Institutionalization

I first heard this term as a part of a team for Cactus Flower, the annual campus magazine in Pilani. The thought was that after four years in a protected and as-close-to-ideal environment as Pilani, one feels lost, a sense of rootlessness when one has to leave it for the Big Bad World. Somehow it didn't happen to me then. 

But now it has. In a different place. At a different time.

Imagine being in the most vibrant city in India, and that too in a killer location (stretch your hand and you can touch the mall, the cinema, the beach and umpteen good restaurants of all budgets and cuisines). Over the past year the mind and stomach have attuned to being within the hallowed portals of our residence before the evil hour of 11pm. Now, either over alacrity at the prospect of us leaving in less than a month or in a desperate attempt to assert that they are human after all, the powers that be have graciously allowed a 30 minute extension. Oh! 

(Cup mouth with hands as the eyes sting with tears. Hug those at the left and the right. Recover just in time to flash a perfect smile with perfect, white gleaming teeth. Mouth "Thank you, thank you" a number of times. Look dazed and poised at the same time.)

Right.

Now that it has been dispensed with, what do I do with these extra 30 minutes? What do people do between 11pm and 11.30pm in Mumbai, the commercial capital, the fashion capital, the city that never sleeps? I have not thought about it in over one and a half years. And suddenly, I feel like I am standing in front of this whirlpool and it is sucking me in. 

P.S. One movie that comes to mind is Shawshank Redemption. Not very encouraging but it would have to do :P

Dangerous times

Every time I walk on the road, I can't help watching my back. These are dangerous times. Who knows, another assignment/presentation/screwed up surprise quiz zero/deadline might just be following me! No matter how fast I walk one or all of them almost always manages to catch up with me.

I have tried everything, from working hard, to sleeping it out, but nothing seems to scare them. The day is not far when they will catch up with me. For some time I hoped that they would not find a sleep-deprived, life-deprived b-schooler attractive enough to last (not their target market, you know?) but paradoxically, they want more like me. Boo hoo...

Till we meet next, comrade (all depends on whether I live to see Joyous January..)

The Moment of Truth

Now I can no longer say that I have not been around Mumbai. We (my friend and I) got more than our share of it yesterday!
The whole plan started off with going to have a proper South Indian lunch (with rice, rasam, payasam et al) at the best place for it in town - Matunga. After speaking to loads of people on how to get there, a friend we were lucky to meet at the Andheri station gave us tickets and suggested that we take a taxi from Dadar station.
By God’s grace (and by the grace of the friend as well) we reached Dadar in one piece. As planned we took a taxi to the decided place. But on reaching there we found that there was no such restaurant! So either we were at the wrong place, or the restaurant had moved! So we decided to walk around and go to any restaurant that looked authentically South Indian.
That turned out to be more difficult than we thought, for we spent the next 30 minutes walking round and round (or so it seemed) before we settled on a Café Madras. It had a long waiting line and that further bolstered our confidence that the food would be good. We were disappointed, though. Firstly, there were no meals. Secondly, the food itself tasted like a diluted version of the original. We next went to yet another “South Indian” place but were again only able to find the usual Rasam Vada and Masala Dosa on the menu. We ate to fill our stomachs and then set off on our journey back.
An uneventful taxi ride brought us back to Dadar station. Having bought a ticket to Andheri, we set off for Platform 1 to board the train. The platform was extremely crowded and when we reached the crowd of ladies (ostensibly the place where the ladies compartment was due to stop) we realized that we were too far from behind to reach the train in time when it arrives on the platform. The train finally rolled into the station and our “moment of truth” arrived. We had to get in, somehow or the other! We managed it, though it involved my almost jumping into the moving train. Once we regained our balance we realized that we were in the first class compartment (for which we did not have tickets)! A co-passenger was kind enough to reassure us, but when she heard our destination she looked confused. She then told us that we were on a train in the Central Line, when we should have boarded a train on the Western Line! Now it was our turn to look confused. Didn't we board the train on Platform 1, as instructed?
With her help we got down at Kurla. Too tired, we decided to take an auto back to Andheri.
It was only when I was narrating our experience to my friends did I realize that Kurla was a good distance away from Andheri, and that we were lucky to get back in such less time!
Whew! …

Enchantee (pronounced on-shon-tay)

Mumbai has charmed me. And far sooner than I expected! It stinks most of the time, it's over-crowded, and the weather is horrible. On the other hand, there are loads of places to see and loads of fun things to do - of all shapes and sizes and for all income groups. It's a vibrant place - not for nothing it is called the "city that never sleeps"! The people are genuine, and proud to be ordinary. Mumbai has also done the impossible to me - it has made me a compulsive shopper! :-)
As I leaned out of the local train and the wind whooshed past my face, I felt all my tiredness and my worries slip away. It was an exhilerating feeling.
After Bangalore I thought that I would never be able to like any other city. Bangalore seemed perfect in so many ways - the weather mainly, and the fact that I have lived there for most of my life, of course. In Mumbai, I have found perfection of a new kind - one with many imperfections in it.