Every day, I usually take a short break and walk down Kalaghoda road in Mumbai, to take in the essence of twilight. At around six thirty in the evening, when the office space looks melancholic with a bright orange glow, I step out to lose myself in another world. This is a moment when bits of smouldering earth intertwine with mild breeze, and I feel tangled in an ethereal magic.
Everything is burnt orange and red and black, clay-tinged and warm. There’s a mystery disguised as menace, a lull in spite of storm, and the sky gives off a phantom light that makes the tangible look cinematic. The black leaves of the huge trees begin to sway as the bats start hovering above. A number of street-lamps dot the landscape. The place that is so familiar looks celestial, all of a sudden. The chirping of insects mutes the far-out concrete jungle and sharpens the red sky.
Mumbai is a land of glitz and glamour, but it’s not just about business, stock markets or Bollywood. One could argue, geology plays an important part too. Where else do a break from an intensely exhausting workplace such as stock market, can take you to rocks, sea and seagulls as well as the beautiful sunset with changing hues, that is so enchanting and surreal, which could be literally compared with an orange. And we instantly know the people and places here could be the same as everywhere, that there are long shots and bumpy rides, but there’s something always there listening in the distance.
Everything is burnt orange and red and black, clay-tinged and warm. There’s a mystery disguised as menace, a lull in spite of storm, and the sky gives off a phantom light that makes the tangible look cinematic. The black leaves of the huge trees begin to sway as the bats start hovering above. A number of street-lamps dot the landscape. The place that is so familiar looks celestial, all of a sudden. The chirping of insects mutes the far-out concrete jungle and sharpens the red sky.
The breeze sometimes chills my spine, even in the dry, unrelenting heat. The entire place stands by itself like a divine cry with decades of longing in it. Of all the cities that I have lived in, none has truly represented the splendour of the sunset as Mumbai. The western part of our country is stifling with its crammed existence and materialism, but with the Arabian Sea and the bits and parts of south Mumbai and Bandra, this part of the country still holds its charms.
Mumbai is a land of glitz and glamour, but it’s not just about business, stock markets or Bollywood. One could argue, geology plays an important part too. Where else do a break from an intensely exhausting workplace such as stock market, can take you to rocks, sea and seagulls as well as the beautiful sunset with changing hues, that is so enchanting and surreal, which could be literally compared with an orange. And we instantly know the people and places here could be the same as everywhere, that there are long shots and bumpy rides, but there’s something always there listening in the distance.
