All that you leave behind - I

Ever wondered how one gets reflective at the threshold of moving from one point in life to another? Ever wondered how a sense of belonging tugs at you as you try to say goodbye to a place you love? Ever wondered why a terrible cocktail of gloom, nostalgia and reflection always hits you when you need to take on a change? The change, or rather the gross dislike of it makes me reflective. Reflective about all that I leave behind. No, I am not stealing the name of U2's album. But just this feeling that grips me each time I need to make a move, no matter how long the sojourn compelled me to channelize the ill-tasting cocktail of feelings into a post here! So beginning now, till I manage to get over this change-sickness, the hues over the lilac avenue are bound to be randomly rambling, swinging between vibrantly bright to nostalgic mellow.

There is so much that we as Indians, and further perhaps as Mumbaikars take for granted. And all that we take for granted eventually lines memory lane in the form of all that we do indeed leave behind. For instance,

The sun! Yes, I know people would curse me given the boiling hot temperatures these days in Mumbai. But ask a tropic-bred person to go live near the poles. The first thing they talk about is the lack of sunshine, the depression that hits them when the sun sets at 4 PM. And while here, evening is 7 PM, and the sun is just a part of life.

The mild humid climate intrinsic to Mumbai. Ask anyone living in interior AP, and she'll tell you horror stories of scalding dry heat, sunscreens of SPF 40, darkened skin, parched throats, and so on. But in Mumbai, live every day of the year in the same manner. Thanks to the sea, that sufficiently tempers down severe heat attacks. Well, if we as citizens of the world community do not do much for the environment, the sharply deteriorating climate is bound to kill us all, for global warming is indeed a reality. But then again, that is beside the point here. Perhaps at the rate at which we seem to be plundering the environment, the mild and lovely climate of Mumbai might also be something we'd leave behind!

The sea. Ah! The calming effect it has on harried nerves. The immense presence alone makes one relax, at least that is the effect the sea has on me. But till we have a sea shore in the city, we never bother going to the beach. Too dirty, too messy, too many people, garbage in the water, whatever! But going further, there comes a time in life where one yearns just for the sound of the dirty mucky water lashing against the wave breakers off the sea front!

So much for the ecological aspect of this city, but there is so much more I'd leave behind, that those ramblings are to be staggered over the coming few 'pangs of separation' filled days...