The Fast Local

Mumbai is a Hotel California, and of all the seductresses in her serving staff, the Fast Local is one who holds up her disguise very well. In this harried hotel, when you are frustrated, tired, and giving up on life, she slowly slides up beside you. You may have been waiting for her, you may be surprised by her sudden arrival. But once you use her even once - first even because it is practical, for relief, for only a quick trip back. Once you use her even once, you are done for.

Before that once, Mumbai may have been a temporary stop in your life. For work, for a career, for a project. You may have intended to go back home. Who in their right mind would want to spend their life on these seven islands of Lotus Eaters? The fast life wearing and eroding your body and mind should rightly be visited only to gather enough wealth to spend on doctors who will attempt to repair the same physical wear and rehabilitate the mental tear. And some more.

But no, the second time you sit in the fast local, the convenience makes you forget things. You reach home sooner. You derive pleasure from locals being overtaken. You feel haughty when you see people waiting at intermediate stations - waiting for their pathetic slow locals. People who you were a part of. The schadenfreude makes you forget you are in truth those people. You forget.   

And as this fast elevator takes you up to your room, she kisses you. You fall asleep with a smile after a long long time. Suddenly, all the stress Mumbai has put you through is forgiven. Because you now come home to, rather with, the Fast Local.

The Fast Local becomes your Hope. You may never catch one again. You can gamble your life away in Mumbai - because you hope to catch the Fast Local every time the casinos shut. How can you check out of a hotel when you have given up your hope to it?