Ode to Mumbai --- By Faiz

13th May 2005 – the journey started to the city that never sleeps.

A journey that would define rest of my life, the city that would shape my future.
The city where I have spent more than 6 years of my formative professional life,
The city where I have found and lost and found love – love of friends, people and work
The city where I have seen floods, blasts, accidents, and yes the much talked about Spirit of the City.
I have seen death, I have seen life and I have seen people living life to the fullest.
I have seen people cramped in buses, trains, holding their heads high thinking about what to fight for next
I have seen people struggling to survive a day, have seen people struggling to make ends meet
I have seen people driving best cars, living the most opulent lives
I have seen film stars and I have seen people wanting to be film stars

I have also seen how life becomes so precious when the same sea where we spend endless time just sitting with awe watching the serenity of the far off still water, turns into a storm…and the same rain that the city waits for turns it into a death bed.

It was the same spirit of the city that made me walk with strong fever on that 26th July, for over 20 kms on feet in sometime knee, sometime chest and sometime neck deep water to help someone......someone scared …someone…

That day – I fell in love with the city. A love that grew stronger day by day.
Spoke to a bus conductor enroute, he sounded like a guardian of the passengers, held hands with people who walked in line supporting each other, met people who carried tea and biscuits to help stranded people – people unknown to them just moments before – but now they all formed a strong bond – a bond

A bond that I again saw in that famous candle march – the march when the city was again attacked – and luckily I had left that place where the attacks happened – hours ago
People shouting and crying..we could feel that energy…we could feel tears swelling inside…was failing to understand what made so many cry amidst that euphoria –in a city where people die to survive a day – people were mourning the death of others – people were crying at their own vulnerability.. the city has a heart of its own.

The city – where we had the fun travelling in trains, double deckers, travelling on water.
Watching the sun setting into the Arabian Sea…leaving all its splendor that holds the city and charges the night
The city – that literally never sleeps
The city – that becomes the focal point for people with aspirations, people meet and become friends
The city that has given me so many friends for life
The city that has given me love – the love for life, the love for freedom.

Those nights spent travelling to town, sitting at Bandra BandStand…watching the sea fight the shores and shore resisting the waves and ending up lapping them.
The nights at Leopold, the nights at Juhu, the nights at Marine Drive, those nights....

(....to be continued)