Day 3 in Mumbai

Dear Readers,

For those who asked how we are settling down, here is an update.

The house looks cleaner, the pigeons have begun to behave themselves, after a stern lecture ;-). As proof of this squeaky cleanliness, I have a swollen knee - it hurts!

It is fine if stray feathers and twigs sometimes fly in, utterly pardonable, as long as they don't use our window sills for nesting or worse still as their own private loo. There is a nest just outside my bathroom window and we will let them stay till the wee little babies fly away. Yes, till then, have to tolerate the twigs, the feathers and I learnt bettles and ticks (Eeew). But, we can't bear to destroy this nest.

We have met our new neighbours, rather one family whose flat is opposite ours. Very helpful people.

We have found a part-time maid and a driver who will begin their duties from Jan 1. Well, the car arrives only on Jan 4 from Bangalore, so guess the driver will have no work on his first day. In Mumbai, I find trains and taxis to be the best way to travel, but guess my parents do need a car and a driver.

We got a gas connection today, after the mechanic comes tomorrow to check the cooking range, we can hopefully cook something in the two pans we brought with us (No luggage until Saturday, Jan 2). Till then we are enjoying the food from Noorani restaurant at Haji Ali - for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They home deliver.

Today was a busy day, we applied for an MTNL landline and internet connection as well. The cable guy came. Guess what, after two days of no newspapers (enough to drive a newspaper addicted family up the wall), we seem to have tied up with two agencies and now get two copies each of Times of India and The Economic Times - need to sort this out. A grocer who delivers at home is also found, but alas, he is a Jain grocer and will not keep poultry products, including eggs. It is funny, so many people argue that eggs are vegetarian and eat them, others don't. Well our new grocer is a pure vegetarian.

Mumbai is hot, hot, hot and this is winter. My friends are actually wearing sweaters and donning blankets at night. Guess, I am still used to the cool temperatures of Banglaore and will take time to adjust. This is good, because we have no blankets with us, as yet. Else we would have shivered and woken by frozen stiff.

The kitchen shelves are filled with bottles of water and orange juice and this pile keeps shrinking. Did I tell you it was hot? It sure is.

Guess, I am ready to usher in new year's eve, with a badly swollen knee, lots of delicious kebabs from Noorani, and orange juice. Oh, and I also developed an allergic cold and low fever owing to the dust (woke up with fever today morning - Dec 31). But soon, the resettling woes will be behind me.

Photograph: Update as of Dec 31, 2009. There is a slight nip in the air today on New Year's eve and one of the 'notorious' pigeons has tucked his head and fluffed his feathers to keep the cold at bay. This is his favourite seating place, our window grill. The building seen is the photograph is the one which faces one of the windows of our drawing room.

Another photograph of a very alert pigeon, taken on Jan 6. This pigeon is trying to build a nest in my room. We need to repair the pigeon-keep-away-mesh real soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR READERS. MAY THIS YEAR BE PEACEFUL AND JOYOUS.

Best,
Lubna

New Year Resolutions

Dear Readers,

Do you keep new year resolutions? And I mean, keep them, not just make them.

While I make daily and weekly 'to-do' lists. I have never drawn up a list of new year resolutions. But there is always a first time. I intend to revisit this page each time I find myself slipping.

MY NEW YEAR RESOLUTION LIST: 2010

1)Be calm and cool, even when crisis hits. Take a gulp of water, breathe deeply and smile.

2) Learn to look at the silver lining around each dark cloud.

3)Be grateful, more frequently, for what I have.


4) Volunteer and not just donate.

5) Be more patient. Count till ten (or hundred if required), before I speak or email, when impatience or irritance strikes!

6)Bravely plunge into a new work experience and do my best.

7) Write more and photograph more.

8)Meet friends and relatives more often.

Happy New Year.

(This photograph was taken at Lalbaugh Gardens, Bangalore. Now, that I am in Mumbai, I am sure to miss this favourite haunt of mine)


Best wishes,
Lubna

First Day back home in Mumbai

Dear Readers,

I never feel the impact of having moved, till I reach the other destination. Then it hits me that I have left a particular city and all friends behind. These days, with email, social media, mobile phones et all, one can still stay easily in touch.

I kept getting sentimental calls and text messages from colleagues till I boarded the flight. I also got some good words of advise and wishes from my mentors in Bangalore. Yes, this did make me feel that I was leaving, but not quite.


