Bole toh – Apun ka Mumbai!
Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan,
Zara hatke, zara bachke; yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan!
Some months back a Reader’s Digest survey produced some waves in Mumbai. I very well remember those were the days in May 2006 when I was interning at Mumbai Mirror. The survey declared Mumbai as the rudest city and owing to this declaration the Mumbaites were so outraged that the Mumbai Mirror Editor, Meenal actually decided to carve out some cover story on it. It was at that point of time when I was reading the brilliant Suketu Mehta’s ‘Maximum City – Bombay lost and found’. This book was recommended to me, or in fact to all of my classmates, by Mrs. Nandini Sardesai our Sociology lecturer. The book as a whole was terrific. Thanks to this book that I actually started taking interest into politics and especially, the underworld.
I could relate myself to almost the whole book entirely since I have been staying in Mumbai for more than ten years now. Along with the Bollywood gossips and the Vada pav lovers of the city, Mr. Mehta also brought forward some of the ugly facets of Mumbai. Hardly a few months ago was Mumbai in the international headlines for bomb blasts and flooding in the rains, yet people kept pouring in everyday with big dreams and little ways of materializing it. The city shelters everyone, with this hope loads and loads of fantasists step into Mumbai everyday till date.
Mr. Mehta mentioned in his book that the city of Mumbai is all about transactions – dhandha! Dhandha doesn’t really mean quality business; it includes all types of business from trading the goods to trading the child and body. Come what may, people here are ready to face anything and everything boldly. Like it just happened during this navratri when I and two of my female friends were returning from Vile Parle to Borivali in a rickshaw and there was a police naka bandi somewhere around Goregaon. The police stopped our rick and asked us to get down under the pretext that the driver was carrying an expired license. I was shattered since it was 1.30 in the night and asking three girls to get off the rick isn’t a decent scene. The rickwala made a move immediately then. This enraged me all the more. But fortunately, few of my friends were just around the corner in their car and they came to our aid. On our way to my house, another police van stopped us and my best friend Abhi asked everyone of us to stay calm and not to get off the car come what may. He just got done and said, “Bola Saheb…” Just these words and the cop asked us to go.
This made me realize that you need to be bold, you need to know basic Marathi and also, have the confidence in your voice while dealing with government officials to make your way through this city, in peace. There is heat, beggars, smelling fish and lavishing food all around Mumbai which are equally inescapable. The heat will leave you helpless in between your work and all you can do is NOTHING! The beggars won’t spare you at the signals, food joints, and local trains or for that matter, anywhere. All through the markets and the shore lines, you have the take up the smelling fish without any objection. Not just this, in the local trains as well you can’t question the fisher women who gets in with their baskets. And of course the food, this is what the Mumbaikars are known for! Quality food, is what we demand. And trust me; a true Mumbaikar prefers the roadside chaats and night coffee at Band Stand over McDonalds Happy Meal or a lunch buffet at Taj Lands End.
Another feature of Mumbai that Mr. Mehta pointed out in his book was that nobody dies of hunger in Mumbai. How true is it! I can relate this statement to my own condition. By the month end, I am always running out of cash. So the girl, who steps into Mocha and Barista in the first two weeks for breakfast and coffee, happily relishes the toast bread and a coffee at the college canteen (which truly sucks) during the rear days of the month. The 90 bucks Frappe with ice cream at Mocha is as relishing as the 10 bucks cold coffee at Churchgate station.
There is so much more that I would like to share about the city of Mumbai and my personal experiences in it. But since the blogging space is limited and my thoughts are too wide and bizarre, I will leave it here with a promise of continuing this thread in the future. And I bet, next time my team mate Piyush will also share his Mumbai experiences with all you guys. Cheers!
Writing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan
Editing Credits: Piyush Singh
Zara hatke, zara bachke; yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan!
