The first and the only time i came to Mumbai before i moved here was for five hours.
Only because i was catching a connecting flight from Delhi to Goa for a family vacation. I must have been about 12 years old and entirely fascinated by the city, coming from a small town, i believe it was normal to have been in awe of Mumbai, it was crazy to imagine, an area this big was one city, that people were actually lucky enough to be living near the sea, that nobody here knew what winter meant because there were no winters here! In those five hours , we only got the chance to see Juhu beach and have pav bhaji which i think isn't that bad for a first five hour trip to Mumbai, after all the sea and the food hold the essence of this city. As a kid it is very easy to create fantasies in your mind about the kind of life people lived in the city, and in . mind it was much more exciting than the kind of life i had back home in Chandigarh. 12 years old me was jealous of these people and started dreaming about living in Mumbai someday. I would like to take a minute to laugh at 12 years old me.
I saw my name last on the Second Merit List for St. Xavier's College's BMM course and everything changed. Firstly, my idea of what i was capable of, secondly, turned out i wasn't going to Calgary for college after all. Everything had been planned, the only thing that could've made me stay in India was if i got into St. Xavier's and it had happened even though i had never thought it would. My judgement of Mumbai was based on how 12 years old me liked being there for 5 hours, it is pretty clear how that wasn't a very great idea. I was going to live in Mumbai, but i soon realized that the person i saw this dream with wasn't going to be joining me, my best friend in the world, because she was going to college somewhere else. All of this made it scarier and to be very honest not that exciting anymore. The dream would not make sense without the dreamer. Regardless, i had convinced my parents Mumbai and St. Xavier's was what i wanted and did not have any other options left to choose from.
Fast forward to 8 months in the future, even if i may not be completely in love with this city, its the only thing i have right now. Chandigarh will always be home, but something about that city that made me want to stay there or go back there is gone, if i stay in Chandigarh too long i feel lost. I definitely feel much better about myself as a person now than i did. All i ever wanted to from life was a chance to be my own person and living Mumbai away from my family gave me that, finding solutions to problems that i had no idea existed before i started living on my own and travelling in locals like a pro! Mumbai whatever it is, cannot be denied, is a beauty. It's everything in a city. No wonder it makes people dream and feel like anything is possible.
Only because i was catching a connecting flight from Delhi to Goa for a family vacation. I must have been about 12 years old and entirely fascinated by the city, coming from a small town, i believe it was normal to have been in awe of Mumbai, it was crazy to imagine, an area this big was one city, that people were actually lucky enough to be living near the sea, that nobody here knew what winter meant because there were no winters here! In those five hours , we only got the chance to see Juhu beach and have pav bhaji which i think isn't that bad for a first five hour trip to Mumbai, after all the sea and the food hold the essence of this city. As a kid it is very easy to create fantasies in your mind about the kind of life people lived in the city, and in . mind it was much more exciting than the kind of life i had back home in Chandigarh. 12 years old me was jealous of these people and started dreaming about living in Mumbai someday. I would like to take a minute to laugh at 12 years old me. 
I saw my name last on the Second Merit List for St. Xavier's College's BMM course and everything changed. Firstly, my idea of what i was capable of, secondly, turned out i wasn't going to Calgary for college after all. Everything had been planned, the only thing that could've made me stay in India was if i got into St. Xavier's and it had happened even though i had never thought it would. My judgement of Mumbai was based on how 12 years old me liked being there for 5 hours, it is pretty clear how that wasn't a very great idea. I was going to live in Mumbai, but i soon realized that the person i saw this dream with wasn't going to be joining me, my best friend in the world, because she was going to college somewhere else. All of this made it scarier and to be very honest not that exciting anymore. The dream would not make sense without the dreamer. Regardless, i had convinced my parents Mumbai and St. Xavier's was what i wanted and did not have any other options left to choose from.
What 18 years old me thought about Mumbai was, no surprise very different from the past. I hated the city, I hated the people too because all i heard about the people here were nice things and all i came across were bad and rude people, and so many people, where was the space, so many cars, how did anybody drive on these roads, scared little spoilt me was obviously never going to use local trains for daily commute, it was great for an experience but who would do it everyday, hang out of the train when there was no space to stand. I absolutely loved being here the first day but as i went around looking for a place to stay i slowly started disliking the city, it was just unbelievable, i think before that i hadn't given living alone a serious thought, it finally started to dawn on me and i disliked it.
After a series of bad days, everything started to get better, i decided to give the city a chance, i decided i had to stop being a child someday. The day i decided i was going stay here, i started meeting people who were kind, i started to enjoy the food and the sea again because something told everything would eventually be alright.
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