I moved to Bombay two months back. As soon as I landed in the city I was stamped to stay quarantined at home for two weeks. After this stunning welcome, the lockdown restrictions made it impossible to travel around and explore. All the best treats of Bombay that my friends had excitedly talked about, were, lets say, currently unavailable. What I had was a beautiful sky-sea view from my room. I grabbed by mat, Ukulele and coffee and shifted to my balcony, permanently.
Every evening around 6, the view in front of me changed its colors. Like a movie show, I used to bring all the essentials - music, popcorn, camera and a book to the balcony and waited for an unexpected story to unfold. Somedays the clouds - Cirrus, Stratus and Cumulonimbus weaved a story of their own like cotton balls spread across a blue sheet. Sometimes, the clouds disappeared and the colors took over, a brush stroke of yellow changed to dark orange and was suddenly greeted with a beautiful shade of pink. The gradients of colors were outside my watercolor palette. All the shades - pink, blue, yellow, red, violet were so authentic, flowing like thick paints on the canvas. And the best of all - was when it rained. The song Ikatara, suddenly made sense when the wind carried the rain and sprayed your face with fresh water drops and as you squinted your eyes, the wind blew more strongly, making your hair fly and made your smile, even wider.
I am yet to explore the famous midnight Marine Drive scenes and eat Vada Pav at Chowpatty, but for now, my 6pm Bombay skies make me fall in love with the city.
