Immortal Tina

Tina returned to Mumbai after ten years. Her purpose was the same as last time, to be immortal.

She got out of the airport after a 22 hour flight from New York. She was surprised at the changes she witnessed while waiting for her cab. Mumbai now had Starbucks, Zara, forever 21, almost all her favourite brands that pulled her to New York ten years back. She got in her Uber with the fishy smell and sweat beads of Mumbai, filling her nose and upper lips, respectively. On the sea link she listened to the same song, which she had 10 years ago; Allah Ke Bande by Kailash Kher.

Seeing the change around, she felt an ache. ‘if this city could change, why couldn’t my scans?’ She wondered.

After passing the transformed South Mumbai and upon reaching the gateway of India, her heart beat faster and the hair on her neck rose. While walking towards the majestic Gateway, looking at families clicking selfies and feeding pigeons, she took out her polaroid image from 2007 and searched for the floor tile where she had etched herself immortal in 2007.

Upon finding the tile, she cleared off the shells and chains that covered her writing. It read, ‘Tina was here and so was her cancer-2007.’

She grabbed the nearest stone she could find and etched, ‘Tina is back and so is her cancer- 2017.’ With her chemo lost hair she clicked another polaroid and kept it in her wallet. Breathing in the fishy smell and wiping off the sweat beads from her upper lip, she smiled and treated herself and the pigeons around her to some bhel.