While the City Sleeps

The city of Mumbai is just such a beautiful place. Its beauty is measured not in the aesthetics (not a lot of that in the city) but in the various avatars the city can take at different times. While I was was cycling some time back for a half hour at midnight, I experienced a side of Mulund I had not experienced before.

Of course I have travelled back from a late night movie or even a party by car or walking or even by a rickshaw. But it is quite another thing to watch the suburbs fall asleep and come alive at this hour of the night as you ride on a bike. Let me just put down my observations and assessments as I peddled my way right across Mulund via PK road to Checknaka and back to Link Road via LBS marg.

One stark difference is the way in which pedestrians seem to walk at night as compared to daytime. There are two kinds: one are those who seem to have just got off the Noah's ark and are walking 'in-pairs', young and old alike. This set seemed involved in animate and private conversations talking about the many things that fill their world. The second were an interesting set of individuals who seem to be swaying as they walked from left to right, front to back and making their way along a straight road as if they were walking through a twisted puzzle! All of these were walking alone and all of them seem to have a sense of sadness in their eyes even though their body language suggested a drunken stupor.

Another major difference between night and day were the way the dogs behaved on the roads. When humans are not around on the streets, they rule the roads with canine ferocity and territorial instincts. Every passing machine with wheels becomes an object of pursuit (I was luckily not chased by any dog but I watched in horror two cars and a motorbike being chased!) and their barks suggest the intent of a bite if you manage to fall in the range of their teeth!

One major issue at night is the near blinding lights of the vehicles from the opposite side of the road. I mean do they plan to cultivate crops on the road with such bright lighting? And it gets even tougher at late night hours if a couple of the earlier mentioned 'swingers' are behind the wheels! How easy it is to forget someone else's trouble when you bask in the same light that causes the trouble. The same light gives sight and takes it away as well. All it depends on is on which side of the light do you stand.

There is a deep sense of silence you can feel on the roads that otherwise are bustling with noise. Like LBS marg for those who have travelled on it know is one of the busiest roads in Mumbai. But at that hour of the night for a moment or two, the road went completely silent and I could hear the surroundings breathe and whisper into my ear the tiring day that it had. And all of a sudden a monstrous SUV whizzed past me with blaring music playing in it. I wonder if those schmucks will ever hear silence I was privy to? Not unless they ride on a bike, I guess!