A (Star)day at Mumbai Airport

“This is a love song for you..la la “…oh, that’s my cell phone ringer and I am glad finally he called up. Elated I was to hear him from the other side.”Hey, sweetie!!,  We are moving to Mumbai, I got a job there”, he said. “What??, Mumbai!!, ok good, so when are we shifting”, I responded. “20^th of Next month, it’s a Saturday, start packing”, He said and hung up.

I looked at my phone thinking gone are the days when we would talk for hours and still wait for other one to do the honors. Well this was some six years back though. May be I too need one of those Pond’s cream. Anyways…Now Mumbai definitely might sound a cool place to many of my friends but not to me .Monsoon trauma ,Traveling hassles and terror attacks were enough to keep that place out of my wish list. But still there was something exciting about that place …

“We are at Chattarpati Shivaji Airport, Passengers are requested to remain on their seats till the seat belt lights are on. Hope you had a great flight and we look forward to see you soon”, the pretty kingfisher airhostess said in her own style and ever charming smile . But as we Indians never fail to let the world know that we cant be driven by instructions ,almost all were up queuing behind each other as if that might fasten the procedure of getting off the plane. Since I hate getting pushed by people , chose to sit back and waited for others to fulfill there wish only to notice that somebody has been equally sane. “I remember, I have seen her somewhere” ,I told my husband. ”Shhh , shut up , you are too loud. Don’t you know she is Carol Gracias, the super model”, he whispered and also gave a broad smile to her . Now this was not acceptable for I don’t remember when did he smiled at me last. “Whatever, she is not that great too”, I tried to be loud enough but somehow it didn’t come out that well.

We landed at 5:30 pm and since Carol had raised my expectations , I started looking around for my favorite cine star. As if Mr. Amitabh Bachchan will just come and say, “Hi lady, I have been waiting to see you for a while now”. Lost in my thoughts I turned only to see my husband smiling at me for he somehow read my mind. “Should we move further, incase you have received an invite from him”, He giggled. He knows that for me Mumbai is not financial capital rather ‘star capital’ and I am one Big B movie buff . “Oh ya”, I said ,awkwardly.

 While we were waiting for the luggage, suddenly heard a long lost but familiar voice, “Oh my God, is that Shakuni Mama”, I shouted. My husband simply gave me a look and that said it all. Shakuni Mama, alias Gufi Paintal too was amused enough to know that there are people who still remember his deadly performance which actually led to Mahabharat.

“Hey ,don’t you think that suitcase is ours, the one which that man in blue shirt is picking ”, I asked my husband. “Oh yes, let me just see”. He replied and ran towards him. I followed him too, only to bump into Ravi Kishan who was standing almost next to me. ‘zindagi zand ba baki sab ghamd ba’…his famous dailoge from Big Boss was all I could remember about him. But from my previous experience , I controlled myself and went on without acknowledging and even apologizing, for the head on collision was the obvious reason for his Ray Ban to fall on ground. ‘Now he should have been more cautious and god knows why is the whole TV industry here to welcome me ’, I said to myself softly this time.

Finally we were at the cab point with our luggage , and I was wondering if I have seen any of the people around in any movie. Trust me observing people can be a great past time , just that God forbid, they shouldn’t be from D Company. As we were about to start , my husband almost shouted, “Look that’s Kareena, isn’t she beautiful”. Now somebody was raising eyebrows on my pitch sometime back. “Oh, I wish she had come with Saif”, I said and we both started laughing. We got in cab with smiles on our face ready to start our new journey in Mumbai on a Star studded Saturday.

Rainbow from my window

Well I am not a professional narrator and this is my first such attempt to put thoughts into words.

It was nice breezy evening after a week long rains and sun was still up in the sky though not full blown, a typical of Mumbai day. My window, the only part of our apartment that connected my toddler to the outside world during monsoons was indeed our favorite spot during such evenings. So like any other days we, the routine obsessed mom- son duo with our beverages (in his case milk and mine tea ) were there on our grand spot ,sharp at 6:30 pm for our regular dose of fresh air and some bright colors.

There across the street, I heard her shouting on her son, “ Tu ki karda hai, teinu kuch farka na paida ”, she is the loud Punjabi lady we have in our society, the one famous for letting everybody know what’s cooking in her kitchen . I guess from north to south the vocal cords have gradually been tuned down ,for the other south indian couple on the first floor have never uttered a word which I could make out or may be I should pay more attention to what my neighbours are talking , so typical of my north Indian roots.

Suddenly something interesting caught my attention, “ Suu che, majja ma..” well that’s the Gujju lady who lives in the society opposite ours. A tution teacher by profession, she mostly has Gujarati pupils and everyday we too get an opportunity to learn basics of Gujarati and Mathematics, for she gives all the residual instructions only from the window of her fourth floor apartment to the outgoing students and there parents.

In the same society lives a 7:30 Maharastrian family too.Why 7:30?? Because every day sharp at 7:30 am they would  start for there office and would be back by 7:30 pm.Now can you beat that!! Another popular feature of a Mumbaikar. Interestingly I have not heard the couple talking to each other in last three years , may be they are practicing sign language. Looks like its true ,the less you talk more happy you are for the Bengali beauty on the ground floor who happens to be my good friend too definitely gives a hard time to all of us with her endless conversation. “Ki baba, tumi kichu bujhi na, amaar koutha suno”.

I was enjoying the converstaiongs from east, west, north and south when suddenly a school bus stooped with a screeching noise.Oh, poor kids are back from school ,with bags heavier than there own weights at 7:00PM.Now this is what is not very appreciative , Schools are runs in morning and evening to maintain the supply demand ratio but who cares if they don’t get to play hide and seek like we did as kids. No wonder why these tech toy companies are minting money !!.

Truly this is ‘ Life in a Metro’ though here it runs in local trains. I was lost in my thoughts, suddenly my son shouted, ‘look Mommy” and saw him pointing up the sky and there was such a beautiful rainbow smiling at us and my joyful son was just as thrilled to see something so amazing. Just that I was not sure which was more beautiful ,the one up in the sky or the other which I have been part of since last one hour.