My Mumbai-born-and-bread boss and I were discussing something the other day and he mentioned his previous job and SEEPZ. I told him I was in Mumbai and SEEPZ too, for about six months. His tone immediately became apologetic and he started, "I know Mumbai can..." and I cut him short hurriedly. I told him I loved my time there and it was wonderful. I could sense that he was relieved and happy and the next few minutes we spent talking about every nook and corner of SEEPZ that we could recollect. Actually we worked at the same time there and who knows, I may have seen him in at least one of the ICHs!
I truly had a great time in Mumbai, that of a bird free and confident of roaming on its own. Mumbai office was supposed to be full of people who were snobbish and terrors(which mercifully I came to know only after returning!) but I found them all extremely nice, friendly and caring. The guesthouse was cosy and I felt so much at home that I hated to come back to Hyderabad. I haven't visited it after that and sometimes I wonder if I should at all, you know, just to keep it that happy place...like Manto.
Mumbai was also the place I witnessed for the first time two women quarreling in public. I was in the crowded local train and I guess it's common knowledge that they are famous for their crowds. If you want to get down at the station, you've got to put yourself into the eye of the crowd that's forming near the door and you automatically get pushed down. So there was this woman trying to do that and I guess she stepped on the other woman's foot(only a guess). And before long it had resulted in a war of words which were supposed to be Hindi by their texture but I had loads of trouble comprehending. I had heard a few of those expletives near the boys hostel during Engineering and whoever uttered those words never used to show their faces and over the time I had deduced their meaning. So I couldn't believe what I was hearing at first and I looked around incredulously. But the other women were as immune to it as if it was a beggar singing. Anyway, soon one of the women fell silent and stood there like a stone while the other went on ranting, possibly annoyed at the other party's lack of response and trying her best to rile her up again. It felt terribly funny and if I was not afraid of becoming a target myself, I would've laughed.
I truly had a great time in Mumbai, that of a bird free and confident of roaming on its own. Mumbai office was supposed to be full of people who were snobbish and terrors(which mercifully I came to know only after returning!) but I found them all extremely nice, friendly and caring. The guesthouse was cosy and I felt so much at home that I hated to come back to Hyderabad. I haven't visited it after that and sometimes I wonder if I should at all, you know, just to keep it that happy place...like Manto.
Mumbai was also the place I witnessed for the first time two women quarreling in public. I was in the crowded local train and I guess it's common knowledge that they are famous for their crowds. If you want to get down at the station, you've got to put yourself into the eye of the crowd that's forming near the door and you automatically get pushed down. So there was this woman trying to do that and I guess she stepped on the other woman's foot(only a guess). And before long it had resulted in a war of words which were supposed to be Hindi by their texture but I had loads of trouble comprehending. I had heard a few of those expletives near the boys hostel during Engineering and whoever uttered those words never used to show their faces and over the time I had deduced their meaning. So I couldn't believe what I was hearing at first and I looked around incredulously. But the other women were as immune to it as if it was a beggar singing. Anyway, soon one of the women fell silent and stood there like a stone while the other went on ranting, possibly annoyed at the other party's lack of response and trying her best to rile her up again. It felt terribly funny and if I was not afraid of becoming a target myself, I would've laughed.
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