The Mumbai & Metro experience.
It’s bliss-a renewed faith in mankind, a spring in my step, optimism to it’s helm (to the point of foolishness)…..some of the aftereffects of visiting my beloved city-Old Mumbai (
Traveling first class or in a nice swanky Merc may be an option or a “dream” travel for many- but hell!-I love the local trains & my walk through the city. From CST to Churchgate to
On the way you pick up gems- an old book here & there, the cup of chai your dad drank when he struggled while dreaming, the heavenly, refreshing, cool milkshake at Haji Ali- all the while the vastness of the sea compels you to drown in it forever. No, I don’t want to drown in the beautiful
When there is so much beauty in a place, a beauty that can’t be seen, that does not stand demanding appreciation-it’s felt, it moves, it stays & you come back to it seeking solace, to escape, to guide & to be lost to win. I’ve seen the same buildings a million times, sat at the same place at Marine Drive watching & writing, munching those stupid groundnuts-(I land up buying them all the time)-but everytime it’s different. The aura refuses to fade. It’s an aura my dad had & probably created- I feel the same. It’s never going to fade. I’ll be awestruck like a 3yr old-everytime. Can keep my mouth shut effortlessly & await the sinking in, the drowning, the dawning. It’s an aura that will remain. I don’t know if only I feel it & others just walk by in the crowd. It’s not the people I like, it’s the place. I think I’d walk through it alone and still feel the same.
No single movie or a book has done justice to this city, probably Shantaram a little bit. “Life in a ….Metro” being the BIG RECENT DISASTER. I HATED it & for once got beaten up for it. The stupid idea of watching “Life in a…Metro” at Metro Adlabs, first day, first show…stupid me. Should have suspected the idiotic “DNA-SPEAK UP” chap who brilliantly recorded every vehement abuse to have escaped my lips. I could have murdered Anurag Basu for his brilliant perception of hapless souls having to loss virginity & have super-duper affairs- all analogous to Life In a Metro-WHAT!!!! Call the movie “Meri Jindagi” or something. I said all this & it all got printed. I feel a little embarrassed to bear the brunt of thrashing a 3-star ratted movie by all the film critics of all the popular newspapers, The Times Of India, DNA, Mumbai Mirror….all gave wonderful, uniform ratings but I’m still fuming.
But all in all, sitting at “Gaylords” (Churchgate) devouring the Swiss Chocolate and watching people walk by I read this…
“That there is a minimum of free choice; but that people cannot live unless they imagine that they have free will”
That sums it all up. I smiled, I opened the book, I just began to read “War and Peace”-it’s bliss.
7 comments:
i'd like to pint out one thing here. the subject of bombay(not mumbai) is dear to me as well. perhaps more so. that's beacause i'm from here. at the outset it may seem wied, but if you're informed enough to have heard of the east indian community, you'll know. and the architecture is not borrowed. look at any of the cottages in our old villages, taredo,kotachiwadi(where i'm from) et al. they have a distinctive ENGLISH appearance but they're definitely indian. so says the plaque that's outside mine. INDO SARACEAN it says. in the words of JB Rebello-1851.
point*. ah.typos
and oh yeah. gaylords. i too have harbored a certain liking for that place, though not for the chocolates on offer.
and honestly, i can't help but feel the same way when i walk down the roads and sit on the same rocks that my folks walked down. nostalgic indeed
for the love of god!!!...not that dirty sea water....you dont wanna die there...do u??...kidding right??
hey, i'd like to die in the sea water, specially bombay's water
i'll get the knife or machete or whtatever it is that you prefer....
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