Mumbai Meri Jaan

I am going to Mumbai next week! Yes, I am very excited and I have every reason to be. It’s been almost six months since I made my last trip to Mumbai and after all I have started thinking of it as my home town now.

I never really had a place I would like to go to during my vacations, because my grandparents live with us and they had sold their house in the village ages ago, even before I was born and never bought any place after that. During vacations I used to visit Chennai or Mumbai and spend time with my cousins who lived there or dad used to take us on trips to different places, I really used to like that because I have almost seen all the beautiful places in India.

Till the age of 11 I have lived in different cities for a minimum period of 6 months to a maximum period of 3 years. I even believed that every family does that; no one lives in the same city for long. Later I realized that only some of us keep moving because of our parent’s occupation.

And then at the age of 11 I landed in Mumbai (then known as Bombay). I hated it. I couldn’t speak Hindi and the kids used to tease me whenever I spoke in English. On top of it all I had to study a whole new language- Marathi!

Slowly I discovered new friends, started learning Marathi in which I scored more marks than I did in Hindi, learnt the worst colloquial Hindi which is still dominant when I start talking in Hindi. People immediately come to know I am from Mumbai! Nothing I am proud of because I am one of those many people who ruin that language!

Every year dad used to say, looks like we are going to move this year, which was fine with me except when I was in the 10^th and then 12^th, because those were crucial years. Nothing happened and then I went to college. In my second year of college, dad gets transferred to…..where else….Chennai! At the same time, Amber’s family, who had moved a year ago to Mumbai, got transferred to Bangalore. So, it was finally decided that the three of us-Amber, Amethyst and I would stay as paying guests for our education’s sake.

I discovered a whole new life of living all by myself, had some real fun, learnt a lot of new things, met a lot of new people, went out quite a bit (I hardly went out when I was at home, don’t get the wrong picture)which I wouldn’t have done if I were staying at home.

And so the two years of having fun and staying out came to an end. Went through a phase where I was confused as to what I want to do in life. I didn’t want to come to Chennai, but nothing went right when it had to. Tried for a job really late because dad wasn’t sure I should stay in Mumbai alone any more. So came to Chennai started preparing for entrance exams for further studies. Got a job which wasn’t great but was something, but decided against taking it up because it would leave no time for exam preparations……. That brings me to today, sitting in front of the computer, thinking about Mumbai and the life that I had there. I am unbelievably sentimental about that city. Whenever I see Mumbai on TV or in movies I try to guess which place is it….. sometimes I sit and think about the places I really love in Mumbai, the beaches, our gang’s hang-outs, those few amazing places in Mumbai which not many people know about but which my friends and I discovered…..and many more sweet memories…

After spending ten years there, that's the only place I can think of as my home town.And, home is where the heart is….