of Bombay was from bollywood. Growing up in tier 2 cities, I
saw Bombay only in TV. As a child, I was scared of Bombay. It was a land of
tricksters. It was a land where people would go to become Amitabh Bacchan and
disappear somewhere. The ugly Bombay of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ full of deep
shit, land of haftavasooli, and child
abuse, it will always shake me to the core. I still remember the time when
Gulshan Kumar assassination happened; I was so scared to see the news on the
TV. I never wanted to go to Bombay. Life in my small quaint city was good.
Bombay was not real.It existed in idiot-box always.
The twenty four
year old me landed in Bombay for the first time. It was a halt for half a day.
The only thing that caught my notice was women getting down from bus a 12.30
am. It surprised me. I am so used to stay in state of terror in the national
capital or for that matter in my home town also. I have had never smelled air
of freedom. How does it feel like to roam at night? I kept looking at the woman
from my window and slept with the question in my head,’ How does it feel to
roam at night?’ That question erased my hatred for Bombay. My sub-conscious was getting to know the
answer.
I returned to
Bombay after five years. Walking alone with my suit-case, I came out of Bombay-
Central station. The narrow slim roads, and high rise buildings and sea-link,
Bombay I was in love this time. The taxi driver started narrating me the story
of how he found his life in Bombay. He came to the city some thirty years back
as a laborer and never wanted to go back to his village in Uttar Pradesh. He
just quipped, ‘Madam dilliwalon ko Bombay
mein kaafi accha lagta hai.’ I smiled and was thinking ‘I am not dilliwali, I am from Uttar Pradesh. We
have the same story.I am in Delhi for the same reason, you are in Bombay. Just
that I am not in love with Delhi.’
After our run
in Sanjay Gandhi National Park, I had the first vada paao of my life with Thumbs-up. I posed and got clicked with
Thums-up. The little kid in me sang, ‘Thums-up
the taste that thunders.’ It rained cats and dogs. She and I ran to catch our local to Chhatraapati
Shivaji Terminus. This had become a daily routine. My Bombay friends will often
ask me,’ why do you take the train to CST
every day? What do you do at Colaba? Is this what you took leave for?’
After tying
that religious wish thread in Haji Ali on the first day of Ramzan, She and I sat at marine drive. Life has so many questions.
That big wave washed them away. No I did not get the answers for my questions.
It was like that grandmother’s soothing touch on the head which reassured,’ It will be allright.’ To
my left was young couple sitting holding hands, chatting and kissing in
between; to my right were youngsters,probably celebrating their new
job; at the back was Trident, where the elite stopped.’ Bombay is so slim, it accommodates all in so much less space. People sit so dangerously close to each other, in the trains, at marine drive. Same is the case with cars.
After that customary halt
at Leopald, we again took a taxi back to Powai. It was 12 midnight. Of the best
things in life, Bombay has offered me that smell of freedom and that sense of association with everyone around . Words cannot do
justice to small joys of life.
Bombay, you are my latest love. It is not the
love at first sight but the one which grows with time.
I will be back soon.
I will be back soon.
