Bombay to Burgh

At Leopold Cafe in Colaba, South Mumbai, the scars where the bullets grazed the heavy oak pillars are still visible. The restaurant was crowded and buzzing with more firangis than locals three days ago when I visited for a cold coffee and a dish of veg Kolhapuri. The reminders remained in plain view: Five olive-drab clad chowkidars armed with Indian-made 5.56 mm INSAS automatic rifles, guarded the entrance, sitting to either side of the boarded front window. The window itself has been left in its shattered condition. Viewed from the inside of the cafe, its fragments jut inward from around the frame. The mirror in the rear, behind a row of tables is webbed with fractures radiating from yet more bullet holes. The waiter said that he’d been in the restaurant during the attack that killed several patrons and two Leopold staff. He pulled a chair aside at the next table to reveal a small crater in the floor left by a grenade explosion. Both people who sat there that day were no more, he said.

There’s been no time to blog owing to class work and career nest-feathering activities on this, my third and longest trip to India. I’ve been on the move here since 31 May, all the while getting used to India’s take on “the new normalcy” that has been the reality here since that day of infamy. I admit to getting frustrated because of the new procedures required for foreigners to get a mobile SIM card. I’m a good deal more defensive with the curious passerby on the street who drills me with otherwise friendly questions. I’ve told a lot of people that I’m from Canada or Scotland, if I don’t pretend to not speak English altogether.