My six weeks at home in Australia with my family has come to an end and I’m readjusting back into life in Mumbai, in a new home and new neighbourhood. The assault on my senses has been brutal. Even after four years living in India, I still haven’t been spared from it.
I arrived in Mumbai on Monday evening, at the same time as hundreds of Muslim pilgrims. They were congregating in large groups on the floor in front of the immigration counters, and crowding the baggage carousels. Outside the arrivals terminal, an eager mass of meeters and greeters formed an impenetrable sea of faces behind the barricades. After spending so much time surrounded by serenity in the country, and seeing very few people every day, it was completely overwhelming.
A confusing encounter with a random Indian guy while waiting to collect my baggage didn’t help my mental state. “So, are you in Mumbai to visit friends or for New Year’s Eve?”, he asked me. “Actually, I live here”, I replied. “Oh!” He was shocked. “I didn’t expect that from your accent”, he continued.
Huh? My accent? What about my appearance.
At that moment his luggage arrived and he disappeared with it, leaving me wondering what ever did he mean. Was he trying to be funny? It didn’t seem like it though. Surely, he didn’t think that a firangi would speak with an Indian accent. Or do I actually look like a wheatish complexioned Indian now I have a tan?
It wasn’t long before I was on the receiving end of Indian encounter number two. “So, what are you doing in Mumbai?”, the young male Indian cashier at the duty free shop asked me, as I stopped to pay for my purchase. “Oh, I live here”, I told him. “Where?” “Powai”. “I live close by in Aarey Colony. You must come to my place”, he implored excitedly. “What are your contact details?”
There was no mistaking it, I was definitely back in India! I hurriedly grabbed my luggage trolley, and headed out into the fray.
I’m never good at goodbyes, and leaving my parents and home in Australia was difficult as usual. To make matters worse, my sadness to clung to me, feeding off my exhaustion from more than 24 hours of travelling. My husband took me home to our new place, amidst a frenzy of rush hour traffic. Since it was my first night there, it felt like a strangers house. I had no idea where anything was kept. And my husband had bought new furnishings in my absence. Things felt so familiar but so foreign. It was unnervingly disorientating. I had a shower and collapsed into bed, putting a stop to my husband’s plans for a romantic dinner out.
Fortunately, my emotions have settled down in the three days that I’ve been back. I’ve spent most of the time cleaning the house and getting it in order, as only a female can do! I’m so happy to say that I love living here just as much, if not more, as I hoped. What a wonderful way to end the year.
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- Fear Over Moving to Mumbai
- A Visit from my Mother in Law
- Finally Finding My Feet in Mumbai?
- My Stay With My Inlaws
- Indian Men Being Hand Fed By Mummy
- The Hardest Thing About Living in Mumbai
- Meeting the Family in India
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@ Sharell…..
“I can’t keep them under control Naina!”
Hahahahaha………world is slowly moving away from “command and control”……..current trend is “communication and co-operation”…….understood??
@Naina
“Wow! Does this kind of circus ends up in ALL of your posts,”
You too joined the circus girl.
Last August me and my family visited India for a marriage. Even after few months of living and working in a western world we got used to the surroundings and orderly life. Once we stepped outside the Airport the Chaos of India hit us hard. Even at 9 PM in the night the place was filled with people (along with various sounds, horns and activities).
However, there is a saying “home is where the heart it”. We need ti find where our heart is. If we can find happiness and contentment then the materialistic things may not matter much. The daily issues of electricity, water would make us irritated; but, may not make us unhappy. We need to define our happiness.
@@ “…If we can find happiness and contentment then the materialistic things may not matter much…”
Materialistic things do matter most for the average people, especially for average Indians. In today’s world, one is just a looser with out material things. Why your family or you went to the west? To find happiness and contentment or to have a better lifestyle with better income? There is ‘this’ happiness and contentment in the west because it has material ways for people to be prospered, also with other advantages such as low population (relatively).
“…The daily issues of electricity, water would make us irritated; but, may not make us unhappy…”
Half truth. If you divert you mind, such daily issues wound not even make you ‘irritated’. You can just assume that you live in a 10th century and you can easily live like ‘real sadhus’. Happiness is not a thing to find, it’s not a ‘discovery’. It’s just a thing to realize or feel or show, and feelings can also be trained/influenced, often by your intuition, society or by other factors.
@ Amit Desai
Materialism becomes a problem when people live to make money, instead of making money to live. When non-material problems of life translates to a function of the money they have and its solution lies in the money they want.
An example of obsessive materialism is the American society, a society that can hardly be called contented or happy.
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