Mumbai revisited

In the past three years I have written many stories on this blog. Not always regularly, bot most of the times I had a clue what to convey before I started writing. This does not mean I had the whole story in my head, but at least I knew where I was heading.

This story is different. I have no idea how it will run. The only thing I know is that I have to write this down, now. It is time.

It is with great pain that I parted with Mumbai. A place that I have incorporated in my system and that is now officially listed as one of my homes. It is no secret to any of you that I enjoyed living in Mumbai thoroughly even though life has certainly not been easy all the time. Leaving in such a hasty and uncomfortable way as we left, left an itch behind that was not easy to get rid of.

Back in Holland I had to deal with the fact that my Mumbai days were over, and that was tough. Winter went on forever and even though I had lived in Holland for 18 years, I was never - I repeat: NEVER - very good at winters. The cold does not look good on me. The color of my skin tends to turn into a grayish yellow that is not very appealing. I do not recommend it.

I had gotten used to the humid warmth of Mumbai.But more importantly: I missed my friends that I would see at least on a weekly basis - mostly spontaneously - dearly. Life in Holland is a controlled and organized one. Even informal appointments are often made weeks ahead, very efficient, but leaving little space for the crazy spontaneous moments that I miss so much.

But there are also positive developments to report. We were warmly welcomed by family, friends and neighbors. And the kids are doing well in school as well as socially. They spend a lot of time playing outside with their friends, and picking them up of from school takes me 10 minutes instead of two hours (have to do it myself though can't send Rosy!).

Maarten has a nice job, and I got the chance to set up shop with my bag business (slowly but surely, do not expect any franchises any time soon......)

So life is not bad, but this Bombay-itch just would not go away! So we decided to go back in the first week of may. I swear, it was like arriving back home after a few weeks of holiday! As if we did not leave at all. We felt so at home and the kids remembered! We stayed with Sameer and Shristi and we were so comfortable (have to say this since Shrishti will probably read this), that we ended up not leaving for Rhadika's apartment at all, in which we would have ordinarily loved to stay (Rhadika might be reading this too).

Meeting up with all our friends was a joy, aswell as a bit of a stressfull task, since we only had 8 days to meet up with everyone we wanted to see. And off course the kids had their own priorities.

But we took time to hang out at the Marriott pool (surprising the staff by the way: "you choose to come to Mumbai for a holiday?"), drink coconut water as often as we could (me and Mauch only), visit Crosswords (bookstore), catch a movie or two, go down to kalbadevi for proper business shopping (me only) and have far too expensive coffee and cake at the Taj.

When it was time to go I was sad, but ready. This visit has put everything into a better perspective. Leaving as we left (last year) gave us no time to say our goodbyes properly, hence the itch. Now we could spend time there without the negative stress of the last weeks before the move.

The other thing I got to realize is that even though I miss my friends dearly, I know now that they are still my friends. Time and space has not changed anything. My friends are there and Mumbai will always be my Mumbai.

So we left. Again. But not quite so. And that is ok.