So many things have happened in this one year since I said a sad goodbye to Delhi and moved to Mumbai for my education here. The first question people ask me is: "why did you choose Mumbai over Delhi for education?". I can understand their astonishment. I give them a number of reasons- I didn't sit for the JNU exam, I missed the DU forms, I wasn't fond of my job, and I missed home. Some of them tell me I should have waited and appeared for JNU/DU exams the following year. Yes, now I agree.
A year of being away from Delhi and i still can't get over it. Why? Isn't it supposed to be an un-friendly city, unsafe for girls, full of thugs, no night-life, pervert auto-rickshaw drivers, and full of men who keep staring till one turns to powder? All that yes, maybe.
Delhi's beauty-it is one of the greenest capital cities of the world. It's many layers of history- you drive around the posh and shiny localities of Delhi and suddenly at a corner you can spot the remains of a fort/tomb/an ancient structure protected from the modern world. It's nightlife- yes Delhi has a nightlife, and you are enjoying it best when you drive down Rajpath, cross the India gate and head towards the Rai Sinha Hill past the Vijay Chowk and stop to have a stick of ice cream on a spine chilling December night. The Chinese chaat at one of the best places to shop, Lajpat Nagar. Big Chill at Khan Market, which is also home to Khan Chacha's. The smart mouthed Blue line bus conductors who have an unmatched sense of humour and the crude yet amusing Jatt conversations. The intellectual crowd that one comes across at the India Habitat Centre. Old Delhi's history laden lanes. All this makes up the Delhi that I fell in love with the very first day I stepped into it in the year 2007.
Delhi was my first city. I grew up in the small towns of Panvel, Nazira and Ankleshwar. Yet, for some reason I was always preparing myself for Delhi. I would bathe in cold water telling myself it would be colder in Delhi. I always knew I would be in Delhi for some part of my education, I never knew when that would be. I landed myself into an under graduate course of Journalism in Delhi university. I knew immediately that I would be accepted without a fuss, and i did blend into the city before I or anyone else knew it. Three years passed and I never realized the days going past me. I made friends who I know I will have for the rest of my life. In short, I lived my life. I joined work immediately after I finished college and got overwhelmed by it before I had imagined. I needed to leave.Also, not having friends around after college made me a little bit less fond of Delhi (for which I feel guilty)! So, there was an attempt to go back home which had shifted to Mumbai.
Then it was time for me to bid goodbye, for which i never had enough time- I had just a day to get my tickets in place, pack my bags and leave. I remember my last bus ride in Delhi that night. I tried to fill my mind with the pictures of the roads, the buildings, the trees, the night in Delhi, the people, the bus stands, everything that had crossed my sight in the last three years.
I wanted desperately to go back to being a college student. Mumbai university and an M.A degree became the means. I entered the university and was hit by a strong craving for my old college and its people! I wanted to turn around and run back. I made life difficult for my folks by telling them every day how much I missed Delhi, its roads,its gardens, its people and its public transport. I missed even the rick drivers who refused to turn on the meters! It is not difficult to imagine what these people around me were going through. I was on a non-stop Mumbai bashing. I criticized the lack of aesthetic sense, the garbage strewn all around, the mind boggling traffic and the narrow roads. I spared nothing.
Finally, one day I found 'enjoying' myself in Mumbai. I felt a funny feeling of betraying Delhi. I was alarmed! How could I like Mumbai? Had I unknowingly started appreciating the democratic side of Mumbai, where one of the richest men and one of the biggest slums co-exist? Had i become an admirer of the discipline within the chaotic city? Or had I just blended into it like I had in Delhi? Maybe. I did take my sweet time to do so. But ya, if given a choice, I would want to run back to Delhi right now! :-)
