Bombay.....Mumbai

For some reason today, I was getting homesick and kept thinking of my home - Bombay. I was in college when the name change was affected and till date can't call it Mumbai - for me, it remains and will always remain Bombay!

Here is something that I dug out of my archives (it's basically interesting stuff that I save). Since the theme today is Bombay, here are some Bombay facts (I got these as forwards and so this is nothing that I wrote, but since I have long lost the original email, I can't give the author any credit. But if this your work, let me know and I will give credit where it is due).

22 Things that prove you are a Bombayaite

1. You say "town " and expect everyone to know that this means south of Churchgate.
2. You speak in a dialect of Hindi called 'Bambaiya Hindi', which only Bombayites can understand.*
3. Your door has more than three locks.
4. Rs 500 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.
5. Train timings (9.27, 10.49 etc) are really important events of life.
6. You spend more time each month traveling than you spend at home.
7. You call an 8' x 10' clustered room a Hall.
8. You're paying Rs 10,000 for a 1 room flat, the size of walk-in closet and you think it's a "steal."
9. You have the following sets of friend: school friends, college friends, neighborhood friends, office friends and yes, train friends, a species unique only in Bombay.
10. Cabbies and bus conductors think you are from Mars if you call the roads by their Indian name, they are more familiar with Warden Road, Peddar  Road, Altamount Road
11. Stock market quotes are the only other thing besides cricket which you follow passionately.
12. The first thing that you read in the Times of India is the "Bombay Times" supplement.
13. You take fashion seriously. You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.
14. Hookers, beggars and the homeless are invisible.
15. You compare Bombay to New York's Manhattan instead of any other cities of India.
16. The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
17. You insist on calling CST as VT, and Sahar and Santacruz airports instead of Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
18. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
19. Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes.
20. Being truly alone makes you nervous.
21. You love wading through knee deep mucky water in the monsoons, and actually call it ''romantic'.
22. Only in Bombay , you would get Chinese Dosa and Jain Chicken.

This post has gotten me real nostalgic for the landmarks of my childhood and adolescence - I guess all that is fodder for a new post, but I couldn't end without some names. Everytime I think of Bombay these are the things that come to my mind - my school (J.B. Vachha), Dadar Five Gardens, Matunga market, my home, Guru Kripa's in Sion where we used to go either after college or while bunking a lecture, Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Prabhadevi (whom I believe a lot in), Mahalakshmi Temple in Haji Ali and the crowds during Navratri and Diwali, Dandiyas during Navratri, the British Council Library in Nariman Point where I spent many a days during my under-graduate and post-graduate days, this list could go on and on. There will be more days when nostalgia will overtake me and that's when there will be another post about my favourite city.

I just had to write this one thing before I publish this post. I can't believe that India got defeated by Bangladesh during the first round matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup being held in the Caribbean Islands. I felt so disappointed, as would the millions of Indians across the world. Cricket is not just a sport in India, but a religion. I am not an expert, nor even an armchair critic, but I do know this - Dravid and the team, pull up your socks quickly and beat Bermuda and Sri Lanka by huge margins or you will be on the first flight home - beaten and humiliated. I was an infant when India last won the World Cup and in those days, you probably came to know about India's startling win over the then strong West Indies team only the next day when one saw the papers, but today with ball-by-ball commentary on the television, radio and the internet, I want to see India lifting that cup...

This started off as a supposedly small nostalgic post and has grown to gigantic proportions. I better quit while I can. Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully Team India will have better news for us when we wake up tomorrow morning. Till then have a great day!