A day in my life in Mumbai - By Megharaj Rajeev

Just when I was pleading with the guy who held me for a ransom that I would never ever have dinner at the five star hotels, the calling bell rang. I woke up to heavy breathing. Thank god it was just a terrible night mare. I pinched & said to myself, I am glad I am alive, inspite of living in Mumbai.
I literally dragged myself out of the bed to pick the morning news paper. First thing I saw was the obituary column, to see if everyone whom I know including me were still alive. I opened the newspaper to a gruesome joke. A ex chief minister accusing the current chief minister of being incompetent, I thought one needs to be corrupt not competent to rule this state. As I read three pages of the news paper I recollected I had to meet a friend in South Mumbai in the afternoon, I took a quick shower and decided to carry the news paper with me to kill time in the train if I did not get killed. I quickly purchased a first class ticket to avoid the long queues and boarded the train and continued reading the news paper from where I had left.
The fourth page of the news paper carried the priorities of the newly elected Deputy Chief Minister who claimed during his time as the home minister he had adequately provided the state police with sophisticated weapons to take anyone head on.
Like any Mumbaiite I could not have believed him, after all he is a politician. I thought to myself I should not be taking chances therefore it was better for me to read the daily astrology column before I disembarked the train at the CST station. As luck had it the astrologer had written nothing about a terror strike on me, I thought it was safe for me to disembark at the CST station. I disembarked the train only to see a rather unusual deserted look of the CST station, where otherwise even the dogs think twice to wag their tail horizontally. As I walked down the platform towards the exit I saw two constables with the fiber Lathi’s (Stick’s) in their hands, that reminded me of the statements made by the Deputy Chief Minister who had provided the sophisticated weapons to the police force during “His times”. Deputy Chief Minister being sixty years old, I guess he was referring to his times when he was really young. I thought I should not read too much into it and carry on.
I met my friend and started walking the talk; we went around seeing places which was seized by terrorist’s couple of days back. Each cop whom we spoke to had his version of the story. My friend who handles quality for an MNC said, “We need to have the version control in place before we lose track on the number of versions we had heard of the same incident until now". I clicked few pictures of the Taj, Trident before the dusk started setting in.
True to being typical corporate employees my friend & I walked into the bar which was also attacked by the terrorist during the city's worst carnage.
As we settled into good music & beer, in this rather deserted bar which otherwise had new customers waiting for the occupied chairs to be emptied every half hour.
My thoughts began to roll back to the “spirit of Mumbai” & the current spirits in Mumbai which arose because of terrorist attack. I asked for the bill not before clicking few pictures of broken glasses & the marks made by the penetrated bullets on the walls & the roof of the Bar.
I wrote a note to boost the spirit of the owner, while handing the note to him i told him, his bills should carry this note. “Nothing can stop us from getting you into “High Spirits” yes! spirit was the word carved out of niche even here.
I bid adieu to my friend before walking back to the CST train station. As I boarded the train I saw couple of more constables with the magic wand provided by our Deputy Chief Minister to fight the terrorists tooth & nail. After reaching home I thanked God that i am still alive & prayed to him for a transfer to a safer city soon.

My Favorite mistake

She was everything to me;
My life, my soul
No one could ever replace her.
In my dreams, she’s still mine
She was my light in dark places;
My love when I would hate

She was made for me
I thought I finally found a match.
She was my escape,
But all I found was pain;
Something to cry over,

She was something I wasn’t good enough for
She was something I could never have
From one look in her eyes,
I had a reason to cry

She was my favorite mistake
Oh, what a lovely phase
She was the only thing in life
That I hurt for, that I love, I craved

I was addicted to her
She just never realized
She would have hurt me in so many ways
But she was my escape, my favorite mistake

Quarterly Life Crisis

They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now. You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you. You look at your job...and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you. Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward. You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You do it though, and the next day regret it, stating over and over..."this is my last time.” You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself...and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender! What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can too figure this whole thing out…

Friend

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love. There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind, but keep in mind that letting go isn't the end of the world, it's the beginning of a new life.Happiness lies for those who cry those who hurt, those who have searched and those who have tried. For only they can appreciate the importance of the people who have touched their lives. A great love? It's when you shed tears and still you care for him/her, it's when he/she ignores you and still you long for him/her. It's when he/she begins to love another, yet you still smile and say I'm happy for you.If love fails, set yourself free, let your heart spread its wings and fly again. Remember you may find love and lose it, but when love dies, you never have to die with it.The strongest people are not those who always win but those who stand up again after falling. Somehow along the course of life, you learn about yourself and realize there should never be regrets, only a lifelong appreciation of the choices you've made. A true friend understands when you say, I forgot, waits forever when you say, just a minute, Stays when you say leave me alone, opens the door even before you knock. Loving is not how you forget but how you forgive, not how you listen but how you understand, not what you see but how you feel, and not how you let go but how you hold on.It's more dangerous to weep inwardly rather than outwardly. Outward tears can be wiped away while secret tears scar forever.In love, very rarely do we win but when love is true, even if you lose, you still win just for having the tingle of loving someone more than you love yourself. There comes a time when we have to stop loving someone not because that person has stopped loving you but, because we have found out that the person would be happier if we let go. It's best to wait for the one you want than settle for one that's available. Best to wait for the one you love than one who is around. Best to wait for the right one because life is too short to waste on just someone. Sometimes the one you love turns out to be the one who hurts you the most, and sometimes the friend who takes you into his arms and cries when you cry turns out to be the love you never knew you wanted.