I’m a Mumbaikar—here’s what happened to my body when I went to a city with no traffic
Every morning, I wake up to two acoustic realities: ‘Radar’, the deafening alarm tone blaring out of my iPhone, and the jarring metal-on-metal thumping of the three buildings in my vicinity under construction. What a time to be alive.
I have been a Mumbaikar for all 25 years of my 25-year life, so when I was invited to spend three days at Nuanu, Bali’s new creative city, I expected to wake up to the sound of… well, nothing. Or crashing waves. Or an endangered bird, perhaps. I would soon know.
A quick Google search helped me put together a weather-appropriate travel wardrobe, and before I knew it, I had journeyed for 17 hours, layovers and all, to set foot on 44 hectares of art, architecture and wellness. No high decibels within earshot and no wading through unpredictable, pothole-ridden roads to get from point A to point B, as I do in my unwalkable home city. No one yelling on the road, questioning whether I can see where I’m going, while also being the person who elbows half a dozen people, only to walk into a pole themselves. Instead, I was greeted by a big banner of Art & Bali—the annual international art fair held at Nuanu, followed by a five-metre-high sculpture by installation artist Daniel Popper, a rattan-wrapped tower and a beach club that looked as welcoming as my mother’s arms.
