The trees pass you by, just like time. Time is relentless. No one stops to let you feel the moment, the sudden sense of loss; it jostles and pushes you ahead.
I'm trying to write and it is difficult. It was not just another city, another experience. It was something deeper, and yet, it was so simplified. Mumbai is more than any other city, any other experience. Maybe you will not notice its greatness in the daily struggles. You need to pause, once in a while. Look back. When you do, you'll realise its greatness, even with all the embellishments of imperfection etched on it. Even with the terrible traffic, the dirtiest potholes, the soaring human population, the ruthlessness.. you can either love Mumbai or fail to understand it. This city is like a parent who urges his child to learn the biggest lesson of survival.
I distinctly remember the day i first visited the local train station. As I stood on the overbridge, I saw a sea of people hurrying ahead, nudging forward, while the train below was overburdened with people and still lunging ahead. I'm sure that a few moments before the train blasts happened, the scene must have been the same.This city has been ripped apart, time and again, by acts of utter heartlessness. But Mumbai is always back on its feet in almost no time. Not because people are not afraid.Not because they think it can only happen to 'others'. It is because they are too well aware of the criss-cross of life and death each moment of their lives, and they 'choose' to rise above their fears.This city's heart is brave, incomparable. Standing on the overbridge that day,I felt grateful for the life I have.Each moment that you breathe becomes precious, and that's when you start understanding life more closely..
Mumbai does not impose any rules on you .. rules about right and wrong, rules about how you should live and how you should not, about morality.. it lets your sensibilities prevail on this. You decide what is right, or wrong, you decide what your choices are, because no one is going to question your perceptions. Only time and again it'll hold up a mirror to you, and you will have to answer yourself. It will let you become what you choose to be, just as much as it will let you hold on to your true self if you so desire. This city does not bind you in shackles, it liberates you.. brings out the best and the worst in you,brings out your individuality, instead of moulding you into a 'Roman' just because you are in 'Rome'. It is due to this that the city has a vibrance, where people bring forward their uniqueness without compromise and you begin to understand the 'human' that you are.. the flesh and blood, the vulnerabilities, the strengths, the fear, the entire amalgamation of raw emotions that you are made up of.
This city exudes a sense of fairness, even in your day-to-day life. Even if you work extremely hard here, you enjoy it. Such is the impassivity to pain that failures only give you a reason to hold on to your grit a little more, and then a little more. No one teaches you all this. You learn, and you don't even realize when . You imbibe the pulse of this city into your being, little by little. Now as I leave it does not hold me back. I feel as if it is pushing me away, farther and farther,urging me to let go, before I can fully comprehend how much I stand to lose..
After all, "the show must go on"...
I'm trying to write and it is difficult. It was not just another city, another experience. It was something deeper, and yet, it was so simplified. Mumbai is more than any other city, any other experience. Maybe you will not notice its greatness in the daily struggles. You need to pause, once in a while. Look back. When you do, you'll realise its greatness, even with all the embellishments of imperfection etched on it. Even with the terrible traffic, the dirtiest potholes, the soaring human population, the ruthlessness.. you can either love Mumbai or fail to understand it. This city is like a parent who urges his child to learn the biggest lesson of survival.
I distinctly remember the day i first visited the local train station. As I stood on the overbridge, I saw a sea of people hurrying ahead, nudging forward, while the train below was overburdened with people and still lunging ahead. I'm sure that a few moments before the train blasts happened, the scene must have been the same.This city has been ripped apart, time and again, by acts of utter heartlessness. But Mumbai is always back on its feet in almost no time. Not because people are not afraid.Not because they think it can only happen to 'others'. It is because they are too well aware of the criss-cross of life and death each moment of their lives, and they 'choose' to rise above their fears.This city's heart is brave, incomparable. Standing on the overbridge that day,I felt grateful for the life I have.Each moment that you breathe becomes precious, and that's when you start understanding life more closely..
Mumbai does not impose any rules on you .. rules about right and wrong, rules about how you should live and how you should not, about morality.. it lets your sensibilities prevail on this. You decide what is right, or wrong, you decide what your choices are, because no one is going to question your perceptions. Only time and again it'll hold up a mirror to you, and you will have to answer yourself. It will let you become what you choose to be, just as much as it will let you hold on to your true self if you so desire. This city does not bind you in shackles, it liberates you.. brings out the best and the worst in you,brings out your individuality, instead of moulding you into a 'Roman' just because you are in 'Rome'. It is due to this that the city has a vibrance, where people bring forward their uniqueness without compromise and you begin to understand the 'human' that you are.. the flesh and blood, the vulnerabilities, the strengths, the fear, the entire amalgamation of raw emotions that you are made up of.
This city exudes a sense of fairness, even in your day-to-day life. Even if you work extremely hard here, you enjoy it. Such is the impassivity to pain that failures only give you a reason to hold on to your grit a little more, and then a little more. No one teaches you all this. You learn, and you don't even realize when . You imbibe the pulse of this city into your being, little by little. Now as I leave it does not hold me back. I feel as if it is pushing me away, farther and farther,urging me to let go, before I can fully comprehend how much I stand to lose..
After all, "the show must go on"...
No comments:
Post a Comment