1258

1258. That’s the number of days that I have spent in Mumbai, in the current stint. What an eventful period this has been! New jobs, finding domestic bliss, beginning to ‘settle down’… The three and half odd years have not been without the fair share of thrills either. Floods, bomb blasts, riots, curfew (lived through it)… been there done it! The adventures have been several: jumping off a marooned local train in the middle of nowhere and wading through waist deep water, living through a curfew for four days (I was saved by the magnanimity of my kind landlady, who ensured that I got a regular supply of meals), riots replete with firing outside my apartment block, bomb blasts…
What a journey it has been, from the day I set foot at Chhatrapati Shivaji Domestic Terminal, with two bags of luggage! I remember walking along Marine Drive one of those early days, flinching at the unmistakable stench emanating from the sea. Not surprising, considering the waste of over twenty million and more humans pours into it! And yet, not more than a year later, I remember walking along the same path, enjoying the cool breeze blowing over the sea. That particular moment, I did not feel a stranger in the city any longer.