Jobless Days - 26 Jan

The Mahim Denizens 26 Jan

It’s been around a week that we have moved into this place. I was a bit uncomfortable in leaving the earlier place- perhaps, because there were too many of memories attached with that place. At least one of them was strong enough to pierce its tentacles into my memory cells and leave a scar- the kind of scars in the absurd of places- that neither can be shown nor can be seen. Scars are like small tea bags of memory- when given a chance (dipped in warm water) they transfer their colour-their taste-their nature to the surrounding!

That house was like a book- an intriguing one- the one which you want to finish so badly- but when done you sense the emptiness and regretting of finishing it; catching hold of a new book won’t be that fun- perhaps the only way out would be is to wait- the easy way out; blame time- let time be painted with all your blues. Ah! Chembur and the Metaphors!

Mahim’s life was welcomed with the expected dope and rum. Cigarettes have filled the gaps between our fingers permanently! But something that still keeps the world revolving is the life out here- one of its kind- an amalgamation of emotions, extremities, tears and smiles. Mahim has it all- a taste of the salty sea breeze, a panoramic view of the sea link, the azhans and the temple bells all tend to make a perfect harmony! And the people around- well, for the time being- seems like Mahim is an empty canvas- say a 10 feet by 12 feet canvas. On the right hand side bottom corner use blue to paint a girl- yellow bangles- red churidar- and green salwar- call her Nikita. She sells cigarettes- helps her dad.

Besides her use orange and paint a boy- young- say 20- sells chai under a tarpaulin sheet and an orange flag that says, ‘Jai Maharashtra’.

The Agnostic Urchin

Mahim serves you good food and good people; both being rare in their own ways in this city. In the process of hunting for both, i came across the family of my very good friend- Nandan Joshi. The Joshis are quite welcoming and are mostly happy with few plaints about their small one room kitchen dwelling; whereas my roommate discovered a cheap Chinese roadside fast food joint that also happened to be a one room kitchen cum dining!

As my roomies sat on the blackened red plastic stools to order, the doctor’s image flickered infront of my eyes- “no unhygienic food!”, it said aloud! That’s when I looked through the translucent projection of my brain- the cook was feeling proud of being able to mash rice and wipe his sweat using the same hand simultaneously!(Marvellous!) I politely said to my friends, “I am not supposed to eat chicken today, satyanarayan puja back home!” That’s when Nandan called up- “Got some food for you, are you coming?” Others had called for food and I didn’t want to sit there simply staring at them, so I decided, I should be shameless and go for the invitation. Good food matters, you see! I went over with an empty stomach and some shameless smiles. Good food was guaranteed but what came as a surprise was the rare moment of seeing my ‘very agnostic’ friend turning on the Christmas lights decorated around the giant painting of Swami Shradhanand, a ‘god’ man! This followed with dinner and discussions about the godman, when my dear friend started to throw some ‘agnostic-ic looks’ and kept on passing my queries regarding the Swami! Constantly being poked by his poor parents, this urchin was trying to balance on the thread of a believer and an atheist! But this is what i saw- the string was too weak to hold his body weight (pun intended) and snapped off, and baam- he fell in the poop puddle of ‘a confused youth of today!’ That was when his father clearly neglected his retorts portraying the ‘aaj kal ke ladke’ looks! Hapless fellow! The conversation ended with Nandan’s frustrations (read as Protests) reaching to a level where it seemed vague and the nice jalebis were served!

This was followed by another walk to the beach and conversations slamming the joblessness!