Of migration and nostalgia

Looks like I have been away for way too long. Well! I have been up with things significant and trivial, interesting and painstaking, disgusting and thought-provoking. There was migration to a new city and the associated troubles, change of work place, anxious wait for the same to happen, too much of travel and religious activities for the immune system of my body to handle, joys of reuniting with parents, fighting a viral fever and cold.

Feels weird leaving Mumbai though. I wouldn’t say it is the best city. But its the place I have always felt close to. It’s been home for almost 20 years (of course, with breaks in between). Lived through the toddler years in a small 1 bedroom railway-compartment-like flat far into the suburbs of Mumbai with memories of dad traveling 120 km everyday in a mad rush to get the 7:37 AM local to Bombay VT. I also remember this bunch of Marathi kids with whom I used to run about in the locality speaking like them, trying to be one of them and succeeding too to a large extent. The walks to a nearby school which used to seem like a long distance trek with our kid strides. The primary school was spent in better parts of the city with a more posh and multicultural setup. That was a great childhood period when concepts like best friend and extra curricular were prime focus in life. Right from playing gully cricket to violin, swimming and all such recreational classes, there was not a minute to lose in the day. Then came the last 4 years of my life. The best 4 years which shaped my ideals, my thoughts, my personality in general and it’s this period that I owe the most - the joys of singledom and independence, the professional life. Discovered so many facets of me which I never knew existed. I was completely kicked by the living-life-on-your-principles thing. And then, of course came a year of marital bliss. Life was definitely not quite a bed of roses but it wasn't bad either. Old movie halls, packed locals at 1 AM, the squabbling women in the ladies compartment, railway stations with sea of heads, multiplexes, roadside vadapao, swanky bistros and eateries, friendly neighborhood Pandu hawaldar always on prowl to extract money from unassuming drivers, buggy rides on marine drive at 2AM, bandstand and juhu beaches, Shanmukhananda hall and my violin classes, monsoons, potholes on western express highway, plays at TATA theatre and Prithvi, irish coffee at Prithvi cafe, Phoenix mills, endless waits outside SRK's bungalow, the panipoori-wallah down the street, Okra manchurian outside Cinemagic, pesto at Pop tates, yummy butter sauce at Restaurant 5... I am going to miss them all.. *sigh sigh*..:-(

And now, Bangalore is full of surprises. It’s nice in a lot of ways and equally painful too. Weather is great though it caused me to fall ill and I am still recovering. It can look like a laidback town with shanties and mud houses and, a few yards ahead, look extremely cosmopolitan with hi-tech, state-of-the-art buildings. Driving around the city gives me immense misery as of now because I end up getting lost 99.993% of the times. The only route I manage, so far, without any problem is to my work place because it’s a straightforward route and there are no one-way-two-way networks whatsoever. I detest the autowallahs here. They are not much of a mafia-variety like that of Chennai but lets just say, I have been spoilt by the honest and just autowallahs in Mumbai who never cribbed to take you to any place in the city. I love the houses here and specially the one where I stay. A well-lit, sprawling house with a lot of windows overlooking greenery, away from all dust and grime and vehicle noises, it almost seems like I live in a farmhouse. I haven't really seen the worst of traffic jams that everyone talks about in the city. But I definitely managed to get a taste of eateries and pubs of the city. Though the cannelloni tastes different here and day ends rather early in the evening, I like it as of now as long as there is someone giving me precise directions to get to anywhere and for that I have to master Kannada real fast. .:-)