Mumbai Monsoon Redux
“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.”
― Bob Marley
A week after my trip to New York, I found myself back in Mumbai for a short business visit. It brought back memories of the previous two monsoon seasons that I had spent there.
I never waste a visit. So while the business side of the visit was intense, that did not mean that I could not manage to spend a few hours catching up with favorite friends, favorite haunts and the weather, frizzy hair and all. 🙂
As in previous monsoons, the vegetation had taken a bath and looked exceedingly clean, green and fresh. Beautiful!
The roads had had a nice body wash too, so although the potholes were profuse, at least the roads looked relatively cleansed.
But the unique smell of Bombay had not gone anywhere. If anything, it had acquired new powers. 🙂
I don’t know what it is, but there is certainly something about Mumbai and the monsoon. They seem to have a mutual admiration thing going on.
It makes me want to say, ‘nice to be here’. But (just to be clear), only for a very short and sweet visit!
Typical of the season, I received a warm and ultra-sultry welcome to the city when I arrived.
This was accompanied by a wet, wet, wet, rain-drenched monsoon goodbye just a few days later at the packed (I mean packed!) international airport. It was the icing on the cake, so to speak, that made the entire seasonal experience hard to forget. Good, bad and ugly coexisting without a blink – that’s the incomparable Mumbai for you. Indeed.
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The short visit helped me capture just enough Mumbai monsoon snaps for the memory bank.
[Click on one to see a slideshow].
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- Beauty outside my hotel
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- Captivating vegetation, all clean
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- Bandra bandstand in the monsoon
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- Rain, don’t hurt my car!
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- Mumbaikars enjoying the rain
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- Sea, rain and romance
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- Monsoon typical
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- After the rain, rooftop view
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- Time to go home…on the way to the airport
“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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New York On My Mind
Three years ago when I first moved to Mumbai for my two year stay there, I remember writing a post that compared that city to the big apple. Today, I can call it my highly romanticized post. I was looking at Mumbai with rose colored glasses (because I needed to). Definitely.
I also recall the period in my life a few years before that when I was thinking about the distant future quite seriously and after a couple of decades of living in small town, USA (in the south no less), I decided that I was going to retire in New York City. I was going to live right there in the middle of Manhattan in my twilight years so I could feel its energy and have a completely contrasting life experience.
After that brief period of craziness (in other words, every one I knew told me I was crazy), I abandoned that dream.
Now, well I am not so sure it was that crazy of an idea.
Last week, I spent a bit of time in “the city” after a long, long while. Granted it was for a very special occasion, but now I still have New York on my mind.
I can tell you with complete confidence that there is not a single, other city in the world anything like it. Nothing compares. Nothing.
Its energy is pulsating, palpable. It’s a living, breathing, dancing being. That’s what it is.
There is so much to do, people to watch, lots to see, loads to experience!
My time in New York on this recent trip was all too brief.
But it has me thinking. I do believe that I need to revisit my period of craziness after all.
(Anthony Weiner notwithstanding,) New York, New York – you simply rock!
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Photo Credit –
Statue of Liberty: By Kadellar (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 