Mumbai Montage

Last night, me and my friend decided to go on a long drive on a bike in Mumbai. He came to pick me up at two a.m. and then it began. It was a chilly night and the roads, except for the highway were mostly deserted. If it were a movie, I would say it was all in black and yellow with just a few colours and bokehs sprewn here and there. We reached Bandra, after being searched by the police once for signs of drunken drinking. I realised it was a horrible horrible job. Instead of using breath analysers, a policemen would come near you and smell your breath in the pretense of asking your name. It ought to be included in the list for the “worst jobs around the world.” Then there was the ocean. Owing to low tide, the ocean was a huge and still mass of water. The moon was almost full. And believe me when I say it looked like somebody jad mashed up pieces of glasses and spread the shards on a huge black canvas which shimmered and sparkled in the black of the night. And it was hard to believe that this was Bandra. Then came Haji Ali, the glittering blue lights, the colours I talked about earlier, in the midst of the huge canvas. Slowly the architecture begins to change. There is an oncoming of tall buildings with darkened hollows for windows. The horizon is not at all visible, unlike the seaface earlier. And suddenly we have marine drive. It only gets better. The air gets colder than ever before. The huge body of water looks like an even more beautiful artwork. The moon in all its glory, seemed to be proud of its beauty. Then we came across the beautiful colonial past, the architectural heritage of Mumbai. In the dark of the knight they looked like those ancient black and white pictures that we now find printed on postcards. It was nearly 5 a.m. by this time and the beautiful highcourt decided to tell this to us with its beautiful chiming in the silent of the night. We decided to take a break and have some food with some caramel tea (I named it because of its peculiar taste) at an Irani cafe which was the only one open at the time. And finally after that we made our way back home. It was a beautiful night, a night to remember. And it felt as if everything fell into piece just to make it perfect for us, like those five planets that have aligned in the same line for the first time in decades.

Break post Break

So after a long break, I finally have net connection and free time to continue blogging. I knew this time was going to come sooner or later and it is going to be quite a task to compensate for all the days I have not written. So here is a fresh start.

It was my little sister’s birthday and I have not been keeping well. I couldn’t do much but she sure had fun with her friends. I can’t believe she is fifteen already. She is a millennial quite literally, born in 2000, her age is whatever the year is. 15 in 2015 and so on. These 15 years have been a real learning experience. She has always been the brave one and whenever I took a step back, she was the one who said it is okay to walk on. She has definitely been the best gift ever.

Tonight after dropping her friends home – my friends, she and I went on a car ride and it was crazy! The music was playing on full volume and we were playing some songs that related to each person’s personality, that reminded me of some incidents and made me nostalgic. I wonder sometimes if there is anything that brings more nostalgia than music. In my case, I can never ever forget who suggested me what song. It is a boon and a bane because sometimes some loved songs are destroyed by bad memories that come along with it.

The song that reallly stuck was “Kya Karoon?” from Wake Up Sid. There is no telling how much I love that movie and this song could very well be the theme song for my life. The dilemma never ends.

So that was that! So much for writing again, it will never be a blog in the true sense of the word. Just a random rant on even more random things.
Signing off,
Shreya

Trip to Udupi

I am on the train journey back to Mumbai from my trip in Udupi and I am pretty sure I have never had such a scenic view from the train window in any of my previous train journeys. I just crossed a board saying ‘Gopi River’ and the train went over a bridge with the said river running below it. The quaint river with pristine water so pure that you could clearly see the bed below it.

The grass and fields are extraordinarily green, the kind of green that I haven’t seen in a long while and the paths are the completely opposite hue of dark and rusty red. There are backwaters along the Konkan coast appearing after every few minutes with colorful boats either standing on the shore or with fisherman at work who are putting out their nets for the day.

There are several year old huts with slanting tiled roofs that remind you of a village straight out of the pages of Malgudi Days. They have huge verandahs and the doors are always open like any other friendly hamlet. There are a few newly built houses as well painted in bright red, orange and sometimes even yellow. Though they would have looked put of place anywhere else, here they compliment the greenery around.

Golden Udupi Sunsets, don’t mind the angle… clicked while on a moving scooty. 😛

There are tall coconut trees, framing the sky with its beautiful leaves and towering over the water like a shield from the pretty sky above. The sunset is pink which slowly fades into violet hues. There are small patches of water puddles which reflect the sky. It feels like pieces of the sky have fallen to the earth and all I want to do now is get off the train at some quite little unknown but beautiful station where crescent shaped leaves cover the ground near the fences, to sit amidst the green grass under one of those coconut trees, reading, sipping coconut water, having fried fish and sailing on one of those boats towards the end of the horizon where the sun is sinking!

-S.

The Process of Writing

Most of you might not know it but when I started this blog I made a mid-year resolution to write atleast one piece everyday. I was on a loss these last few days as to what to write. Sometimes I think that the amount that a single person thinks in a day multiplied by the number of people must just be infinite. Does it mean that every thought has already been thought? Nothing new has been left to discover? Maybe whatever I am thinking and writing has been framed in exactly the same manner in someone else’s blog, journal, mind, etc.
The method I employ to write everyday is to choose something out of the ordinary that happened during the day and pick up that thread and start writing. This works most of the times bit sometimes it is just too random to make sense. The best part now is that when I write all this on a public blog, I have people who can guide me towards making more sense. Earlier, whatever I wrote was for myself but now I want to reach out to more people. I realise it is more effective as a method of introspection than writing for myself and definitely more productive. Also, the number of likes and follows I get for a particular post also tells me what kind of writing is good and what is not.
I am in the process of writing a dissertation and guidance for me, is extremely helpful.

Of days gone by, Journal writing.

10 things that happen to me while reading a book

1. Where the hell is my bookmark, again.
2. Must highlight this, so beautiful.
3. Oh my god, this book is the best book I have ever read.
4. Why God why? Why does this always happen to people I love.
5. I can’t believe I loved them. This other character is so much better.
6. I wondered what they were thinking when they designed this cover.
7. I wish someone would dedicate a book to me someday,
8. Writing must be a tough job. I make 15 errors in a single page!
9. Done with another book, what a crazy ride.
10. Time to rate and review on Goodreads. 😀
    

    Book Shopping Sprees. Such a stress buster. Favourite-est thing ever. ❤