Monday, December 6, 2010

Cairo to Mumbai: Home away from home

When I left India, we left Nasik via "Bombay" to get to Cairo. Now, 18 years later, I've returned to "Mumbai" to make a home. Coming to "Mumbai" feels like coming home, but still nothing like Cairo, the mother's heart, the "Um el Dunya" (Mother of the World).

I'm fortunate to live in a very green part of town in Bandra. Every now and then, the greenery catches my breath, and so do the stars overhead. It's less polluted here, but still polluted. Sitting in a rickshaw while riding makes commuting a noisier (and bumpier) experience than ever before - more than Cairo cabbies, one would never have suspected! Still, people brave the day, and the night: the other day I found a group of cyclists at Carter Road at 9.30 pm. They were training other beginners in the art of safe cycling.

The city is always abuzz - things take place every day: poetry slams, board game nights, dancing, music, culture, there is so much to explore - and it seems the geography of wealth is reversed - from the developing North Mumbai to the opulent South. I'm learning names, and am blissfully unaware of so many things. It feels so good to not know; to not know a face, not know all the big names, not know the proper way about things. It forces me out of my 'self', forces me to ask others, and to acknowledge my dependence. Equally, I think, it jolts others into realizing that what is familiar and assumed can be foreign and not so to others.

Luckily my friend MD has moved to Mumbai around the same time, and there is a bit of Cairo in Mumbai. I am still seeking for someone to speak with in Arabic, and want to actually overdose on it, read, watch, eat all things Egyptian. I've never before read the Daily News Egypt as much, nor tweeted as much, and I'm even considering going back to Facebook (the shock! the horror!).

I'm happy to be here - I have a voracious appetite for the city, but am slow on my heels to explore it. Bit(e) by bit(e), I suppose.

Tonight I'll read "Empty Handed" at a poetry slam, or so is the plan, carrying Cairo in to Mumbai. Let's see how it is taken.