Monday Musings - 31

Some Mondays aren't beginnings, but ends. Ends to another beautiful week in the city of Mumbai. Ends to a road long travelled. Ends to the familiar. As I say goodbye to yet another friend vacationing in Mumbai, I leave a little part of me in this city. A little part of us in the city. Down a jagged, over familiar street in Bandra. By a narrow, dark street in Oshiwara littered with stray dogs. And, a little garden...our favourite night haunt. Friends, they make life so joyous.

And, then I think about how friendships evolve over time. Even as sometimes we are afraid as distances and circumstances change, I think it will be alright. I see my Father, and his closest friends from long ago. He has such special, unique equations with each of them. One friend who lives many miles away, and him keep in touch on Email. An Email a day, for the last 15 years. And, another he finds just where he left off, at the Derby- young boys watching horses gallop to the finishing line...

But, life comes without a finishing line, doesn't it? There is no one goal we are chasing. I wonder if we realize that. With money too...

On Friday night though, as I am sitting...the chatter of an oncoming weekend fills the air at a local restaurant. Kebabs on skewers, and dying fires flurry themselves about tables...and here is a meal that costs money. A quiet, comfortable evening with family that comes at a price. And, I think, what a humbling moment. And, what a moment to learn that even money does help us share happiness, sometimes...

I find an unexplainable joy in being able to share money, just sometimes...especially with the very people who've allowed so much of our lives. Will I be able to ever give. No just give back...but give at all.

I do not know. I do not know many answers this Monday night. I am perhaps in a whirlwind of emotions...a flurry of goodbyes...and off to a promising holiday to the hills of Assam.

Chai, anybody?

[More Monday Musings here ]