I call Mumbai my extra marital affair. I run to it whenever i feel exhuasted and frustrated with my first love Delhi. As a person who has lived in Delhi for my entire life - my birth city, i feel somewhat disloyal when i sit by the window in my mumbai apartment staring at the sea and falling in love with the city.
My tryst with Mumbai started around 8 years ago when i had come here for the first time like everyone else to find myself. I was just out of college and did not know what to do with my life. Thought it would be a good time to explore oppurtunities. Well i did manage to convince my parents and came to this city and a PR course in my hand. The first few weeks were difficult. Getting acquainted with the humid weather, the dialect which often comes across very rude for people from my part of India, the culture and the roads, traffic and the distance and the list goes on and goes on. There are a lot of things you can hate about Mumbai but you cant help but fall in love with it. The energy is welcoming, its like you are being greeted when you walk out of your flight. The air is tangy and the feel is warm, obviously there is the constant smell of the sea sometimes of dry fish and sometimes of muck. But then one gets used to it, because the city lets your breathe.
I learnt to stay alone and be independent in this city without any fear. I have made friends and lost them in this city. I have broken my heart and found love again in this city. Its been a journey in itself - my affair with this great city. The rains are beautiful, the bollywood is in your face, the striking billboards and the cheap pubs. Everything about this city is juxtaposed within itself. I have learnt to live with these contradictions and survive.
You can either love it or hate it well have tried so hard to be loyal to my first love and it hurts me everytime not to be with my maîtresse when i am in Delhi.
My tryst with Mumbai started around 8 years ago when i had come here for the first time like everyone else to find myself. I was just out of college and did not know what to do with my life. Thought it would be a good time to explore oppurtunities. Well i did manage to convince my parents and came to this city and a PR course in my hand. The first few weeks were difficult. Getting acquainted with the humid weather, the dialect which often comes across very rude for people from my part of India, the culture and the roads, traffic and the distance and the list goes on and goes on. There are a lot of things you can hate about Mumbai but you cant help but fall in love with it. The energy is welcoming, its like you are being greeted when you walk out of your flight. The air is tangy and the feel is warm, obviously there is the constant smell of the sea sometimes of dry fish and sometimes of muck. But then one gets used to it, because the city lets your breathe.
I learnt to stay alone and be independent in this city without any fear. I have made friends and lost them in this city. I have broken my heart and found love again in this city. Its been a journey in itself - my affair with this great city. The rains are beautiful, the bollywood is in your face, the striking billboards and the cheap pubs. Everything about this city is juxtaposed within itself. I have learnt to live with these contradictions and survive.
You can either love it or hate it well have tried so hard to be loyal to my first love and it hurts me everytime not to be with my maîtresse when i am in Delhi.
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