Mumbai nagariya......

For all you lovely people who have patiently borne my crazy ramblings, especially the extremely prolonged weddings post series thats been goin on for the last few months.... here today, finally I bring you the final post. *phew!*

A quick recap for those who may/may not have had a chance to read the previous posts -
> Where our love story began....
"He's a kid - better leave him alone"...
"Look after 'My' Nupur".....
"We are too different, it will never work"....
> The desi wedding.....and Punjab darshan.
"Bhabhi, tussi ghar chheti chheti aao naa"...
"Mae inna makkhan aaj tak kade vi nahi khaaya"...
"Urgh!! That was so disgusting"....
> No place like 'home'....
"Arrival of a Bollywood star"....
"Even Mom was jealous"....
"we skipped the whole crying episode"....

Last post - "Little did I know that the change of water 3 times in 24 hrs (Kanpur + Delhi + Mumbai) was going to make me really really sick......."

Then -
Flying over Mumbai is an experience in itself!! The crowded metropolis and the crazy life that its inhabitants lead is a realisation that hits hard even at hunderds of metres up in the air. The hustling bustling streets and the honking horns tell you that no one has a single moment to waste...as there is so much to be achieved and time is running out....!

As soon as I stepped out of the plane, I was greeted by a strong gust of hot and humid air. Ah, Mumbai indeed!! Having never stepped foot in the Bollywood city ever in my life, this humidity in Feb was totally new to me. I nervously moved to the baggage lounge huddled by hubby dear as people hurriedly brushed past us.

As two of the four baggage carousels didnt seem to be running, there were crowds around the others. I waited with our hand luggage a bit away as M waited for our stuff to come through.

While waiting I see a very pretty girl with a baby sleeping in her arms walking towards me, but looking down at my hands/my hand bag. I kept looking at her and she kept looking at my hands. Don't know if she was looking at my Mehandi clad hands, or my Choora or my Chanel hand bag *:P* but we just kept looking as she came closer. Then she must have realised that I was looking at her as she was too, and she looked up - eyes met - and it was Karishma Kapoor with her baby daughter!! :) She lowered her eyes and walked past, to the end of the carousel and then later went past with her stuff again while I was still waiting - smiling slightly this time. *There, you go! my 5 seconds claim to fame!*

Met with M's Uncle out of the airport and we packed our stuff in his car and drove off to his place 2 hours out of the city! It was a long, hot and humid journey as the A/C of the car seemed to do no good against the agonising heat.

After 3.5 hrs of battling with peak hour traffic at various townships, we finally reached M's Bua's place. She waited for us with the very Mumbaiya, 'Wada Pao' for us to have!!! :D M absolutely loves wada pao...and was in cloud 9 when he saw it. I am sure, it must have tasted nice.... only trouble was a major cold had caught my throat and I couldn't smell/taste anything!!

Next day, I got a call from RA, one of my girl friend's in Banglore who was flying into Mumbai to catchup with me. It was fantastic to see her at last after 5 long years. And she hadn't changed a bit. The same skinny bubbly self.... talking about so many things, asking so many questions all at the same time!!
That night M was to be exiled out of our bedroom but she insisted he stayed and we chatted away into the night, giggling and laughing and hubby dear tried to catchup with what exactly we were talking about!

Next day, 26th Feb was a sunday, and NT, the other best friend of mine came to Mumbai from Pune. She silently stared at me all morning, looking at me up and down - making short observations like - "You've become fat!" "Your nails are very long!" "They look dirty!" "You seem tired." "M seems nice." and many more....

All of us went on a huge Mumbai Darshan tour.... going to the India gate, Hanging Garden, the Munna bhai stony beach *sorry cant remember its name*, the zoo among other places.... it was steaming hot and my nose wouldn't stop running. I almost fainted twice at the zoo, till finally everyone agreed that roaming around in the heat with me so sick was a bad idea.

So we drove back hame, and as I showered at 5 in the evening, I remembered - "It was M's b'day today!" And in all the excitement of my friend's coming over, I had totally forgotten to even wish him!!! He was very sweet about it, said, "Shukar hai tumhe yaad raha! Koi nahi ab to shaadi ho gayi hai naa...." :P

I felt so bad and so guilty as the past 5 years I had always done something special for him, and religiously wished him at midnight with a cake and all!!! This year, I almost forget his b'day and I didn't have a cake....not even a pastry! :( I felt so horrible!!
Later I simply blamed it all on the fact that I was in a strange city totally out of the loop - how could I have possibly arranged anything!

Anyways.... once the bday blunder was done and dusted, we prepared for 2 days of major shopping! I was about to start on a new job here in Melbourne and hence needed a major revamp to my wardrobe. 2 days we hunted and hunted every mall we drove past looking for ladies business suits - but nothing! I had thought with all the MNC's in India, the corporate wardrobe of ladies in India must have grown as well, but - nada!

Finally when all hope was lost, we drove past this relatively new mall called "Pheonix" or something similar - where one of the departmental stores had only 1 brand that had only 4 styles/colors of ladies business suits on display! Mumbai had finally redeemed itself!! I had two colours of the four that were available, so I tried the other two and bought them immediately.

Packing my whole wedding trousseau was a major task as we were definately going over weight with the luggage and were running out of things that I was prepared to leave behind! I had already left our 19kg wedding album back in Kanpur and was not prepared to part with anything else. After much haggling and getting all the packing ideas from M's Uncle in to action, we were done.

We were lucky that the lady who checked our stuff in at the airport was nice as well. When she saw on the weight-reader that we had already gone almost 12kgs over weight, she was worried for a sec, and asked, "Do you have more?" and I gave her my sweetest smile possible and said, "Only my wedding dress!" (which was in a seperate little case by itself) - not counting our hand luggage which was *ahem* lets just say - a 'little' over the allowed weight limit and thankfully she didnt ask for it to be weighed. She smiled, winked and nodded at us to take the wedding dress with the hand luggage!

The flight back was long..... but exciting as I was coming to Australia after officially becoming Mrs. M!

And since the return, have caught up with all my friends here and shared the stories and some of the snaps that we luckily had with us. Work has been crazy to say the least. And its well, I wont say that I'm busy as I have merely started, but its a lot of pressure being new and all. There's heaps of training and just trying hard to prove your worth to a bunch of new people!

But I am enjoying it nonetheless!

Finally, I ask you today for a 'official' blog-break as compared to the unofficial that I have been on these past weeks. Thank you all for you continued love and your sweet wishes and lovely comments and your emails!!! You guys are absolute champs!!! I hope to return soon, once I have found some stability at work and the new life. It may be weeks or may be months...or may just be days.

But obviously I'll be dropping by your blogs every so often, and meeting up on orkut or YM. So......till then..... take care! Good Bless!

Ciao!!! =)