more mumbai moments

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Dadar is the CRAZY dirty dicey train station to which i arrivedfrom bangalore here to mumbai several weeks ago. wow. that sentence was something. my grammar is special.
so as i type this in my friend's apartment, in the stairwell sit two women with two children. i'm not sure whether they are nannies or the mothers of these kids but there is a lot of commotion. i can hear the kids being smacked and crying. this went on for several hours yesterday too.
on the anxious scale of 1-10 im at around 7 so i couldn't take it anymore and opened my door and peered out, not hoping (or hoping???) to catch one of these women mid slap. it's not that i want to judge these people. for disciplining their children..(they BETTER BE THEIR OWN CHILDREN) its just that after the time i spent with the village kids, and learning about the harrowing statistics about domestic violence and alcoholism, and then actually becoming friends with women who are subjected to these attrocities i simply can't tolerate it.
all the clucky, maternal, excited-to-have-a-baby newly adopted feelings i have been harbouring for the past four months or so disappeared completely. YUCK. YUCK YUCK. eww. no thank you!
so its fascinating (although totally obvious) that the one situation or a place can be loathsome one minute and pleasant the next. it's all up to you.
i was coming back to mumbai with a smile on my face. on the plane i sat next to a very friendly helpful kind marketing manager who loves food as much as i do and filled me on all hte fun places to come eat here. his energy was contagious and on monday morning if i am not away in pune or somewhere else for the weekend.. or maybe even in goa?.. i want to go to the victoria terminus train station in rush hour to people watch.
im really sad to leave india 😞
DEFINITELY coming back.
i hope you're all far more grounded than i am right now
x

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