Mumbai katzenjammer

I despised mumbai the moment i stepped in the city. I should mention here that the station i landed on was Kalyan. The pollution in conjunction with the population had scared me. The next abode in mumbai was near Andheri, again the culture had scared me. Before I could watch and judge i was absorbed into the rush of life that is there. I found myself criticizing the people who dangled from the local trains and jump on one myself hanging to just one pole for reaching office in time. I hated the unhygienic way the ‘pavs‘ were carried around, but grabbed bites of vada pav unthinkingly, the way the panipuri wala with his pan stained hands dipped the puri in the pani had irked me but oft did i stop by him myself to have a plate! Mumbai gave me no time to think but just got me addicted. Today i walked a few lanes in search of those tastes, and phew long did it take me to find a vada pav in Bangalore. They gave me the vada wrapped in the bakery prepared clean fat bread! but my heart wouldn’t yield to anything lesser to those pavs carried in bicycles through the dusty polluted roads of Mumbai. I have volvos here for local transport..but i yearn to watch the yellow colored hold-ons (what do u call them??) in the local trains dance to their on rhythm. There are plenty of gardens still I wish I could go back to that dusty Andheri sports complex for my morning walk.
How do i describe the feeling? Not that ive left too much of friends in the city..the city doesn’t give space for friendship beyond a level. There friends are like butterflies extremely pleasing when they are around, long forgotten when gone! Not that I have blasted my life out there! The city got me addicted and I still cant believe I left it behind. I still cant believe that walking past the infinity mall and lokhandwala market is so distant a dream now! I can’t believe I’m thinking so much of a place which just dint give me the time & space to think of anything in life!