Bombay

What does one say/write about the city that hasn't been said/written yet?

I have been to Bombay many times, on "tours", college fests and what not but this time I just took off for a break for a week through a crazy 7pm-3am shift (don't ask!) and stayed at a friend's place in Bandra.

There are a lot of countries I've been to, but I'm proud Bombay is in mine.

That's what Bombay does to you. One just has to be sitting on a bench at Carter road, across the Arabian sea, watching the world come to you and pass as quickly by.
The place comes alive in the evenings with us young ones, health fanatics on a run, rich kids doing tricks in their fancy cars, ATVs even, kids frolicking about in the small parks and everyone else. The air is thick with activity, energy, love, and a sense of absolute peace in a city infamous for its fast pace.
Since I was in Bombay through Valentine's day, these places were also thronged with lovers across ages/profiles out on the roads, by the beach, bandstand (of course) busy in multiple levels of PDA, Shiv Sena be damned.

And that's not just Carter road. Take a stroll alongside the beautiful marine drive, the cream of Bombay, at 2am after a drink at a pub, Ghetto in our case, and you think noone ever calls it a day here.
The beauty and calm of sea waves crashing over the thousands of tri-forked rocks over the bay combined with the palm-lined promenade, which by the way, is the 2nd largest sea facing promenade in the world. Have a chai from one of the cycle vendors on the road. If you're lucky you'll spot a Bollywood celebrity or luckier if you happen to be audience to an impromptu live performance or a guy singing out paeans to noone in particular. Don't worry about getting home late, cuz unlike Delhi where I'd be scared to take an auto or now a bus in broad daylight, Bombay lets people hop into its cabs/autos any time of the night, without a worry. And the cab guys are helpful. Some will even give you a unsolicited tour of the city, happily showing you the houses of 'Bollywood celebs' as you ride past. The auto guys are also the most honest( return the change down to a rupee) without any tantrums.. If you're from Hyderabad, Bombay or heaven, Chennai, you know how that's a new kind of human gene.

Sitting by the beach and sipping a chai or munching on a famous bhel puri is the best thing you can do for free in Bombay but what about when you can spare some money for fun?
Unlimited options. Most places in Bombay are dotted with both mainstream and quaint hole-in-thewall cafes and pubs throughoput. Just head to any and you'd find something alien to your taste. A cupcake from theobromas or a frozen yoghurt at some other yippie joint while watching Bombay folk and travellers mingling about alike, feeling at home.

One of my favourite places in Bandra though is the very awesome Candies, a big bungalow turned cafe with seating across multiple levels, wrought iron furniture and the mosaics on the wall ranging from Steve Jobs' to Marley.
I met a few people I knew off Twitter here and a bunch of strangers were buddies in no time. (Ah one of the other great things about Bombay is the sheer number of interesting people on Twitter)

The local trains here are a microcosm of the world in motion. Small markets running smoothly, Aunties chatting about their clan and its eccentricities, peeling vegetables and knitting, no wait, not knitting, bombay weather would never allow a sweater, college/school students studying before an exam, a general sense of 'having places to, things to do" in the train. Though being the local train n00b as we were, we got fined some 600 bucks for having innocently settled in the rather-empty first class, instead of the 15rs worth of the regular class we paid for, such rebels.

If you're a girl, the shopping here excites you with its sheer variety. All of India's famous designers to up n coming kitchy boutiques interspersed with rows and bylanes full of the latest street-fashion along Linking road and Colaba causeway. This time though, I also visited the famous "chor bazar" of the city. Located rather inconspicuously in the bylanes of Byculla, the market surprises you with the sheer eclectic-ness of the 'items' it has on offer. You'd find rows of "spare parts, ball bearings and tools of machines you never knew existed  And the best part, a lane full of antique pieces, legendarily "stolen" or smuggled to sell. So find a lamp from the Byzantine era or a toothpick from the Beatles dinner table if you will.

What does one say/write about the city that hasn't been said/written yet?

Probably that for all that is known about this city, it never gets old or rather one finds a new way of celebrating it every time. And this post is me writing about the Bombay as I see it. Bombay with all its fame, all its contribution to history, literature, Bollywood, in literature, all its big cityness, its slums, it's billion-dollar bungalows, where order exists in chaos  and a place that never ceases to amaze

2012: The year that it was and wasn't.

