Bombay Burning!
The spirit of Bombay is a well known thing. Bombay is a great host to anyone who comes here and most of my friends call Bombay, the safest place to live in. But, this time, we feel betrayed. Betrayed from walking on the street, betrayed from roaming around near the Gateway, betrayed from having a beer with friends at Colaba. It is truely saddening that the value for human life is particularly not too much in India. We find so many people dying due to poverty,floods,accidents,etc. Since we have a huge population, we never realise the importance of every single living being.
Whenever I have a trip planned for Bombay, I feel great. The traffic and the crowd and the Vada Pavs, very close friends, the friendly rickshawallas and a lot many other things.
We were very excited about meeting Bollywood producers. We infact met Mr Rajkumar Barjatya and I respect him for his modesty and simplicity. For someone of his reputation having produced more than 50 movies , he was a simple man. He has worked really hard to dub ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ to Spanish and wanted to release the same in Spain. I am certainly going to help him do that. We also met a lot of wannabe producers and storytellers who wanted co productions. We met agents who promised us content. Thats the highlight of the first day. Afterwards, me and Juan went for dinner at Pop Tate’s, Saki Naka, having no clue of what was happening in South Bombay. We came back to the hotel and realised that the situation was out of control. The Governor of Madrid was at the Oberoi during the course of the firing and marginally escaped. She called back everyone to Madrid and ordered a special flight to take everyone back. Juan, who loves India did’nt want to leave. He was telling me that the last time he was in Mumbai was when the bombings in the trains happened. But, Juan loves Bombay and tells me he feels safer here than anywhere. He feels cheated too. Juan left for Madrid and I returned to Khaddu’s place. Today was boring, just sleeping and killing time. I met Chandresh and Apoorva for lunch. Khaddu did’nt want me to stay outside and ordered me back home. So, I sit here in front of the computer without anything much to do. Chakra is coming here today and we are going to Surat.
I love Gujarat and I really excited to be at a place where I grew up to be a man. I still remember boarding a train from Cochin to Surat back in 2001. I was a kid out of school then. A meek, surrendering kid who knew nothing of the world. Surat changed me, helped me realise what I really wanted with life and thats why I have an affection for Surat. Surtis have faced the gravest of dangers, plague,communal riots, floods. If there is a Spirit of Bombay, there is a Spirit of Surat too.
