Dark Side of the town

CHAPTER I


I walked into the small smoke filled room to find Meera plonked on a fluffy bean bag surrounded by the usual uptown magazines, cigarette butts and miniatures of an assortment of alcohol. I rolled my eyes. This wasn't the first time i had found her like that. I saw her bright red uniform with KF airline badge lying on the only chair available in the room. i picked it up folded it neatly and tucked it away in her cupboard." Hey that's the first time I am seeing u picking after me. U know its kinda nice once in a while when u do it. So how do u feel being me ? u know .." She said exhaling another cloud of smoke. " Stop it i pick up after myself u know when i need to and besides i needed the chair and i don't want you fussing over the press in the middle of the night." I quipped playing down the new found sense of responsibility.
I, met Meera at a restaurants. We had started going out after months of knowing each other. I guess we both needed the rebound. I was rebounding from a resignation and she was i guess always rebounding between boyfriends. She had recently moved in with me after moving back to Mumbai. We both were more friends than in a live-in. I guess both of us had had enough of clingy, commitment riddled involvements were more than happy to be in a best friends with benefits in a live-in relationship. Though she had been born in Mumbai Meera had lived more on a plane than under a roof for the past 6 years. As far as i was concerned i was more accustomed to living in the office as for the more than a decade an a half i had worked 14hours a day slept 4 drank for 2 hours and well u don't need to know about the other 4 hours of the day. Having quit my job recently i moved back to Mumbai, my home.

So coming back to that day. I threw my back pack in the corner of the room and snatched the cigarette out of Meera's hand and drew a long much awaited drag. Meera picked herself up brought a glass and poured a stiff one for me and asked " So Mr. I-wanna-break-from-work Socialworker how were your wanderings today ?? Where did you go exactly ? I cant even remember the name of the place?"
Well i went to Imam Wada. thinking not that it would have made any bells rings in her head but none the less i had to impress that my travel was more exotic than it really was.
"Yeah, right. So what about his Imam Wada did you really find what you had been looking for?"
Snatching a cigrette from a pack lying nearby i took my time to answer the question as the images and sound of the day flashed in front of my eyes. i rubbed my eyes carefully thinking how i was going to tell her all that had happened that day. I took a drag and started narrating.

Well it seems so strange that the more of the world you see around you the less you seem to understand it or far worse feel a part of it. Today i saw but a fraction of Mumbai but understood its soul. I walked the dingy lanes which were long forgotten, the people who we thought had ceased to exist but a hundred years ago. i realized that i MAZHI Mumabai is not MAZHI but AAPLi the Mumbai I call mine is not mine but ours.
"What the hell are you talking out ..." she interjected helping me snap out of my somber philosophical mood.
"Well sorry bout that ...."
"Its OK." she said
"As i had told you I walked outta the house today to experience something new. I seems like staying is the last thing i can manage these days. I had longed for the free air and bustling crowds. I don't really mind the sweat and the stench that bothers many including you. I am more of a common man. I felt this sudden rush of life you know. when you seem to have been caged for too long and suddenly let fly. I breathed free , i observed with a free mind i loved the most simple things today like the red color of the train bogeys I've never seen that read anywhere else. I wanted to feel free today i wanted to do things which i hadn't been able to do as a youngster living with his parents. I wanted to see and enjoy what i called the dark side of Mumbai !!!!