We're already 2 days into 2013 and this post is hence, 2 days late in the coming almost to the point of sounding a "me too" effort. I'm not sure why this must be done. Not sure if it MUST be done. But I want to do this. More for me to keep the last year close to my heart through words before the memory plays its games. A lot of you (hopefully) reading this are a part of a lot of what I say in this note, or maybe this won't interest you or maybe you'll find your own thoughts paraphrased through mine. 

When I look back on 2012 I don't see it in terms of days or months, but the things it was, the experiences it brought and the lessons I learnt. ( Or learnt that I needed to learn them). So for consistency sake, breaking this post into parts I call themes.

Love: Love as it revealed itself, is beyond societal expectations of it. It is not scribbling on the back of note pads or drawing hearts and kisses to each other or changing a facebook status. It doesn't have to be forever. Love came in many forms, shapes and timelines this year. Be it rediscovering the joy of a crush or a high of being with someone as crazy and yet intense as you. Love is not getting picked up in luxury cars to be taken to fancy dinners but waiting at a bus stop together & making a day out of it. Or being engrossed in a conversation about Tibetan Monks over a maggi at 2am on a terrace wanting to half kiss, half slap the guy you're arguing with. Putting up a hammock under a full moon and lying with a person staring at the starry skies for hours. It's listening to a song in a language that none of you understand but knowing exactly that it's your song. It's not who'd come over to drink with you at night but who'd stay over to have tea with you in the morning.

Career: Fortunately in the company that I work at, one of the 100 perks that I'm priviliged to have, is not a "My job sucks" moment. However there comes a point in time wherein you realise that who you work for, may not always work for you. 

I've learnt that laziness and ignorance can be suicidal in a corporate environment. That procrastination can be cool now, not later. ( heh). It also came with the realization, that there is no room to be complacent and think you have it all just because you work at the company you do. Slack at one opportunity and it will come right back to mock you, to show you how you fucked up & continue to rear its ugly head at every opportunity! (hah or the lack of it)

Much to my relief (or rather a painful admission) I learnt that working in the best company does not make you the smartest or the nicest person. You have to go out, go beyond the bubble of your world and see the amazing work others are doing, how the little things that you take for granted, bring joy to others' lives, and that a salary, whether in the low or the high end of the scale, can never be a good enough measure of happiness with your job. And finally that noone but you can take your career to the place you want it go.

Art: I can't remember anytime I was not 'arty' or didn't think in colours, shapes & patterns rather than figures, charts & data. But 2012 was a year that I turned my passive, pushed to the backburner hobby to an active pursuit, gave my passion the time and dedication it always demanded of me and as any good 'marketer' would, created 'Junk Funk' on facebook. The online platform to encourage, promote and market art by me and others. This renewed passion for arts also resulted in a major interior overhaul of my house, which to date is my most prized possession ( well funny 'cuz i don't own it), in a project at office wherein a bunch of team and I created a "Google' logo out of discarded paper cups & many other such things, making it almost an epiphanial experience for me.

Home: The year started with struggling to find other houses that I could call home and then finally getting the one that had seemed to choose me than the other way around. I realised that a house is not just four walls that you come back to sleep in after a day out, but it's as much a part of you as you're of it. It defines you, and if you give it enough love and care, it reciprocates all of it multifold by making itself the best place to be in the world. I have shared this home, with many amazing people in the one year. My best friend of 10 years, a guy, an American girl who at one point was just a stranger and finally another girl whom, in ways, like it did to me, the house called out to. I shared some amazing moments with all these people, be it doing up the house together, cooking, sharing a smoke or a rant on the terrace, quibbling over small 'domestic issues' or just 'being' in a common space yet in our own, in peace, love and acceptance of differences.

Music: I can safely describe 2012 as the year of music. As with my own resolve to, as with almost every new person I met, I discovered and shared together a love for exploring, appreciating and listening to music, irrespective of genres or setting. This musical journey included tripping over ambient trance music with Andrew, humming old favorites with Anirudh, cracking over silly ad jingles with Pallavi to Danika & I blaring out some happy, trippy music in the house, never having quite a dull moment.

