mumbai meri jaan

Two weeks ago, I returned to Mumbai for work after an interval of almost thirteen years. Three days is hardly enough to savour all that Mumbai has to offer, but I did the best I could.

Pani poori, bhel poori, ragda patties and vada pau off the streets whenever I could. I caught this guy reading the newspaper as he waited out a lull in business.


The most awesome gobi parathas with my blogger buddy, Poonam, at Papa Panchos in Bandra.


Beer, akoori, tandoori pomfret and great ambience at Cafe Mondegar, Colaba with Niranjan. Mario Miranda characters on the walls. A teenager at the table beside ours spouts wisdom: "Life is fun if you don't try to escape it." Whatever that means.


I finally caught a glimpse of the six sigma-certified, business school-lecturing dabbawalas. The sketch makes the guy look sad, he was anything but.


Many other lovely moments that I could not capture either with my sketches or the camera:

Pan-fried pepper pomfret at Soma, the Grand Hyatt, roomali roti and dal tadka at Jashan in Bandra, Vasudha's works at the Jehangir Art Gallery, a long ride with a taxi driver who comes to Mumbai every six months from his little village in Uttar Pradesh. His farm provides enogh food for his family. His months in Mumbai pay for the other necessities. He lives with three other taxi drivers in Santacruz. They get together in the evenings and cook meat, fish, vegetables and rice. He misses his village and his family, especially, he said, his wife's mutton curry.