The Great Indian Voyage

I take up writing once again today. It’s a refreshingly liberating experience. I feel as if I (as in the “I” inside of me) am breathing again. I realize that just as theater is my passion, writing is equally so. Its been a year to the exact date now that I wrote my last blog. A year…. When I say it like that it sounds both short and contradictorily so, so long. Short because in the larger scheme of things, lives and generations, it’s just a year. And long because of the indescribably enormous amount of events, changes and emotions that have happened in that same one year.

I shall write about all these in some other blogs. This one though, I dedicate to my last two weeks. I dedicate it to my travels over the back of this country – living out of a bag and journeying across a vast section of this country, by road, rail and air.

To cut a long introduction to this story short, I had a 2 week break from my school, ISB, and decided to travel back home to Mumbai. I and my good friend Sumit left Hyderabad in the soft darkness of the pre-dawn on Feb 6th to take a flight back home – he to his home in Hisar, Haryana and I to Mumbai. To give you a rough idea of how this travel pans out, I’m sticking here a picture of India with the places in this journey:



From Hyderabad to Mumbai – Mumbai to Bangalore – Bangalore to New Delhi – New Delhi to Hisar and Hisar to Hyderabad, my travels took me from the wide plains of the Deccan to the firecracker pace of Mumbai (the original Megapolis of India) to the rustic and idyllic fields of Haryana (a state in picturesque North of India). Along the way was a taste of Ma’s handmade delicacies in Mumbai, the aura of Bangalore’s five star hotels, the ardor of Valentine’s Day, the rich wafting smells, spices and sweetness of Delhi’s century old restaurants in Chandni Chowk and the vigor and robust lifestyle of Haryana! It was indeed a like living a film story in 2 weeks!

Mumbai

Mumbai’s my home. Anyone coming to Mumbai – however protected he or she tries to be – will quickly catch one infection for sure – the High Speed Lifestyle Infection.  Despite everything, I still picture this place as home. This time around the added spice was that my entire family was charged up with wedding frenzy. The day I landed, they took me out shopping. In the last one year at ISB, I haven’t found time to scratch, so, shopping was a distant dream. So now, my parents had me in Mumbai: work-free and all ready to be decked up in rich clothes and sent to and fro to the trial rooms of a million shops in Mumbai.

If you haven’t yet partaken in a shopping of the Big Fat Indian Wedding let me tell you, you’ve missed the biggest man-made wonder of this world. Please do indulge yourself in one such wedding because I believe they do ask you at the pearly gates if you’ve lived a full life and you can’t live a full life without being the subject of a crazy shopping expedition. I shopped as if I don’t own anything! From shoes and socks to glasses and cap – everything I currently own was quickly dismissed as being “non-marriage” stuff :). I soon realized that to qualify as “wedding material” your apparel has to satisfy certain stringent criteria: A. It should cost at least Rs. 5000 and B. It should be something to which your mom can say “O ji ye toh maine kahin nahi dekha!” :) (“Woah! I haven’t seen this on anyone yet”!)

So with boatloads of shopping and some very amazing Maharashtrian culinary experience my stay in Mumbai drew to a close. It always makes me sadder than I can profess to see that look on my mum’s face – to know that I won’t meet her till April again. Ah! Travesty of life…