The title.....is not original :) Its picked up from my favourite anime 'NARUTO' now running its 2nd sequence 'NARUTO SHIPPUDEN' (on TV Tokyo, Japan , Thursday nights 9 pm :) )
When I think about home there 's never a second thought and like a vision I see Mumbai.Mumbai at its best glory during the festivals or the quietest near dawn when either you can say its fallen asleep or just waking up to go on the run. Anyone who has lived in Mumbai, travelled on the trains or just walked on the roads trying to make your way through a sea of people will never in one's life forget as to what it is or once was to be a Mumbaikar.
During my Med School days at LTMMC aka Sion hospital ,I came face to face with Mumbai. The real nasty city , the bully but with a heart. There was never a time in the casualty duties that we had that we didn't see some drama. But it's not what happens inside a hospital that I'm writing about . I am writing about Mumbai seen by an Intern then in 2003 standing on the footpath outside the hospital at 4.30 - 5.00 am drinking a cup of coffee with my Casualty Officer (and now close friend , Ashwin) that the Anna on the cycle got from some god forsaken place( I still wonder how I never fell sick). The Eastern Express Highway outside the hospital which is a herculean task to drive on a normal day in Mumbai would be quiet with some taxis and private vehicles speeding by. Speeding by :)
The average time taken from Sion Circle to Sion hospital any given day by car is 40 odd minutes in the traffic and walking 12- 14 minutes at a leisurely pace :) . At that hour near dawn vehicles would actually speed by . That's the hour you can see and listen to the city in a real sense without the presence and chatter of zillions of people and their languages not to mention the vehicles and the honking of horns.
I remember the Intern's Cruise ( farewell party) we had which started and docked back at the mesmerizing Gateway of India with the ever beautiful Taj Hotel overlooking the dark black muddy waters at the gateway. The walk back of about 25 - 30 of us from Gateway to VT station at about 4 am on the streets of Mumbai was hardly an opportunity that everyone in Mumbai got. Not to mention how dangerous it was. But we did do it and that's the time when I actually saw how big the sidewalks were and how great the architecture of the buildings was .
When I think of Mumbai today these places rush to my mind in a chaotic kind of a slide show:
Kala Ghoda, Rhythm House, Khyber restaurant....the book vendors, the BEST buses, the yellow - black taxis, some weird foreigners wearing flowing ghaagraas in the sweltering heat of Mumbai,the street urchins, the paan wallahs....and how can you ever see and not remember Victoria Terminus ( CST now)and the BMC headquarters.
.....JJ Hospital, Byculla station, Marine Drive, Jazz by the Bay....and the Pizzeria.....Girgaum Chowpatty and the walking bridge over it, Wilson College, Walkeshwar, Worli Seaface, Worli Dairy and the dairy stall outside it where we went every year bunking lectures on the day it rained to just to experience the waves crashing on the rocks at the seaface...:) :)
Vishal, Desma, Sandeep,Trupti and others....I will never ever forget those rainy days in Mumbai at the Worli Seaface ever! :)
Siddhivinayak temple, Shivaji Park......Vile Parle, Juhu, Ram krishna.....There's no way I am finishing this list because its not just a city its a world out there.
This blog is by no way disrespecting any other city in the world or the sentiments of other people from different cities, its just re kindling the memories of anyone who has lived in Mumbai and misses being away from it. I do and always will till I am not back at the place where some one is thinking of me .......Mumbai.
Be brave,
AD
PS: Expect more on Mumbai in my blog :)
