Comments on: City of one

By: Chrissy

Chrissy — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:22:33 +0000

Was surfing around and came to your site. I say this post is lovely and will be linking it to mine if you don’t mind

By: ideasmith

ideasmith — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:33:09 +0000

@ Broom: Errrm….sorry.

@ Deepika: Thank you very much, you have no idea what a compliment that is. And errr….sorry about the homesickness too.

@ Gammafunction: Come to my city! There’s always room for one more.

By: Gammafunction

Gammafunction — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:31:30 +0000

I have never lived in Mumbai but Bravo!-I can only dream of doing a blog post such as this.

By: Deepika

Deepika — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:11:02 +0000

Oh and you succeeded in making me extremely homesick.

By: Deepika

Deepika — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:06:53 +0000

This has been by far the BEST post I have read in SUCH a long time…I can’t believe how we Mumbaiites echo the absolute, exact sentiments about the place. And I thought I was the only one who felt that way. Every line you’ve written here is worth ten times its length converted into mass of gold.

By: Broom

Broom — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:53:02 +0000

Sigh… I’m homesick now.

By: ideasmith

ideasmith — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:08:20 +0000

@ Dusty: I think that is exactly the thing I was trying to explain in a lot of words. You hit the nail on target. It is the fact that it really is ‘okay’, perfectly normal to be alone in this city.

By: Dusty

Dusty — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:20:52 +0000

When I lived a year in Mumbai, it got very alone. i hardly knew anybody there.The first couple of months drove me nuts. And then I began to settle down. I did plays/movies and the sportsbar on my own. It felt good to not be dependent on having somebody along to ‘live’ in mumbai. Back in Bangalore today, i am not sure if I can or want to walk into a pub by myself, or watch a movie on my own. Yes, Mumbai is a place for ‘Individuals’, whether completely alone, or with a horde of people in one’s life.

By: ideasmith

ideasmith — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:25:38 +0000

@ Ashish: Thank you, that’s very flattering. But then there is always something to learn in every moment, isn’t there?

@ Vi: I’ve never lived outside this city and sometimes I wonder if my judgement is flawed, since after all I have very little to compare with.

By: Vi

Vi — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:16:41 +0000

“Loneliness after all, is an incompleteness, a feeling of being stretched, of being one person having to fill the space meant for two.”

I love this line–tinged with yearning and bitterness, and woe as well.

I wish that I had such an outlook on Mumbai while it was my home. (But – considering I was only seven or eight when I left, this is not entirely possible).

Still, there’s something uniquely welcoming about the city, that no matter when I return, I can still find something from the days of what seems like another lifetime.