Mumbai Mayhem
I could talk about the jet-lag, but I won't. I could talk about the mosquitoes and the pollution and the humidity and the incessant rain and the puddles and the noise and the traffic and the pace and the scratching at my throat, but I won't. I don't need to. I have memories that will eclipse all these and other passing inconveniences in Bombay. Just so that I don't forget those, here are memories of my city that I have carried back to the US with me:
1. The crows, cawing all day long, swooping down to the kitchen window to grab a little round ball of atta,
2. The trees, vividly green and fresh in the monsoon rains,
3. The large, colorful wall murals (painted enthusiastically by Pigglett) decorating the walls of my home,
4. Ma, framed against the explosion of light from the kitchen window,
5. Paa, comfy in his favorite accustomed seat on the sofa,
6. Naughty Little Pigglett, trotting about everywhere, making herself indispensable to everybody ("If we had a parrot at home, the first word it would learn would be 'Pigglett'!"),
7. Bargaining for shoes and bags on Linking Road, something Pigg and I are picking up for almost the first time ever,
8. The shopping malls springing up everywhere ("No Bargaining!"), trying to make things easier for yuppies but only succeeding in making them less interesting for us,
9. The clouds swirling overhead,
10. The airplanes weaving in and out of the clouds,
11. The little paan-beedi-walla dukaan, where you also get bread and candy and a good gossip,
12. The tiny grocery stores that house almost everything you could wish for in the kind of space you couldn't even begin to imagine,
13. The "Horn, OK, Please" signs on the back of trucks,
14. The waterfalls beside the Mumbai-Pune Expressway - now there's a view you'll never get to see from a highway here in the US!
15. Wet salwars clinging to legs as auto-rickshaws determinedly steer away and the heavens continue to pour,
16. The Great Wide Beautiful Wonderful Book Exhibition - a treat for everybody! Five Blandings Castle treats, can you imagine? All at one go!
17. The rakhi stalls, colorful and artistic, beads, threads, pompons hanging everywhere,
18. The "Bombay smell" at the airport - reminds me I'm home.
And so I am. In spite of the rush and the lack of time and the perpetual motion and living out of a suitcase and the fear of cholera from unboiled water, I've never felt so much at home as - at home.
1. The crows, cawing all day long, swooping down to the kitchen window to grab a little round ball of atta,
2. The trees, vividly green and fresh in the monsoon rains,
3. The large, colorful wall murals (painted enthusiastically by Pigglett) decorating the walls of my home,
4. Ma, framed against the explosion of light from the kitchen window,
5. Paa, comfy in his favorite accustomed seat on the sofa,
6. Naughty Little Pigglett, trotting about everywhere, making herself indispensable to everybody ("If we had a parrot at home, the first word it would learn would be 'Pigglett'!"),
7. Bargaining for shoes and bags on Linking Road, something Pigg and I are picking up for almost the first time ever,
8. The shopping malls springing up everywhere ("No Bargaining!"), trying to make things easier for yuppies but only succeeding in making them less interesting for us,
9. The clouds swirling overhead,
10. The airplanes weaving in and out of the clouds,
11. The little paan-beedi-walla dukaan, where you also get bread and candy and a good gossip,
12. The tiny grocery stores that house almost everything you could wish for in the kind of space you couldn't even begin to imagine,
13. The "Horn, OK, Please" signs on the back of trucks,
14. The waterfalls beside the Mumbai-Pune Expressway - now there's a view you'll never get to see from a highway here in the US!
15. Wet salwars clinging to legs as auto-rickshaws determinedly steer away and the heavens continue to pour,
16. The Great Wide Beautiful Wonderful Book Exhibition - a treat for everybody! Five Blandings Castle treats, can you imagine? All at one go!
17. The rakhi stalls, colorful and artistic, beads, threads, pompons hanging everywhere,
18. The "Bombay smell" at the airport - reminds me I'm home.
And so I am. In spite of the rush and the lack of time and the perpetual motion and living out of a suitcase and the fear of cholera from unboiled water, I've never felt so much at home as - at home.
5 Comments:
Glad to have you back though! :-)
By Anonymous, at Monday, September 01, 2008 7:49:00 AM
u have forgotten a few things like..
19.the spa treatments
20.the "blessings"..
By Anonymous, at Wednesday, September 03, 2008 2:17:00 PM
Ananymous: Yup, I only really felt like I'd reached Chicago once I blogged! Clearly, I was too busy accumulating all these memories (and more) in Bombay to blog then. BTW when are you booking your trip home??
Pigglett: Oh My Goodness! I certainly did!! And considering how I nearly missed the 'blessings' and how I now miss the spa treatments, I should be kicking myself right about now. Accumulate more of these and send them to me, and together we'll issue a second edition of this post, ok?
By Summer Showers, at Wednesday, September 03, 2008 7:58:00 PM
BTW, I forgot to mention that I really like the picture on this post. It looks like an oil painting on textured canvas.(but it's actually a photograph taken on a particularly rainy evening from the front seat of a car?)
By Anonymous, at Tuesday, September 23, 2008 1:40:00 PM
Yep, Ananymous... that's EXACTLY what it is! Glad you liked it, I made Dad slow down (and stop) several times so I could get it just the way I wanted it.
By Summer Showers, at Monday, October 06, 2008 2:47:00 PM
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