Bombay ♥

It's been seven long years since I came to live in this crazy city. City of dreams, as many call it so. I never thought when I first learned that I'd be studying in Bombay that a city like this would grow on me. I didn't have the slightest inclination of what to expect. Of course, I had heard many stories. Crazy stories. Like you shouldn't wear jewellery on the train for fear of your ears or hands being cut off. Murders. The rains. Strangers who could be axe-murderers or kidnappers or worse, rapists. So much. I didn't think too much of it all.

My first year was the longest. I just moved into the hostel - this was the first time I was to actually live alone. That dawned upon me. It made me feel helpless, hate my parents for leaving me here and I was so upset. My first night at the hostel was a whole bunch of snot and sniffles as I cried silently under my blanket in my room. The days after that were different; each new, each teaching me something I never knew before. I met people. Good people. Bad people. The most I was influenced by and truly adored: Nandini Velho, Rubika Liyaqat. These two were my roommates and the two people from whom I learnt the most. I learnt to be independent, to do my own thing and somewhere down the line, I discovered me. Me, the shy girl in school, quiet with no real friends. I found that I had more to me than I ever thought. I loved my journal, my journal was my best friend in the hostel. I learned that I loved to write. I loved the arts. I loved travelling in the trains, I loved exploring the suburbs and areas in town. I loved who I was blossoming into. I grew proud of myself.

And all while that was happening, I fell in love with the city. The people were such an eclectic mix. I learned so much from each and every person that I encountered.

My seven years in Bombay have been crazy, eventful, sad and happy and definitely something I'd never like to easily forget. It taught me so much. I grew up and the city grew on me.

Much as now I feel the need to move elsewhere, to discover a new city and learn it all again, Bombay will always be my favourite city. There's nothing like it and once you've lived here, it becomes a part of you just as you become a part of it too.

Bombay, that's what it shall always be to me. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's home.

♥

Tick-Tock

Time is short, my friend. The Clock keeps ticking and I'd have collected a million pennies by now for every time that I thought of the line, 'The Broken Clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight..' from Broken by Lifehouse (one of my favorite somgs, by the way). Yeah, so like I said, time seems to be slipping beyond us at every moment and it's been true so far. I mean, this year has been going by super-quick. BANG! And before you know it, we'll be in 2010. It's also the anniversary of 26/11. Well, I do hope every one of you who lost your lives rest in peace, and I hope in our hearts, we can only commemorate your souls and think of a better nation, a better place for tomorrow. It was a sad event and one of the most infuriating attacks on Bombay last year, and it's not about us just emerging strong, it's the height of the sick bastardly fate we were put through. However, all the anger we felt and still feel can't be directed right back in violence but I just hope that peace prevails and we somehow make it through and we can provide a safer life for tomorrow. We don’t need movies, stories and other painful reminders to commemorate those who lost their lives on 26/11. What we need is peace, hope and the will to strive for a better tomorrow. It’s scary when you contemplate the enormous degree of evil in this world but what’s definitely and vastly more frightening is when you become numb to it all and that when the only way to obtain peace is fighting back in even terrible ways imaginable. It’s hard to believe that us, a species so great, which is blessed with so much, has turned in the cruelest way possible against its own kind. What we fear is not different religions, different super-powers, or foreign threats but our own race. That makes me sad to think that man has turned against man. Over what? Excuses like religion need to be put to the guillotine. I honestly believe in the name of religion, race and color, we have tried to out-pass others, to be better than others. But what is so dense to us is the fact that we might not come from the same DNA, but we are from the same species nonetheless. How is that difficult to get? Just stop all of this nonsense, this horrific blood-bath and live your lives. We are ultimately going to die some day but no one, nobody gives you that right to take our lives away… the only life you’re in charge of is yours. Leave mine and others’ alone.

Of happier things, what propelled me to this entry is lack of time and there are so many things that I haven't done yet, this was the list of stuff to be done before I turned 34 or may be let's put it as the list for the rest of my life while I'm alive:
(Random Order and What I remember)

TOP PRIORITY: To write for a Fashion/Travel Magazine and write & publish a book.

1. Bungee-Jumping off the Eiffel Tower
2. Visit Egypt, Paris, Greece and London.
3. Live in Paris and study art for a bit, and pick up french too, while I'm there.
4. Date a few guys
5. Live in NY someday and make it out there
6. Be in an ad (any ad will do, the funnier and crazier, the better)
7. Meet Ellen
8. Buy my dad his dream Transistor
9. Buy myself, my dream Video iPod or an iPod for that matter
10. Buy myself the dream perfume (for now it's YSL Elle all the way through)
11. Get a tattoo (essentially with my own hard-earned money cuz it'd be hypocritical to use my parents' for the same!)
12. Learn to ride a bike
13. Learn to speak Spanish
14. Learn B-Boying
15. To learn the Moonwalk
16. Surf a Wave (I would be, look and feel SO cool once I do learn the art!)
17. Get a Dog (I have my names ready)
18. Visit the Taj Mahal
19. Save somebody's life
20. Live with Nandini again for a bit (she was the best roomie ever, I miss her!)