Completely Bostoned: Am I so citified? And by that I don't mean landscapes full of glitzy, glass buildings, speedy cars, clean roads yada yada kind of citified... I mean crowded and sometimes dirty streets, noisy traffic and bunched up apartment buildings types. It somehow makes me feel at ease. I spent a long weekend in Boston and that's where this comes from... For some strange reason, I felt at home with the city from the minute I stepped on Bostonian turf to the day I flew out. From my limited-but-growing knowledge of American cities, I can safely conclude it is the city closest to good old Bombay. In fact a little of Pune and Bombay rolled into one... Bombay because of the victorian buildings- some of them are much older than those in Bombay of course, the somewhat disorganised city planning, small and densely populated suburbs. And Pune because of the students who seem to dominate the population of the city. Look anywhere and you see young students... there are there everywhere. Obviously no surprise since the city is home to Harvard, MIT, Boston University among numberous other educational institutions. But I guess it struck me prominently because I landed on the day most students were moving into apartments as the academic year started couple of days later. It was a scene worth capturing but sadly no camera that day... Everywhere you looked -- ALL over the city -- you saw trucks and tempos offloading furniture, families gathered on streets, apartment corridors filled with stuff waiting to be carried inside....Phew! In many places the city is not even as clean as most American cities I've seen so far...But the crowded streets and choas and of course the T (tram) felt oh so like home!! Maybe I am just too Bombay-fied.