“Mumbai never sleeps”- One of the popular punch line of this city as
it’s so common to see people roaming around the city even after 12:00 am
and still you don’t see the crowd fading away till 2:00 am. At 1:00 am,
it’s not uncommon to see people walking and playing around or waiting
for their turn in a food joint to place the order.
It was my first few days of stepping into Mumbai and I was not expecting that the above mentioned line would be presented to me in such a weird fashion. One evening when I was returning from the office, I could see people gathering in the housing society to celebrate Satya Narayan Puja. After doing a brief prayer, I went straight to my room and that day I had to spend the whole night all alone as my flat mates were not there.
Suddenly at 1:00 am while I was in mid of my sleep, I heard the sound of my doorbell. I thought I am dreaming and ignored it but then the bell rang once again just to make me realize it’s not a dream. This time I was a bit nervous as I knew it’s definitely not my roommate and this made me wonder who it could be. There were two thoughts running in my mind. My Cautious Mind was telling me not to open the door but my Curious Mind wanted to know who is at the next side of the door? I followed the later and went to check from the peephole. I saw two boys in their teens are standing with a container. Now this added to the suspense and I wanted to know why they have come at this time. So after gathering some courage and holding my breath, I slowly opened the door keeping it half closed.
Before I asked anything to them, one of the boy handed me a small polythene bag by saying “Satya Narayan ka Pooja ka Prasad” and they went away by saying “Sorry Ma’am, thoda late ho gaya” . I did not know how to react. I felt like someone has just turned me from the character of Sherlok Holmes to a naïve who has no idea what just happened and I went back to sleep thinking-if this is “thoda late” then what time would be “jyada late” ?
It was my first few days of stepping into Mumbai and I was not expecting that the above mentioned line would be presented to me in such a weird fashion. One evening when I was returning from the office, I could see people gathering in the housing society to celebrate Satya Narayan Puja. After doing a brief prayer, I went straight to my room and that day I had to spend the whole night all alone as my flat mates were not there.
Suddenly at 1:00 am while I was in mid of my sleep, I heard the sound of my doorbell. I thought I am dreaming and ignored it but then the bell rang once again just to make me realize it’s not a dream. This time I was a bit nervous as I knew it’s definitely not my roommate and this made me wonder who it could be. There were two thoughts running in my mind. My Cautious Mind was telling me not to open the door but my Curious Mind wanted to know who is at the next side of the door? I followed the later and went to check from the peephole. I saw two boys in their teens are standing with a container. Now this added to the suspense and I wanted to know why they have come at this time. So after gathering some courage and holding my breath, I slowly opened the door keeping it half closed.
Before I asked anything to them, one of the boy handed me a small polythene bag by saying “Satya Narayan ka Pooja ka Prasad” and they went away by saying “Sorry Ma’am, thoda late ho gaya” . I did not know how to react. I felt like someone has just turned me from the character of Sherlok Holmes to a naïve who has no idea what just happened and I went back to sleep thinking-if this is “thoda late” then what time would be “jyada late” ?
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