Mumbai

There is a rush in the way things happen here. A mad rush. Purposeful or not, but mad.

 There is a spring in the step of people moving around. An urgency in the way fleet of autos clog the roads. An uncanny haste in the way the hawkers make Vada Pao. And all this show goes on, drenched against the background of rain. And, it only makes literary wisdom to do a course like MBA which shares its traits with the way city moves. Time here, they say, is precious.

The wide expanse of Arabian waters at Marine Drive keeps you astonished. The expanse is prevailing yet peaceful. In some tumultuous hours, they can wash away lives with impunity. Yet, it is peaceful to sit by them and watch the waves ebb and flow. Astoundingly scary yet spiritually serene. This city sleeps late into the night and wakes up early. Houses here look dilapidated from outside, but there are luxury cars and sedans parked outside. An umbrella is as necessary a utility as a mobile phone.

An unknown cloak covers this city. From the deepest corners of heart, strings of Delhi hold me. It has a smell of my childhood that pervades through my growing years. Yet   each day, I fail to crack this puzzle called Mumbai. It is a strange city-where people find peace in rush.

I am a laidback Delhi guy who loves to sit back as the world rushes by. I take my own time. But when I wake up every morning, I realize one needs to walk brisk or else, like the locals, life runs by.

 There is a rush in the way things happen here. A mad rush. Purposeful or not, but mad.

Words of silence: True story

The other day, while on a local bus, I realized a thing.

It was just another scorching summer day in Delhi. After waiting for over 15 minutes for a not-so-frequent bus service, I felt blessed to have got a seat at least. Beside me, a man made frantic gestures with the hand communicating with another man sitting in front of him. I instantly knew he couldn't speak sadly. I moved to a seat in the adjacent row to observe him. He used a zillion hand movements, some amusingly colourful and some plain-to convey all that for which we need words. I could see the eyes -flinching, opening up, stern, relaxed-all set that one could do with them. The man in front of him acknowledged and occasionally retaliated with little gestures. He seemed like describing an event which he narrated as smoothly as we speak with the crutch of words. I was simply in awe with how expressive a person can get without uttering a single word. I didn't get a slight drift of what the story was but I knew the description was vivid and full of life. I found myself an some others staring at him at times, in amazement. It is that time when you realize how lucky you are to be blessed to have speech. And no matter how many such movies you see , you realize the awe when such special expressive people confront you in real time. After a while, he signaled the other one for destination station and left the bus. He left me with a thought: Do we need words to express. No, I guess.Sometimes, silence can speak and speak better..

Isn’t Ambition same as greed??

 ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’ A line of thought that did rounds in 2011 centered around the death of iconic Steve Jobs. Quite a fillip for the ambitious crowd! But another line of thought, a rather spiritual one, has always focussed on contentment. To stay satisfied with what you have and bask in its happiness. As I write now, the fine line that separates ambition and contentment remains the perplexing issue.

If being content is suppressing ambition, not wanting more-then contentment is futile. And if contentment is mere suppression of greed, the question that arises is- how are the two entities AMBITIOUS and GREEDY different. Just that the former is seen in good light and the latter is an evil cousin? Or that being ambitious is having bigger aims and having greed is having bigger fantasies? I see no difference. The literal sense only obfuscates the issue. Both are quite synonymous with their intents- attaining A GOAL.


So, What one  should be? Content? Ambitious?For me, one can’t be both content and ambitious at once. If you are content with the present scenario, you will never be that hungry (read: ambitious) for your future goals. As the whole world propagates to strike a balance between the two, I am skeptic if such a state exists.

Its a tough call to pick one. Its infeasible to pick both.
Dilemma remains.