How I miss my city as I stare out of the window into the cold streets and the snow covered sidewalks and the bare trees. How I miss my city as the sun sets and night takes over at 3pm.
For my city is unique. The sun sets and night approaches but it doesn't have to mean a wrapping up or the end of another day in our lives. No, it merely means that another universe has taken over for Bombay at night transforms into something brighter and more beautiful.
The lights around Marine Drive light up and sitting by the sea near Walkeshwar in those quiet moments of night reinstates a belief in the beauty of life. Sure, the cops might come and shoo us away, tell us we're women, we ought to be careful roaming around at 3 am but they haven't snatched the beauty away. They can not.
My city buzzes with people, with life, with humour, with joy, with dirtiness, with deceit, with anger, with frustration and with successes. It is magical not only because it claims to be but because it is a land of infinite possibility, just waiting to be discovered.
And maybe the fact that it's at a tipping point, that point where it's just about to enter greatness, makes it even more exquisite. Because being at this tipping point gives all us Bombayites (don't call yourself a Mumbaikar unless you are willing to submit to the games of the Shiv Sena) the honour of the challenge to plunge this city into greatness. A greatness devoid of the clanging loneliness of the New Yorks and the Tokyos but full of liveliness, gladness and a hope in life.
I think you've been having too many alone times. We'll fix this. Soon.
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that you love Bombay...I "think" I love Minneapolis as much as you love Bombay...but for me, it's more of the people...definitely. Maybe sometimes I don't realize how much I love Minneapolis, because I never leave the cities. I remember returning from Paris. My mum and sister picked me up from the airport. It was night and snowing. I looked out the car window and thought to myself how much I miss Minneapolis, especially in the night with all the lights and snow.
ReplyDeleteMaybe these are just the sort of associations one would have with home. And maybe you're right, one needs to leave home to realize just how much it means to one's own sense of being.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why traveling is so much fun...it's full of exploring and discovering and risking and being and learning but knowing somewhere at the back of your head that there's a home to return to.