Ah Mumbai, I Am All Ears

"Appa, your kinda song" called out Aadi
My kind? Listened, liked it instantly and 
That  has set the ball rolling on a peep into.

Mumbai, may be many things to many a man
Gun totting gangsters, trigger happy cops,
Starlit boulevards where ageing stars of bollywood
Swoop down in their mean machines
Adding up chaos on top of chaos
Where humanity flows like a swarm of bees and 
Millions of hopefuls , still sleep on the side walks
Where the saffrons and Greens glare at each other
The insanely demanding rat races, of
Barometers peeking up and popping out
Where people sleepwalk and pack 
Themselves like iodized sardines 
In the swaying tin boxes of locals,
It is still a city that gives much more than it takes.
To me, its the one that has given to me
The eclectic sense of sounds.

During the days of listless struggles,
It was the music, this city makes
That had given solace and kept me
From going insane.

Those days at the Kala Ghoda, 
The Bavul Nights,
Sufy chants at Haji Ali,
The charmingly enticing "Jaydev jaydev jaymangal Murthy",
Sunday choirs at many a church,
Gyrating numbers at my Sikh pals great parties,
Rock raves we been to, all have made me love an
Array of sounds of liberating music,
I can tie many memories around.

Every time, I hear these strains, 
The Sufi wails, when the church bells toll
When chants of Aum reverberates around
Its again a voyage to those lovely lanes
I left sometime back and 
Now have an yearning to go back to.

Mumbai,
I am all ears...