Two different lives...

                                    

I've always wanted to lead multiple lives, not like Hannah Montana multiple, but something like Bruce Wayne multiple. But then of course, that’s not going to happen soon. However, I realized that I, in a weird way, AM leading two lives. One in Mumbai, with the college, and the people. And the other on the weekends, in Pune, with good food and mum and dad and the old friends. Though it might not be the superhero costume, dismembering bad guys, flying off buildings two lives. But in a way, it’s as...contrasting as that.

Mumbai, with its anticipation of what new crap is going to hit you the next day. Actually looking forward to the same. The taste of sweet success...bitter failure. The anticipation. The wonderment of surviving another day. Having to do your own dishes. Realizing that mum and dad had made cooking look so easy, when it actually is the most difficult thing in the world. Meeting completely different kind of people who have completely different tastes and ways from the kind you're used to. Being friends with them. Playing my baby in the wee hours of the morning, thinking that maybe...just maybe, I'll make it.

It's different in Pune. The tranquility, the serious life discussions with my food obsessed family amongst the clatter of dishes...

"Where are you planning to do your summer internship from?...chicken in dinner?......I hope you're studying enough...needs some more salt no?....which colleges are you applying for?... eat! you've stopped eating after moving out....I hope you're being safe in Mumbai....there was this new recipe on T.V with cashews and..."

The reminiscing of the old days with old friends, about how we never thought that we'd be like the way we turned out, doing things we never thought we will, but somehow knew we would. Planning endless trips which we know that are never going to happen anytime soon. Swapping stories of the most recent guy / girl interest. Eventually ending up at someone's place with a bowl of Maggi and that lovely warm feeling spreading to the tips of your toes, knowing that whatever happens they'll always be there with a shoulder and a steaming cups of tea and Maggi.

"I'm livin' two different lives, dividin' my time..."

My In between...

My shifting to Mumbai and leaving the dentist behind in Pune, inevitably makes me travel to Pune and back almost twice a month. Now, I really don't like traveling, but in a weird way I have come to look forward to my fortnightly journeys. They are the one thing that is constant in my life. I mean, I know that I will hate the movie they show, I know that I will judge the person sitting next to me by the book he or she's reading, I know that the view WILL take my breath away even though I see it every month, I know that the bus will invariably be late. And that for some reason comforts me.

Somewhere between Mumbai and Pune is a dingy Neeta volvo inn where my bus always stops. It's like any other random Inn, Nobody talks to anybody, they eat and pee and go their own way. It is at that inn I sit with a bottle of pulpy orange, listening to the hardly ever played music on my phone and contemplate on things bothering me the most. The other day as I was telling a friend about it, it struck me about how important the place was for me. It's my in between transition place, where I'm neither in Mumbai nor in Pune, one of those places where there's no cell phone network, one of those places where I'm truly alone without Mumbai or Pune calling me. It's where I've taken the most life altering decisions. Every time I leave that place, I leave as a more collected and happier person. When I went there this time, I had a lot of things bothering me, but as soon as I sat on one of those rickety plastic chairs with my pulpy orange I knew exactly what to do. It's the place where I get my shit back together and that's what makes it awesome.

P.S – Yes, the picture IS of the inn. No, I don't know why I took it.

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