The Mumbai I love..

A very special wedding took me to Mumbai a couple of months back. After the onslaught of Delhi's dreadfully cold winter, the muggy warmth of Mumbai's November felt like a soothing balm for my miserable throat and my aching soul. And the rush i felt just being surrounded by the buzzing, throbbing, vivacious pulse of the city that stirs me like no other...it was a moment i still linger over.
Playing proxy sister to my best friend as she totteringly/drunkenly/bravely/magnificently orchestrated a culturally-explosive wedding (her own!)..being a very thrilled side-kick entrusted with flower trays and gift responsibilities, 'stealing and then haggling over the price of the groom's n shoes' (as is customary in Indian weddings) and desperately struggling to avoid tripping over my saree hem -all this was perhaps just what i needed to break away. And if that was not enough-i had a day to spare to go soak up the city that made me who i am today.
Of course-being away for too long means starting over in some valuable lessons that Mumbai teaches you almost instantly. Like prepping to get off at your station well in time when traveling in the local trains. A lesson my husband had conveniently forgotten which left me looking around for him all over Bandra station's platform after safely getting off the Ladies compartment. Of course-he called me ten minutes later to sheepishly admit he'd reached Andheri (a few miles down)instead!
But these hilarious hiccups apart, steering through the city is like a walk in the rain for me-romantic, exhilarating, liberating as always. Maybe i wont feel the same way if i woke up every day to battle the engulfing traffic and the daily struggles..but till that time, Mumbai is always going to give me a head-rush.
So whether its shopping for soapstone carvings at Dhoop in Khar or having nimboo pani at my alma mater's Bistro, flipping through magazines at Just Around the Corner while waiting for a perfect sandwich or simply cruising across Marine Drive in the quintessentially battered cab..the simplest things here make me feel that i am home, i am happy and i am in love..forever.

P.S: Did i mention that Mumbai has a Hard Rock Cafe now. Another reason for me (a self-confessed HRC fan) to love it some more! And did i mention that Seattle (the birth place of grunge music) DOES NOT have one. Irony, irony..

Confessions of a homesick cynic

When you're homesick, nothing else matters. The jingle of bells, holiday feasts, pinch me-am-i-dreaming sales or waking up on Christmas morning to a snow-kissed vista from your tiny porch..they all melt away into a "so what" blur. Because all you really want after a trip back home is to be back there again. Not the long immigration lines at your port-of-entry, not the disciplined clean roads with sane traffic and the thin crust pizzas dripping with melty mozzarella...
instead you're almost aching for the chaos you encounter while looking for parking in super-crazy Gurgaon, the bhel puri tossed up with hands and ingredients that are decidedly suspect, waking up to lazy mornings with mumma-ki-chai and paneer-ka- parantha.
Sure-a white christmas in normally snow-free seattle was pretty. And yes- i did the shopper in me proud with post-christmas extravagances. But for nearly a month after that sojourn home i was questioning why i am here in the first place. Who cares about having Banana Republic at easy access (ok-i'll take that back-i do care about that!)..somedays i just miss the familiarity of home.
Now that the bout of homesickness is beginning to wane-i am slowly slipping into a dreadful routine again. I'll even concede that i enjoy American politics and find myself comparing it to the boring "pull-my-hair-out" frustrating version back home and wondering why the Gujarat elections didnt capture my interest as much as the Obama-Clinton rivalry.
But when all is said and done-the samosas here suck. Family is as far away from Seattle as it is from sunny California. And even though calls to India are super-cheap, its never going to be the same as dropping in to a friend's place for chai and a chat.
A little shout-out to home, because i miss it so..