A Lost Connection

written on Dec 5,'08

My connection with Bombay (I still feel this sounds better than Mumbai) has been quite strange. I attended a play school here when I was 2.Bombay to me was much of a summer affair. Every time during summer vacations I and my brother would accompany mother to nani's house. I still remember my fights with my cousin over over marbles and cricket. I was fascinated by double-decker buses and thoroughly enjoyed camel rides, pav bhaji and Kalla khatta at the Juhu-beach (I somehow disliked Chowpati). This was the time when Mc.Ds and malls had not reached Bombay.

As I grew, my attraction towards this maximum city started fading. Mumbai (as it was now called ) had no time for me. My cousins were busy with their tuitions, art classes, skating and what not. There were no camels at the Juhu Beach now (thanks to Menaka Gandhi). Even the kala Khatta didn't taste the same. I remember traveling in local trains sitting next to my mother and looking out of the window, reading bill boards and seeing the slum areas and the tall buildings with a certain awe. But things had changed, getting a foot hold in local train was now more of a battle with commuters trying their best to make sure that I missed the train. I was more happy spending my summer vacations playing cricket in Bhopal rather than doing nothing in the overcrowded Mumbai.

26/11 has changed many things along with my perception towards this city. I have not seen the Gateway of India (and now I wonder why my uncle never took me there).I do want to visit this city again but not like I had done in the past, paying visits to relatives' houses. I would like to visit Bombay as a tourist. I would like to sit in cafe Leopald and spend hours at the Gateway of India. I would again like to make my way through the crowded Kandivali station, take a local to ChurniRoad and walk to the Marine Drive to enjoy the sunset. I would again like to go to the Haji Ali and to the Siddhivinayak temple. I would again like to travel by a double- decker and eat dosas at the Anand Bhavan, Matunga. I would like to book a taxi from CST station and get a feel of traveling by a limousine. This for me will be the best way to contribute to an answer that all of us together have to give to the fanatics who were responsible for 26/11.

Let us not confine ourselves to our homes. Let us not be afraid by bomb threats. Let us promise ourselves that we will not break the traffic rules, that we will cooperate with the security agencies, that we will buy platform tickets ever time we go to a railway station, that we will not forward any smses or emails that are meant to create rumours and above all we will not make an opinion about a person based on his or her name or by the version of God he or she believes in.