New Girl in the City
May 19, 2015
The smell of pigeons.
Listening to the irregular rhythms of motor vehicles and breathing the toxins of machines.
Blinded by the sights of cloned buildings,
here I am in Mumbai city.
…
…
From the morning I woke up in my lovely home in Chennai and impulsively booked my one way ticket to the fast paced city of Mumbai, I haven’t stopped comparing my experience to that of Konkana Sen’s character in Wake up Sid.
I was told by an acquaintance, “You are here to be an actor perhaps. So breathe the toxins. See through the cloned buildings, listen across the noise and you might just find what you are looking for here, in Mumbai city.”
Goonja Sa Hai Koi Iktara
‘Jo barase sapne boond boond
Naino ko moond moond…’
Like all those who move here with excess baggage filled with dreams and hopes, I landed here feeling lighter on my shoulders. It’s been exactly a month since I moved and not for a second have I felt a sense of doubt or fear. There is this sense of familiarity. Like I’ve always been here or maybe meant to? They say Mumbai is being nice to me and I couldn’t agree more. Like Konkana says,” Is it the exciting new town, my little apartment or my bizarre independence? What has this city given me that make me love her so?”
The answer (like in the movie) is love. I’ve fallen in with myself all over again screaming with joy like Kareena Kapoor, “MAIN APNI FAVORITE HOON!” For a while now I’ve been so caught up in my own thought of how to go about being a successful actor that I’ve forgotten to enjoy the process. Often logic and practicality is forgotten when greed for good work creeps in. I have my own little ‘Iktara’ apartment now. Done up just the way I wished too. I sit on my terrace sipping on roohafsa and listening to my not so updated playlist. I’m smiling. I smile all day. I wake up to the chirping of birds by my bedside window and the clinging for terracotta chimes. I go to sleep being immensely grateful for this life that I have.
I’m marking the beginning of my journey with this public diary entry…
‘Kaise main chaloon
Dekh na sakoon
Anjaane raaste
Goonja sa hain koi iktara
Dheeme bole koi iktara…”
