Bean Bags 32668802

The colorful flags by the window flap gently with the sea breeze. All is calm in this tiny room which will be “home” for the next few months. The calmness within is innate. Outside, it’s utter madness. The traffic, the heat, the sweat, the smell and the swarms of people everywhere… dirty fingernails. Rohinton Mistry refers to it as the city by the sea. Near a major part of the sea are the sum dwellers. The rich are buying out these lands, and constructing 20 storey buildings. "Home" is in a twenty storey building, a five minutes walk from the Arabian Sea.

Mumbai lives. It is frantic and intense.

The actors, the crorepatis, the jadhuwallas, the rickshawallas, the wannabe actors and models, the millions who come here just to make it, the Indian mafia, the eunuchs, the beggars and their business, the people, people, and more people. BOLLYWOOD, Indian television, pani puris, malls, signals, unending traffic jams, chowpattis, the endless rows of slums, the mega five star hotels and very fine dining, the shops, the constructions, the artists, the fading black and yellow fiats, the newer black and yellow omnis, the saris, the mini skirts and mini tops, the gluttony for food, the need to be in, the infatuation with the six pack abs and bulging biceps, the gyms, the plays, the concerts, pav bhaji, IT IS CRAZY.

The energy here is tremendous. And you can feel that the Mumbaikars, living in this city, with all its difficulties and intensity, absolutely love it. And one can feed off this energy. It can engulf you. And you can begin to love it. Mumbai is the monster of India.

And then there is capoeira. Capoeira to me, and to some extent basketball, is like submission to happiness. The music, the physical challenge, the singing, the game, the playing, its message and non violence have made me fall in love with this amazing Brazilian martial art. Three times a week, for a rigorous two hours each. My body aches, but my spirit soars.

Bean bags anybody?