This musical 'renaissance' also manifested itself into attending many live gigs and festivals around. If there was a smooth Jazz gig over wine at a historical monument, there were also the  'local' band gigs at hard rock cafe. And then there was the Nh7Weeekender in Pune and the Oktoberfest in Bangalore. Infact the year end, I was motivated enough to start a little music project of mine of my own that entailed crowd-sourcing a song from different people across social media and compiling it all into a playlist which turned out to be a brilliant mashup of music across genres, regions and tastes.

Travel: To say that I live to travel is not an over-statement. Those who know me know that I travel at the drop of a hat (or ticket prices!) and 2012 gave me that and more. So while I'm yet to experience the joy of luxury travel at beloved company's expense, I took a big leap of chance and travelled all by myself to Australia. A trip that I would always cherish for the perspective, and the confidence it lent me and left on my life forever. The reaffirmation of the traveller and not the tourist in me. The year also saw a lot of other 'smaller' trips to Delhi, Pune, Hampi, Goa, Chennai, Mumbai and the countless trips to Bangalore and reconnecting with people from all of them and re-assuring myself that disance can barely take away from solid relationships.

Friends: Friends is a loaded term. 24 years and something and I still struggle to define who my friends are and how close they are to me.

I do have some people in my life who comfort me, humour me and give me a whack on my ass when I'm screwing up. Some go as far back as a decade to people I might have just started talking with days ago. But the best gift of 2012 in terms of 'friendship' has been the concept of letting go. Of understanding that friends are people too. They have their view-points, grudges and being a friend comes with appreciating and being accepting of that. That the best of friendships are tested over the most bitter fights. That one apology- either given or requested-is all it takes to reclaim years of a friendship that was once beautiful and source of much comfort and fun. That one doesn't need a cafe to reinstate some friendships; sometimes just a whatsapp group does!

2012 also has been a year of meeting people, who would come to mean something and add value to life in their own little ways. Be it through other friends, at work or via twitter or other platforms. I realised that sometimes nameless/faceless people on the internet could be bigger comforts than 'real life' friends or that a few laughs could be the biggest bond you could have with someone. I have rediscovered the joy of just staying in, on a couch at home, with my dogs on either side and feeeling close to nirvana. I've made my peace with babies and instead of getting annoyed at their tantrums or wailing, learnt to be good around them so I could pacify them and have begun to enjoy their giggles. ( Which btw is one of the most therapeutic sounds in the world)

All in all, personally 2012 has been an enriching year. Truth be told, even if it ended, I'd have already lived my best, yet. If you were a part of it, if you touched my heart even in the smallest way ( And no, I don't mean that minimal invasive heart surgery) take a bow because you're awesome and because I want you to stay. 

Here's to a new year and new beginnings over some old wine. Here's hoping your new year is the best yet, you've had.

End of the World Playlist

hello music lover! If the world ends on 21.12.2012 would you rather die with regret that you didn't try all the music that existed while you lived?

Not too late! Join the movement to create a unique playlist that transcends & brings together a confluence of regions, genres and preferences. (Read on....)

Just enter one song you love, nay, the last song you want to have listened to before the world ends, and voila! I make a YouTube playlist of all the songs collected in a span of 20 days, which would be shared, on 21.12.2012- the date decided by the Mayans for the Apocalypse. "Ok the playlist is created? Now what?", you ask? Well, the more the people who participate, the more diverse the music that'll be shared about. Who knows what gems you may discover in the process. Also, nothing like music and and the internet to bring in like-minded souls from across the world on a common platform!
And on 21:12:2012 we play the #EOTWPlaylistMarathon all day long, just to celebrate...surviving! And whenever else.

Spread the word and the music, till the End Of The World does us apart....

Rolled up sunshine

Blooms of spring
love of autumn
betraying the season
Leaves of all time

Those fingers
Deft as an artist's
Heady as the result
they seek to brew

That tongue
So sleek, so elegant
sealing the promise
of all it can be

Kindle the fire
one desire at a time
take in the goodness
pass me some mine

Wallow in the haze
colour it purple
or any other hues
the mind invents

The world waits
in all its transience
spinning on its axis
a little faster

The night is long
And as dark as long
little flecks of light
linger as do our hopes

Parts of you
In parts of me
Together we find
a dazed harmony

Sunshine peeks in
through the window
envying the one
it came rolled in

Being thankful...

