me = mumbaikar/bombayite/mumbai-wallah!

my last post and the comments on it thereafter got me thinking of the city that I was born in- Bombay or Mumbai as it is formally known now...
A city that gave me more than I can even list down... an understanding of spirit, a pride and confidence in being part of its womb,a sense of belonging that was always warm and cozy to come back to,a pampering and indulgent independence and the net of safety that always prevailed when things failed the most or turned out not as quite as they seemed they were...a richness even from its poorest class,the variety of human charity to a self preservation that many people consider bordering on 'coldness'...the power to dream big and achieve it... a chance to explore and appreciate- places, food and people... thoughts and religions...preferences and associations... lives of the day and the night... to be as I want to be - just like that...There's no city I can love more than I love Mumbai!
And now, when I am no longer living there, I realised something that I miss too much, and that I had taken for granted earlier...the sea! As the rain falls outside my window now, I am thinking how it must be in Mumbai... the waves lapping upon the wet pavements, all the roads, cars, houses, trees, leaves, flowers, bus stops, lamp posts glistening with the sparkle of the raindrops... people having 'cutting chai -thoda masala maarke', garma garam 'batata and kanda' bhajiyas and samosas off the frying pan and straight into the mouth, some hot chocolate and coffee with warm conversations, the trains looking all clean and squeaking along the platforms, windchimes of the flats by the bay dancing to the tune of the tides, people huddled up around warm fires, crowds in the stations and the bus stops hankering to go home, Haji Ali all lit up and drenched as would be the other buildings and spaces like Siddhi Vinayak, VT station, Gateway, Taj Hotel, Carter Road, Fort....oh I can just go on....
My most amazing and simple moments of the rains in Mumbai have been of catching a double-decker bus, sitting right in front with an open window and going to Marine Drive, walking on the pavement and leaning over the ledge when the waves came in, eating butta, using my umbrella not for myself but in making other people wet as I twirled it around, getting soaked to my bones, shivering , having an ice-cream to prove 'cold kills cold' and enjoying every minute of it...dancing a lil jig in the middle of the road...laughing, singing aloud in the taxi ... and acting madder than ever ...
Mumbai also is memorable because of the odours that it emanates during the rains- junk-filled nallahs and sewers, open garbage cans and dumpsters, urine and faeces lined along the road, petrol and diesel smoked filled traffic...nicer ones too. I identify the places in the city by their smells, especially the times I travelled from Fort to Bandra by car...kebabs over the JJ flyover, the sea mists of Marine Drive to Chowpatty, the freshness in the air as the car passes the Hanging Gardens and reaches Peddar Road at Kemps corner, butta being roasted and hot charcoal mixed with clammy sea smells of the Worli seaface, the flower market of Dadar(just before the flyover) and then the herbs, spices and vegetables being sold on the road under the bridge, green grass of Shivaji Park and the dhoop outside Mahim durgah... through all these smells, the one I cherish most is that of the Shirish tree....a faint and lingering fragrance that gently, but fimrly cuts through all these prevailing strong ones and allows you to disappear into a realm of enchantment... always there around, irrespective of everything else... as a mark of life... so much like the city it and I belong to...

ps: A must-read that I recommend strongly- Smell by Radhika Jha.