The need to type

The end of every journey is fixed at the same moment it begins. The destination is mostly just a part of the whole process and not the ultimate goal. Mumbai has been one such experience. I came here to test out my wings and I must say they were not as firm and sleek as I believed they were. All of us are lot cooler in our thoughts than we are in others. Only when you take flight do the flaws worm out though the rays of trouble and eddies   of miscalculations. Nothing in this world comes into existence strong (except Goku). Strength is acquired (like Naruto). Mumbai paved a path for me to learn, grow and become resilient. It also gave me the freedom to unlock my free spirit and spend a lot of my time learning about myself. Outlook has changed and judgments  have shattered. But I have never smiled anywhere as brightly as I have here. Be it being stereotyped or being highly appreciated life here has been anything but serene. The vast mix of people and deep mix of sensibil...

The various experiences we have in life, shape us and let us grow. Major source of these are the changes that occur or we create in our lives. Adulthood with its responsibilities becomes a burden to enforce change too often but in the early 20s when you are just being learning to be a mature person, you can go ahead experiment and make some probably risky transitions. So even though my life was quite stable with a healthy mix of work and play, I decided it was time to move forward and switch jobs. In today’s fast changing world a job switch is not a major phenomenon. Not a lot of people in the IT industry stick around too long in the same company. Even the most mediocre of talent have a pool of options. But your first job change is a feat like no other. When you sit at a lunch table and hear about how a peer has so many offers, you tend to think, it must be piece of cake. You are all fired up and you decide to take the plunge. When that happened the first thing I did was start ...

Having a place to go to, when in a faraway land, is the first step to building your own world. To make a home you need a house and get a house you need to house hunt. Finding a place to live, in Mumbai is like trying to find oasis in a desert. If you love the place the rent will eat your salary. If you find an affordable place there are loads of other comforts you compromise on. They say marriage is a match made in heaven but no, housemates are a match made in heaven. You hand your life to destiny when you move in with other people. We learn the true meaning of adaptability and adjustments when you share your home with strangers. When it was time to move out of my temporary abode (which the ladies had made me come to love) I was just sure that I wanted be near my lovelies. Going through every classified and every portal that had advertisements for roommates I made long lists of people to contact. Each phone call was interesting and I met a lot of different types of people and saw...

Change is the only constant. And that my friends was my first few weeks in Mumbai (okay okay Navi Mumbai). Office, different but still the same. Some old people, new setting and some new people still new setting. Hugs and greeting with a few old chums. Nods and handshakes with few others. New desk, old work. So as you can see I did not come to a city where I knew no one and made it on my own. It is little less cool than that. I knew people but still made it on my own. Not too much drama, is it? Better get used to it. For that is all this is, just a normal moving to a new city. Life in a new setting is as dependent on the people you meet as it is dependent on you. I feel that the first people you meet in city are crucial in setting your perception of the city. The first cab driver, the first stranger who gives you directions, the first friend you meet, the first new person you befriend- all these people create the first impression of how you think your life is going to be in the new ...

Rains are a blessing. Fresh, soothing and cleansing. That is what you think till you see monsoons in Mumbai. The heat drives you nuts through the summer, June starts, the monsoon sets in and people are overjoyed. Just like I was when it rained on my first day in Mumbai. I was staying over at a friend’s place for the initial period. I step out into their balcony and it had just stopped raining. The air was alive and a sense of relief sat on all things living after the long har sh summer. It seemed like the trees were smiling. Gulmohar trees. If you are from Bangalore you have lived around Gulmohar and Ashoka tress all your life. They spell home wherever you see them. So 1000km away looking out of the balcony, I was home. I never realised, how necessary it was to draw parallels, in order to feel comfortable in a new place. Most of the times these resemblances are only in your head, but help you pull through a lot of things that might have otherwise been alien. I loved the rains for b...

June 2015. I land in the Mumbai airport, this time I was not visiting. I was here to make a life. The first time I had fully expanded the wings, I had slowly grown over the years, and took flight. I was normal. Very normal so to say. A software engineer like many others in the country. Working in a huge MNC that was flooded with others like me. But here I was choosing to be as far away from comfort as I could be without ruffling too many feathers.  Mumbai the city of dreams, t hey say. You come fall in love and never recover, they say. A city of vibrance and colour and life. There are too many adjectives describing this place. Way too many writings on its beauty, secularity, variety, crimes, distress, poverty and richness. This city is all of that and none of that at the same time. I am not writing about a place I feel in love with or the city that I hate but about that place that shaped me as an individual and made me grow in the last two years.   When you step out o...