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HI MUMBAI MERI JAAN BUT…
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HI MUMBAI MERI JAAN BUT…

Life & Living, Oct 10- Oct 16, 2026 October 9, 2026 , by

Funny or not funny. October 6th, they are right, whoever, I’ve lived my life like a fool, an idiot, a loser! Stupidly. Foolishly. Etcetera. At the vast Provident Fund offices at Bhavishya Nidhi Bhavan Bandra East (BKC now), between ground and first flloors…courtesy a few wonderful staff members. I learnt what a lakhpati several times I would have been today! If only I had not given up chasing my ten years of provident fund dues in the 70s/80s between my two jobs at Debonair magazine and Midday daily tabloid, 5 years each, 10 years of regular working life! After that there was only contract labor in the media…for the life of me I cannot remember why I didn’t do the right things at the right time! Probably in pursuit of ad hoc life and living through 15 years of working women hostel life and another 15 years more, 30 years in Mumbai that was Bombay. Before marrying in a hurry and shifting to Goa in 2001…25 years later I am back to see if I can still get my provident fund and so it is hunt for old papers, bank book records, employment certs and so on, proof that I worked for 10 out of 30 years in fine media companies! Plus, do I have Aadhar card, Pan card, appointment letters, birth certificate (lost), passport…what is UN card? I’m finding out all this these extended stay days in Mumbai. Doing photo copies, mug shots (no longer young, every wrinkle on display!) Just imagine how difficult it is to stay sane when the first mistakes were all mine! Still two gallant women at the Provident Fund offices assure me if all my documents are in order I may look forward to “chamatkar” and being a lakhpatni at least…laugh or don’t laugh at life’s latter day challenges to stay alive! And so in between waiting I do my favorite catching up with funny familiar feelings of old, for so much of me has lived and still lives on in Bombay meri jaan joys and blues…wet markets and railway stations and much more, to give you an idea a few clicks to stay alive today for better days to come!life

Funny or not. Early morning thoughts from my balcao in Juhu Mumbai, deja vu is setting in and Goa beckons, but not before some unfinished business of life and living is over with. Yesterday morning I realized I can’t hop in an auto and go catch a train from Vile Parle West to Churchgate like used to do for years during my years in Bombay that has become multi-tiered Mumbai now. Right ankle still hurts and can’t hurry up staircases anymore. Market was cramped with casual workers seeking daily wages…bought some fruit and returned, giving up my initial idea of going downtown Colaba Causeway for old times sake! See if the flowers still bloom in the garden grounds of the Prince of Wales Museum, etc. You get the idea. I want to go see open air library at Parel before coming back …from my Juhu balcao I see so many gorgeous fitness chasing young women jogging down to Juhu beach, can’t join them! Another lifetime maybe, a few clicks to stay alive today:

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