She looked at me through the taxi window with a running nose and innocent eyes.

'Please saabji, buy one magazine...only thirty rupees' she pleaded.

I watched her through the dusty taxi window as the slums behind her animated in a chatter of energy. Eununchs chased a prospective alm giver and shopvalaas shouted out to customers , vying with each other in selling their wares. The taxi fellow extracted a dirty piece of cloth from the front recess and wiped his sweaty forehead and neck. He removed his thick spectacles and cleaned them and horned furiously at the car in front of him, caught in a great traffic jam.

I looked back at the girl. She was twelve, thirteen probably. She looked tired, naive. Her eyes were searching, her face pleading. I watched her wondering...

Shameful though it was...a thought resounded in my brain...

Has this girl been subject to....abuse....I wondered.

Shocking? Aachi how could you think that? ...you might ask...

but this was only the beginning....

In the evening I was walking on a road...couples were aplenty with hands over each other...coochiecooing....with the frequent kisses.....a girl was sitting all alone....enjoying the cool breeze of the sea....our eyes met for a second....I turned away immediately...Call girl I sumrised....I remebered the encounter I had with a call girl in Kolkata...She was also the same type....I thought...

Why did you think so Aachi?....does everyone look wrong here to you?

I watched with anticipation as the autowallah said "Lets go through this route...it is smaller, shorter and better"

I wondered the truth in that statement...I knew he was going to con me....

why....?

I am in Mumbai. The Mahanagari...the city of deception, sleaze, sex, bars, call girls, underworld and sick paedophiles ( courtesy Page 3 and other movies)

I was the proverbial Rahul Bose stuck in a sick city...I was Konkana Sen Sharma wondering at the shallowness of Page 3....the champion of the fallen fighting a lost battle in a city of deception...

And then I said to myself...relax yaar...:)

What is projected and what is are two different things.

Enjoy the great city...the great exodus of talent, hope and wonder in India.

I decided to do just that.

I turned back and looked at the girl on Marine drive...she had turned and was looking into the sea...she was nice...

I enquired with the taxi fellow about what the autowallah had said about that route being shorter...he nodded his head in agreement....i felt bad that i mistrusted the autowallah...he was only trying to help...

I leaned forward and opened the window of the taxi...I smiled at the little one....

"Naam kya hai beta?" I asked

She looked at me a little puzzled and said "Payal"

I smiled and offered her some sweets....prasad....

"Ye Siddhivinayak ji ka prasad hai...le lo..." I encouraged.

she looked a little puzzled at first , but then leaned forward and took the sweet and put it in her mouth.... she smiled.

and I smiled too...

I have searched the streets of Kolkata for unending beauty and found it...in the slime and slums of the poor....I have roamed the streets of Delhi, Safdarjung tomb, Habitat centre and Saketh PVR with friends....I found beauty there too......

I craned my neck lost in the absolute joy of the Monsoon as it lashed out at me on the banks of the river Nethravathi....I found beauty In Mangalore...

but in the city of dreams I found with beauty , some other thing....

in Mumbai I found the hope of the great Indian talent and energy. People with tremendous courage, will power and energy taking forward the commercial capital of the country.

the Mahanagari...a maximum city.

Next Mahanagari (2)

lots of love