In a country like ours, where there is a festival, every other day and a corresponding ceremony attached to it, we really don't need another 'foreign' festival to "give thanks", or do we ? What do we give thanks for, you'd ask.

The corrupt politicians, the erratic governance or that shitty job?

In times of personal crisis or national outrage, it is so easy to lose perspective or just see the world through a thicket of thorns, but scratch the surface a little and you would see a million things to be thankful for each day. Big things. Little things. Not today. Not any particular day but just being cognizant of every effort taken on anyone else's part to add value to our life, directly or indirectly that *needs* to be thanked for.

Much as as my vegetarian sensibilities are rather upset by a whole country celebrating a festival of thanking by slaying a turkey ( Err..thank you butcher?), let me take this day as an opportunity to say all the thanks I probably have not explicitly said in my life, and maybe will never do. Maybe you will not, either

Thank you parents, for deciding to let me in on this world. Though you could totally choose not to. Thanks for sacrificing a lot of your own lives to support me, when my own legs didn't, for spending many a sleepless night to let me sleep like a baby, that I was, for the education, for all the values imbibed into me to make me the person I am and will continue to better . I look at the images of children in Gaza being buried alive under the debris of missiles and living in constant fear of being attacked and I want to be thankful for having had a normal childhood.

Thank you siblings for being the first friends that I ever made. For letting me understand the concept of 'sharing' and making up after a fight early on in life. 

Thank you, all the school friends, who ate tiffin with me, played those dumb thumb games and even you asshole who squirted ink out of your pen on my shirts. For letting an innocent childhood be innocent.

Thank you, all you guys/men I dated, had a moment of fleeting love with and whatever else in between. You made me realise that love was not all about drawing hearts in notebooks and going to romantic movies. But about the concept of a person meaning a lot to you at a point in time, someone who you did not need to spend an eternity with but few moments that were so good, so pure, it felt like eternity. For making me understand myself a little more, while trying to understand me. For making me feel beautiful, needed and desired.

Thank you, the 50rs-per-day municipal workers, who clean up our mess after us, post midnight so that we could have clean roads the next morning to crib about them in the next outrage spell.

Thank you, manager for sometimes appreciating the work I do or sometimes being completely seemingly oblivious to me because you make me realise that life is so much more than being ensconced in a cubicle, punching in keys day in, day out and that work is just a means to an end, but not an end, itself.

Thank you, my flatmates, ex and present, for making me believe in the concept of a home away from home and giving me a face to come back to every day. Almost. For all the anytime- conversations, the unlimited cups of tea and the music that plays in the house that we've turned into a home and share together. 

Thank you all the friends, close or "ok types" , here or distant, for just being there. For confirming that one is never really alone. For the good times and through the bad times.

Thank you all you nameless people on the road, who take a minute out to tell directions to us lost souls.

Thank you carpenters, electricians, glass cleaners, maids, sweepers, and for everyone else for whom the concept of a "lowly job" means too little in the face of a stark poverty but dreams of a better future for your own family . For sometimes endangering your lives, ( and swallowing your pride, even without realising) so that our lives could be more convenient and enriching.

Thank you, colleague, that I don't speak with much. But the little Excel tip you shared with me the other day? It changed the way I worked & made me just that little more efficient.

Thank you for the random 'Like' or 'comment' or retweet on anything that I posted. It made the effort that went behind it worth it. It felt good to know that it gave you a moment of entertainment, information or just a smile.

Thank you everyone who writes, creates music, cracks jokes, clicks photos, etc. because you make the world a beautiful place by letting us see that it is that. You provide us that escape route so necessary when you're stuck in the rut of a job and career. Or just that harmless entertainment relief in the middle of a blah day. You make the rest of us want to explore ourselves, that much more, give us a perspective on life and open us to the infinite possibilities of art. In any form. 

Thank you random person on the flight/train or somewhere our paths crossed. We don't know each other now, or knew then, but thanks for few moments of the conversation & company in times the going was getting tough, literally.

Thank you for reading this. Thanks for giving a meaning to these strings of words.