Jesus, are you reading this??

It really is the little things that brighten up your day. Like seeing this signage outside Afghan Church on my way home after a particularly long and harrowing day at work.

I guess even the messengers of God make typos now and then... :)

The city of Mumbai never fails to surprise me! Today was proof enough of that :)

It was like every other day... until it was time for me to head back home after a particularly tiring day at work. Hailed a rickshaw, and proceeded towards the railway station. So far, it's been like every other day.

Then we get caught in one of Andheri's infamous traffic jams... Again, nothing eyebrow-raising there.

Then I hear a cellphone ring. A hip and happening MP3 ringtone, blasting through the rickshaw. I instinctively reach for my phone... only to realise that I don't have that particular ringtone on my cell, so it couldn't possibly be my phone that was ringing. Yet, it sounded like it was coming from within the rickshaw I was in. I looked around, assuming the previous passenger had left their phone behind as was trying to locate it.

That's when the driver reached into his pocket and whipped out a spanking new MotoRazrV3i! He nonchalantly flipped it open and spoke, in perfect English, "I'm driving right now, I'll call you back in a bit"!

At this point, I'm sure my jaw dropped because he seemed to notice my astonishment in the rearview mirror. Glancing back at me, he smiled amusedly and explained, "This is just a day job, I work at a call centre". Sure enough, he had the signature accented English of the city's fast-growing BPO culture.

We continued forth to the railway station, and when I thanked him, instead of the usual "Haan, theek hai" I'm used to getting from most drivers, this guy replied "No problem ma'am, my pleasure", smiled and waved before driving off and disappearing into Andheri traffic.

Like I said... Mumbai never fails to surprise me! :)

Not much has happened since my last post. I've switched jobs, turned a year older, switched boyfriends (twice!)... you haven't missed much.

The monsoons are back in Mumbai, and suddenly this devil-may-care city has gone paranoid after all that happened last year around the same time. So the moment the rain seems even a tad more vivacious than a drizzle, there's pandemonium! It's upsetting to see a city such as this one seem so vulnerable, yet at the same time it can be rather amusing to watch people in frenzied panic, whipping out cellphones to call their spouses, nannies, in-laws, dog-walkers and maalis to make sure everyone's safe and sound... Only to blush a fierce crimson when the drizzle fades and the sun pops out tauntingly.

With the change in weather, however, comes a myriad of bugs in the air. Viral fever, jaundice, the works! I lucked out with just a common cold, albeit a nasty one. Wasn't quite as lucky last year when I contracted jaundice and ended up looking like one of the Simpsons! Yellow is so not my color!!

Another point I might as well make here, is that I'm a bit of an odd-one-out in society, mainly because I detest the rains. So while all my friends whooped with glee and charged out of the house to enjoy getting soaked to the skin during the first showers, I stayed indoors calling them lunatics. They refer to me in a similar fashion for just the opposite reason. They can't begin to imagine how anyone could hate the rains, whereas it beats me how anyone possibly couldn't!

And yet, I'm the one who catches a cold! Not they, who came home sodden to the bone, but I, who stayed home warm and dry.

In Murphy, we trust!