Chicago in Mumbai

I was working in Technopolis Knowledge Park. 'Wow! Rockin duuuuuuuude!' hehe...
TKP is located in Andheri East, near the MIDC area. It's a colourful place, with lots of music. The road leading to TKP is called 'Mahakali Caves Road'. But I tell you, even dear ol Mahakali cannot ease the suffering that people go through on that road! It's a two-way road, but it doesn't have a divider. People don't follow a lane system because everyone wants to get to work on time. Gutters bubbling shiny, black bubbles line the road on one side. Cars of all colours and shapes are perennially hugging each other in fervour. Everyone is horn-happy because horns don't consume petrol and a little bit of music is always appreciated. You can cross the road easily because traffic barely moves. Dead rats decorate the periphery of the road, adding greys and reds to the green and brown muck. It's a beautiful place... if you've been through hell!

Now, all lotuses grow in mud, and obeying this basic rule of Nature, was a lotus, I found on drab, rainy day.

"Eh, chal, Pandit, lunch!" cried Ganesh, our Poor Jokes Annonymous Grandmaster. We had a club in the office called the 'P.J. Annonymous' and Ganesh was our founder. I was a junior in the club, chosen by the Grandmaster himself! It was an honour I would cherish all my life. Anyway...
lunch was on the cards and I put my computer to sleep promptly. I wandered all over the shop-floor looking for some lunch-company.
"Nahi, I have work."
"You go ahead."
"I'll just finish this mail and I'll finish 5 more and..."
"You haven't had your's yet??"
It's raining weight-watchers or what?! I was frustrated. I walked into the lobby and pressed my cold nose onto the window. It was raining heavily outside. Mahakali Caves road was empty. Everyone was in office. I didn't feel like having cafetaria food. I was miserable. Ganesh tapped me on my head.
"Oye Junior! No lunch? Heartbreak?"
"Appetite-break." I replied, forlorn.
"Wassamatta?"
"I'm fed up of the cafetaria food."
"Ahh! I had this disease once, when I was very young here." My eyes widened in awe. So brave he was, our Grandmaster! What courage to talk of this disease as if it was just a common loss of appetite! "But it's not fatal."
"It's not?" I was awestruck by the courage of this man.
"It's not." He replied solemnly, as if declaring an ordinance. "I have a cure for you, but only for you, because you are a talented pup, the future of P.J. Annonymous. And as Grandmaster, it is my duty to nurture you for your greater goals." It was like resurrection. His words fell like manna from the heavens. The master had chosen to aid me personally! I joined my palms in reverence and replied, "Chalo phir, Sir! What you gonna feed me?"
""Follow me, young one!" he started towards the elevator. I followed happily, like a cub follows it's mother.

The elevator took us to the ground floor and Ganesh stepped out into the lobby.
"Hereon, you will follow me closely. Watch your step. And keep an eye open for prowlers. We don't want a crowd there."
All my senses automatically went on high alert! The Grandmaster scurried up the lobby steps to the main door and pushed it open. White light flooded into the artificially lit lobby. He slipped outside and the light closed out behind him. Sounds of pouring rain drifted into the lobby. It sounded like many trucks were racing each other. I obediently followed the Grandmaster outside. Brilliant, white light blinded me for a moment. But when my eyes adjusted themselves, I could see the One holding an umbrella over his head, motioning me to follow. I pulled the hood of my jacket tightly around my face and ran after him. Water splashed all around me but I continued with whatever courage I could muster.

He walked outside the TKP premises with long, brisks strides and crossed Mahakali Caves road. I stood on the TKP side wondering where the food was. "Quickly, we haven't a moment to lose!" he yelled from the other side. I ran across the wet road.

When I reached the other side, Ganesh was standing with a proud grin on his face, as if he had won a Gold in the Olympics.
"Where's the food?" I implored. He silently stretched his left arm out and pointed to something in the obscurity. I peered hard. And then, my eyes caught sight of a figure bending over a something in concentration. Was it... fire? It WAS! It was FIRE!! I plodded laboriously towards the fire, the rain and wind slashing my face in protest. The scene cleared. It was a man. Tiny framed, bony old man slouching over a stove on a wooden cart. He was mixing cheese with tomatoes and capsicum. I watched him in awe. Ganesh arrived beside me and announced, "Bhaiyya do Chicago! Aaj humari bacchi ko bhook lagi hai!" (Two Chicagos, my man! This child is hungry today!) The man grinned a toothless smile and pulled out six slices of white bread from a drawer beneath the cart. Sandwich!!! The famous Mumbai sandwiches! I'd heard so much about those!
As if reading my mind, Ganesh replied, "They're our Mumbai roadside SANDWITCHES! Wicked, in'nt!" I laughed as the Sandwich-walla slapped his concoction onto the slices. I warmed my hands by his stove while he grilled the tripple-decker whopper of a Chicago. Rain poured all around me as if in triumph! He cut the sandwich on a paper plate and slapped three sauces on it and gratted two cubes of cheese over it. My eyes widened for a second time in the day. He handed the paper plate to me and I just stared at it.
"Dig in, Junior!" grinned Ganesh.

No wonder the lotus is the naional flower of our country. The best things in life come when the most mud is around us! In'nt?