The Spirit of Mumbai - Part I

It’s raining heavily and these are not the pre-monsoon showers. The monsoons have finally arrived after a long hiatus. Even the growling and deafening thunders are unable to scare the kids as they splash and soil each other. What a contrast, when the sky turns gloomy, its happier time for the earthlings.

Listening to the roar from the murky clouds and watching the canvas gradually changing, I go into that contemplative mood which is enhanced and influenced by a cup of steaming hot coffee and my hands stretched through the grill on my window to feel the drops of rain. Watching the children play in the hastily built up puddles and the amazingly hurried spread of green everywhere, what better could I think of than the long hovering thought of what keeps this city happy, always on its feet through the best and the worst??

Mumbai!! Mumbai (though I still like Bombay better), the city whose belly is increasing by the day, with hordes of arrivals and almost no departures; much sooner than later will this once lean, handsome and glamorous city, now grown into that middle aged pot bellied clerk of a city burst its boundaries.

So why do I love this city and why do the thousands having home here do?? Unfortunately I was not born in this city, but have spent my whole life in its arms since childhood. Do I love it because the city is all I have always seen and felt, or because unknowingly it has been my first preceptor for the lesson of life, maybe because I have seen the city, heard the city change through its thousand faces, the journey of expressions that never ceases to exhaust?

Life In The Fast Lane

If I happen to compare the city with my hometown (parents town), Kolkata, a sarcastic smile appears at the foolishness of the attempt. Buying a cigarette at the local shops in Kolkata would take you at least 5 minutes with repeated reminders to the old shopkeeper in his lungi and baniyan or gamcha as he convincingly ignores you and resolutely carries on with his irritable and useless talk of politics with his few other, ‘nothing to do’ers’. If you hand him a 100 rupee note, he will abuse you, if you hand him a 500 rupee note, maybe he will come after you with a stick.           Drop the curtain and raise it here in Mumbai, where the annas, chachas, bhaiyajis and maharajs juggle with at least 20 odd brands of not only cigarettes but your Goas and patakka biddis and dhana daals and Milan supaaris; efficiently managing the calcuttas and banarasis. They know you by your faces and before you have your hands in your pockets to get the chillar out; your order has been delivered. Even with 10-15 customers at the same time, they patiently go through the ordeal like the most adept of jugglers. Our shopkeepers don’t go for their evening naps, closing their shops the entire afternoon, bringing the city to a standstill. There is no time to waste in Mumbai.

We get up in the morning and hurry to catch probably the same train we take every day. We work; sometimes have a good day, sometimes bad but that doesn’t deter us from worrying about the train back home. Being able to get in the train is an achievement, being able to grab a seat is a blessing, reaching home safely to see your family after precariously balancing and juggling through numerous trains, buses, rickshaws and various other modes of transport signifies a successful day!! The city doesn’t give you time to think. Forget thinking about your life, forget thinking about that blissful state and about Nirvana; if you can eat your dinner, watch a bit of TV, have a quick round of sex and sleep to get up early the next day, you are lucky. Most would say that this is a disgusting way to live life, but Mumbaikars believe in living for the moment, accepting and doing the best of what is available. WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLY!! We go by the Johnie Walker tagline ‘KEEP WALKING’!!

idhar daud hai, udhar daud hai, ye jina yaaro daud hai

koyi aage hai, koyi pichhe hai, bas bhaagam-bhaag hai daud hai

paison ki hai daud kahin, pyaar ke pichhe daud kahin

daud…danaadan daud

duniya hai divaani kaisi hai bechaini

har koyi to kuchh na kuchh chakkar mein hai

jaise chuunti ka dil saara shakkar mein hai

daud…danaadan daud

…..to be continued