When I moved from Mumbai (Bombay) to Bangalore in late 2000, I felt homesick once I reached the new home. Fortunately, this time around, I know that I will remain in touch with the few but valuable Bangalore friends and hey almost all of them visit Mumbai. Why, one of them in visiting Mumbai in January itself, just a month from now. So I am not yet homesick for Bangalore, or perhaps Bangalore was just a temporary home and not a real home? I don't know the answer.

I have often seen passengers trundling with bags and bags and more bags and a carton or two. Well, today we resembled these passengers. With nine cargo baggage pieces, we had to seek help. Now, why doesn't Jet airways provide its personnel at the car park itself - where passengers alight to get inside the terminal? Kingfisher airlines does so.

So leaving me to take care of the baggage, Mum and Dad went off to the Jet office to seek help and help came, pronto. Yet is is a long walk for old people. If you have been to the Bangalore airport you will know what I mean.

Minor irritants like this, apart, the flight was on time. It was a Jet Konnect flight and the vegetarian meal which we had to buy, comprising of vegetarian sandwich, Real Orange Juice and eggless cake was palatable. There was no problem while landing, we were not in queue and in fact arrived in Mumbai ten minutes earlier.

It was smooth sailing once we landed. Dad's friend had arranged for a pick up. Another friend later sent us a car and chauffeur so that we could stock on essentials (read brooms and floor cleaners - the house is nice but quite in a mess). Cleaning starts tomorrow. I have to roll up my sleeves and scrub away. Another friend is sending us hot piping dinner. So yes, I have to admit it is good to be back in hometown.

For the first time ever, I visited Big Bazar. Have never ever done so in Bangalore. Our super market was either Thoms Bakery and Supermarket (Delicious cakes, will miss them) or Nilgiris (I shall so miss those delicious Tea Crackers. Bangalore friends - this is a huge hint).

Big Bazar was crowded, music was blaring loud at the mall where it is housed. But, I was quite impressed with one innovation, if one may call it that.

Shoppers are always reluctant to part with their over-sized purses. To deter shoplifting and to assuage the shoppers, Big Bazar provides a huge plastic bag. In it, go your purses and they snap this bag shut with a plastic seal, which is opened only at the cash counter. I quite liked this idea. Of course, you have to carry your mobile with you in your hand, which is a wee bit of a hindrance.

We still haven't met our neighbours. Quite typical of Mumbai to stay aloof. If this had been Bangalore, at least three-four families would have visited us by now.

The agenda for tomorrow:

1) Clean the house
2) Find a maid and a driver
3) Ring up the sellers as they have left some of their belongings behind

The agenda for day after tomorrow:

1) Get our property documents from the registrars office
2) Make copies, apply for a gas connection (transfer form taken), for a landline phone, for a broadband internet (right now I am using an internet card, which is very slow - but something is better than nothing).

Hmmmm, there is a lot of running aorund on Tuesday, Monday (tomorrow) is a holiday here.

Now, since when did internet become a necessity? I don't know, but I for one cannot live without the internet.

Keep tuned to my blog for my Mumbai developments. I will blog off and on.

PS: Photograph - this is how our house looked just before moving. This is the basket of flowers, plonked on packing material (there was no other place to keep it), given to us by Kumar our driver who was so sad to see us go. Fortunately, he will begin another new nice job tomorrow, which a friend of ours helped find.

Best,
Lubna

It is one of my favourite things...

Dear Readers,

Did you have a favourite object, when you were a toddler? A doll, a teddy-bear, a book or even a security blanket? Well, I have had this study table, since third grade (standard III) and I used it till date.

While memories of my childhood are not as crystal clear to me, unlike that of one of my favourite author's Subroto Bagchi, who has penned down his entire path in life in his book Go Kiss the World, I do have vivid memories connected to this table.

For one, I know, my Mum saved to buy it and had it custom built, perhaps this has added to its sentimental value. It arrived all clean and shining on a Sunday morning, smelling of wood and polish. Its Formica top shone and I can still recall how the sun beams were reflected from its surface.

I thought there was one imperfection. There was one drawer missing (see there are only three drawers on the right hand side), but that I was told was for keeping my white tennis (canvas) shoes and brown leather shoes and shoe polish and white paste. Polishing my shoes and whitening the canvas shoes was a weekend ritual.

Yes, school mandated two different type of shoes, in addition to various kinds of uniforms for different days. As the years went by, this space was used to store rocks and sea-shells (the latter, largely collected off Carter Road, Bandra). Then, it gave way to paints and brushes. It became a 'hobby-cubby-hole'.

