I get flashes of moments from my past. The past I spent in Austin, mostly. It's not that I love Bombay any less, but off late this 'Mayanagri' has been frustrating me a hell lot. The city you make your home is supposed to make you happy. Frustrate you occasionally. But not frustrate you most of the time.
I spend over 3 hours a day commuting. Sometimes it's 4 hours a day. And usually I'm the one driving. Which leads to frustration. You may be happy after a productive day. Happy for the humoungus amount of work you got done. But the traffic saps the enthusiasm out of you. And by the time you reach home, you're pissed off. At the uncouth drivers, the lack of discipline and the sheer volume of cars all on the road at the same time.
My mom asked me the other day…'What's bothering you? Why are you always so stressed out?' I replied, 'I love my job, I love gym, I love studying and I love hanging out with my friends and family. It's the commute that I hate.' She vowed to find me a driver to ease my worries, at the earliest. She's still searching. She can't find anyone because either the drivers have unrealistic expectations about hours of service, or salary, or both. So I continue driving.
The point of this post is not to complain about the commute. This city, the city I love so very much, is becoming increasingly hard to live in. No matter what your income. If you don't live close to your office, life is a pain in the neck.
Sometimes I find myself wishing that I had a chance to live somewhere else. In the same breath, I find myself wondering what the hell I would do if I lived somewhere else. My soul is inexplicably tied to Bombay and all that it signifies.
I would be so out of place anywhere else. Except Austin, of course. Any suggestions?
1 comment:
Even though its not technically my city, I love Mumbai and was over the moon when I got to spend 2 years there after having lived in US for 3 years. The city is such a mishmash of all the things we love and hate. I loved the people and food, while hated the weather and traffic. The problem is that the grass is always greener on the other side. When I was in USA, I used to miss India, when I was in India, I would day dream about being back in US...
Aditya, I think you need to take a sabbatical from Mumbai, come to NYC, do your Masters and then return to Mumbai...tat way you would get a break and at the same time, being away from Mumbai, you would realize that you don't care about the traffic and that you love your city even more...!
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