Not just another socialite
Recently at the Jean Claude Biguine 3rd year anniversary party in Colaba, a dear friend joked at my expense, asking me where I’ve been all week and why I wasn’t there at some launch/page 3 party. He said something like :
“Milena, I opened the door to my house…looked around to see if you were around for the ‘Opening of my door’ and you were nowhere to be seen….then I went to the fridge opened a bottle of coke…and you weren’t around for the ‘Grand opening of my coke bottle on tuesday night’….what is up with that??”
Suddenly it dawned on me that I have let myself become over-exposed. Actually that would be a lie, as I have been making an effort to scale back. Being part of endless air kissing, as the ubiquitous Bombayite phrase “It’s been the longest time, Darling we must connect” echoes from every corner, getting strange propositions by married men, being bored to death by various social climbers….one must stop and think: is this really fun? Oh but as one stands tall in their favourite Christians….be it DIOR or Louboutin, and as Veuve continues to be served, one forgets and loses themselves again in the “Bombay Haze” (I am quoting a certain Canadian friend here).
Why does Bombay social scene take everyone back to high school? My friends are intelligent, successful individuals and yet so many lose focus on what is important. And why is life here starting to resemble a particularly debauched episode of Sex and the City??
I am finding myself over promising and letting people down. And as I write this, I have obligations lingering at the back of my head…people to call back, that email that I promised to send a week ago is still waiting to be composed. Am I not prioritising or am I taking on way more than a person can cope with. And the worst is that all of this it really is taking it’s toll on me. Today I was questioning myself and why I want to be here. I suffer…heat, heavy pollution, noise, bureaucracy… trying to logically define the pull to this place is almost impossible, so I always go back to re-reading this particular article that says it all for me.
A new page needs to be turned. I am focusing on my work, myself and my wellbeing from now on (Bandra joggers park here I come!)
Six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant’s body. The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.
A king explains to them:
“All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all the features you mentioned.”
Morale of the Story : It refers to the principles of pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints, the notion that truth and reality are perceived differently from diverse points of view, and that no single point of view is the complete truth.
Interesting.
Do we know each other?
Well we never met each other but we have one common connection. Lets say we are two people who live exactly opposite each other (In terms of culture ) Scratch your brains and if you give up I will tell you ;)
Cheers!!!
I was born in Belgrade and now I live in Mumbai….let me guess – you are from Mumbai, living in Belgrade??
Bravo…. As I was going through your blog yesterday I realised that time and again I also feel the same when I am in Belgrade. ( People know you almost everywhere you go, they keep staring at you as if you were a Tv set….yeah thats true ;) and you lack that personal space which is easy in your home country….again this is true even if I lived in Mumbai :P and at times conversation with people around you is baseless )
But according to this elephant story every truth has 7 different perspective, till now you have been seeing one or two sides of the city, maybe as time passes by you could see even more. This also applies in my case for Belgrade.
So on a funny note here I end my comment….
” The best example of indian traffic is that one has to look on both the sides while crossing a ONE WAY ROAD “