The table, when it arrived, was placed in front of the window, and strangely so, I have always kept this table in front of a window, even as we have moved a couple of houses since then, and once, even moved from Bombay (Mumbai) to Bangalore and are now going back to Mumbai.

If only if it could speak, I am sure this table could tell a million tales [perhaps it is just as well that it cannot talk ;-)]. It has seen me grow (and I do hope the table thinks that I have grown up to be a nice human being). The subjects I studied, at this table, expanded and changed from simple grammar and mathematics to complex accounts and tax. It is on this table that I struggled with Hindi, History and Economics - subjects which give me nightmares till date. It is on this table that penned my 'soulful' poems as a teenager (some of which got published) and it is this table, on which my lap top was placed and I banged away my monthly columns for The Economic Times.

It is this table on which my tears fell, tears of sorrow and of laughter. If you look closely, you will see that it bears traces of history. Free stickers based on its famous advertisements were once given away by Amul Butter. One of which occupies pride of place on the surface of a drawer, as do the wildlife stickers, which one got with Forhans' toothpaste (One doesn't really hear of Forhan's toothpaste, these days). Subsequently, as I began to travel, a sticker from Australia of an Olympic mascot was added on. Yes, a corner of the table required some quick-fix patching, so the table proudly wears its sign of constant use - a band-aid of packing tape.

We are now ready to move back to Mumbai, thus it is time for this table to find another loving home. It is going to a family of three deserving sisters, two of which are appearing for their board exams this coming April. The third sister is in primary school. I do hope this table proves as lucky for them, as it did for me.

Thank you table, for being a constant stable companion in my life. I shall always remember you, just as I am sure Linus (Peanuts fame) remembers his blanket.

Best,
Lubna

Bye Bye Bangalore (Bengaluru)

Dear Bangalore,

It has been close to nine years and it is time to say bye and head back to the concrete jungle - Bombay (Mumbai), which is home. When we first landed here, it was a wintry day and it was freezing, we even saw hail stones, yes hail stones in a city and were much impressed.

I felt landlocked, used as I was to see wide expanses of the open sea. I also missed the readily available public transport system of Mumbai and the freedom that brought. But then, you Bangalore began to cast your magic web. Lalbagh Gardens soon became my favourite haunt.

The Indian Roller, would enchant us by sitting on the trees right outside our balconies; butterflies covered the soap-nut tree, in our apartment compound, which was then in bloom; a mischievous monkey or two would venture into our flat.

Post 9pm, it was quiet and still, hardly a vehicle was spotted on the road. In fact, our road was dotted with bungalows and friendly dogs roamed the streets, and a horse or two as well.

Things changed over time, the traffic increased, the population swelled - no doubt people, like us, came to Bangalore, from all over India. The IT boom changed the stratosphere of Bangalore.

Snowy the street dog expired. A white horse which was a regular on our streets was knocked down by a car and while CUPA volunteers took him away, I guess he had to be put to sleep. The Indian Roller disappeared, to be replaced by crows and a couple of cuckoos. The sparrows fled Bangalore and not just my neighborhood. These days even the noisy Myans cannot be heard. The mango trees, in our neighbor hood, have gone as have the several bungalows around us, with it have disappeared the pesky monkeys - oh, we miss them.

As of now, the Rain Trees outside my apartment still remain, thankfully so. The Richards Town Resident Association protested against the tarring of the pavement and the trees will continue to stand, I hope, for many more decades.

The tailor birds still builds their nest in the wild jamun tree in our apartment compound (as we Mumbaikars refer to an empty plot of land). The soap nut tree was in bloom again after four years, and yes, the butterflies came back. A sign of hope that all is not lost and perhaps when I visit Bangalore, it will still be a green city.

As regards the people of Bangalore or Bengaluru as it is now known, I hope they continue to remain united. A few ugly incidents, in the form of communal violence and violence against women did take place, I hope that remains buried in history and history does not repeat itself.

It is now time to tie up loose ends to pack up things and to move. Bye-bye Bangalore, I shall always retain memories of you.

Photographs: Views from my balcony taken with my blackberry camera.

I'm crossing the bridge

Dear Readers,

I will be away during the entire month of December, I am in the process of relocating to another city and will resurface in cyberspace sometime in January.

Thus, advance Seasons' Greetings and wish each one of you a joyful and peaceful 2010.

Thank you for all your encouragement, I loved your comments and I hope to see you next year.

The Calvin & Hobbes website

Best,
Lubna