Two months in Mumbai and I'm a convert! 
An embarrassed convert, perhaps, but one nevertheless. Ok, granted the city has traffic snarls like you don't even have nightmares about 
(our 15-minute journey to workplace used to take at least an hour, and that is on the better days <_<
and autowallahs have a mind of their own 
(we averaged our morning refusals to five each day, and about four more would just go off and not pay any heed to us jumping up and down on the street), but that seems to be it. The place gives you freedom to be what you want to be like, and that is something Cal can never do. We used to wear almost any odd thing and go out 
, and return home at around one in the night on a regular basis, and never ever did we feel any threat. Why? Because, wonder of wonders, Mumbai has no roadside Romeos. 
I remember the first time I realized this.
Our bunch of three girls used to travel around the city in all odd hours, and since this was our first time away from home, it had a heady rush of freedom, which we enjoyed to the fullest! 
So this time we were returning home, late-ish, say eleven at night. Considering that it's a new city where we didnt know anybody or any routes, that wasn't too smart. 
Then one of us went looking for an auto, took too long, and the other went searching for her. I was waiting for them to return. Suddenly I realized that it was late at night, I was a lone woman standing on a seedy-looking pavement full of unsavoury characters milling all around me, and I had no conveyance!
I caught a breath and tried to discreetly gauge how bad it was. Should I run? Should I start walking towards the direction my friends had gone? 
Our cell phones weren't working that day for some reason. After a brief pause came my second realization...I wasn't feeling threatened in the least! The people around me were just ordinary people wrapping up their roadside shops, or walking to get some fresh air, or just hanging about with buddies. And NOBODY was in the least interested in me! They were the same nice friendly folks we had seen everywhere else, whether it was the sun shining in the sky or the moon. 
And that was when I converted to a Mumbaikar!
~3 April 2011
An embarrassed convert, perhaps, but one nevertheless. Ok, granted the city has traffic snarls like you don't even have nightmares about (our 15-minute journey to workplace used to take at least an hour, and that is on the better days <_< and autowallahs have a mind of their own (we averaged our morning refusals to five each day, and about four more would just go off and not pay any heed to us jumping up and down on the street), but that seems to be it. The place gives you freedom to be what you want to be like, and that is something Cal can never do. We used to wear almost any odd thing and go out , and return home at around one in the night on a regular basis, and never ever did we feel any threat. Why? Because, wonder of wonders, Mumbai has no roadside Romeos. I remember the first time I realized this.
Our bunch of three girls used to travel around the city in all odd hours, and since this was our first time away from home, it had a heady rush of freedom, which we enjoyed to the fullest! So this time we were returning home, late-ish, say eleven at night. Considering that it's a new city where we didnt know anybody or any routes, that wasn't too smart. Then one of us went looking for an auto, took too long, and the other went searching for her. I was waiting for them to return. Suddenly I realized that it was late at night, I was a lone woman standing on a seedy-looking pavement full of unsavoury characters milling all around me, and I had no conveyance! I caught a breath and tried to discreetly gauge how bad it was. Should I run? Should I start walking towards the direction my friends had gone? Our cell phones weren't working that day for some reason. After a brief pause came my second realization...I wasn't feeling threatened in the least! The people around me were just ordinary people wrapping up their roadside shops, or walking to get some fresh air, or just hanging about with buddies. And NOBODY was in the least interested in me! They were the same nice friendly folks we had seen everywhere else, whether it was the sun shining in the sky or the moon. And that was when I converted to a Mumbaikar!
~3 April 2011
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