Some months back a Reader’s Digest survey produced some waves in Mumbai. I very well remember those were the days in May 2006 when I was interning at Mumbai Mirror. The survey declared Mumbai as the rudest city and owing to this declaration the Mumbaites were so outraged that the Mumbai Mirror Editor, Meenal actually decided to carve out some cover story on it. It was at that point of time when I was reading the brilliant Suketu Mehta’s ‘Maximum City – Bombay lost and found’. This book was recommended to me, or in fact to all of my classmates, by Mrs. Nandini Sardesai our Sociology lecturer. The book as a whole was terrific. Thanks to this book that I actually started taking interest into politics and especially, the underworld.
I could relate myself to almost the whole book entirely since I have been staying in Mumbai for more than ten years now. Along with the Bollywood gossips and the Vada pav lovers of the city, Mr. Mehta also brought forward some of the ugly facets of Mumbai. Hardly a few months ago was Mumbai in the international headlines for bomb blasts and flooding in the rains, yet people kept pouring in everyday with big dreams and little ways of materializing it. The city shelters everyone, with this hope loads and loads of fantasists step into Mumbai everyday till date.
Mr. Mehta mentioned in his book that the city of Mumbai is all about transactions – dhandha! Dhandha doesn’t really mean quality business; it includes all types of business from trading the goods to trading the child and body. Come what may, people here are ready to face anything and everything boldly. Like it just happened during this navratri when I and two of my female friends were returning from Vile Parle to Borivali in a rickshaw and there was a police naka bandi somewhere around Goregaon. The police stopped our rick and asked us to get down under the pretext that the driver was carrying an expired license. I was shattered since it was 1.30 in the night and asking three girls to get off the rick isn’t a decent scene. The rickwala made a move immediately then. This enraged me all the more. But fortunately, few of my friends were just around the corner in their car and they came to our aid. On our way to my house, another police van stopped us and my best friend Abhi asked everyone of us to stay calm and not to get off the car come what may. He just got done and said, “Bola Saheb…” Just these words and the cop asked us to go.
This made me realize that you need to be bold, you need to know basic Marathi and also, have the confidence in your voice while dealing with government officials to make your way through this city, in peace. There is heat, beggars, smelling fish and lavishing food all around Mumbai which are equally inescapable. The heat will leave you helpless in between your work and all you can do is NOTHING! The beggars won’t spare you at the signals, food joints, and local trains or for that matter, anywhere. All through the markets and the shore lines, you have the take up the smelling fish without any objection. Not just this, in the local trains as well you can’t question the fisher women who gets in with their baskets. And of course the food, this is what the Mumbaikars are known for! Quality food, is what we demand. And trust me; a true Mumbaikar prefers the roadside chaats and night coffee at Band Stand over McDonalds Happy Meal or a lunch buffet at Taj Lands End.
Another feature of Mumbai that Mr. Mehta pointed out in his book was that nobody dies of hunger in Mumbai. How true is it! I can relate this statement to my own condition. By the month end, I am always running out of cash. So the girl, who steps into Mocha and Barista in the first two weeks for breakfast and coffee, happily relishes the toast bread and a coffee at the college canteen (which truly sucks) during the rear days of the month. The 90 bucks Frappe with ice cream at Mocha is as relishing as the 10 bucks cold coffee at Churchgate station.
There is so much more that I would like to share about the city of Mumbai and my personal experiences in it. But since the blogging space is limited and my thoughts are too wide and bizarre, I will leave it here with a promise of continuing this thread in the future. And I bet, next time my team mate Piyush will also share his Mumbai experiences with all you guys. Cheers!
Writing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan
Editing Credits: Piyush Singh
posted by cAfE eXpReSsiOn at 6:11 AM
2 Comments:
very true itz basically absolute application of Darwin's theory of 'Survival of the fittiest'and ya whn it comes 2 Aamchi Mumbai 'Sab ganda hai par dhandha hai ye!!'..very true gal no1 ever stays hungry in ths city of dreamz..and evn the ppl here i guess wil never let any1 stay hungry..khud nahi khayenge par dusre ko pet bhar khilaenge..evn a midday and mumbai mirror reporter who had become beggars for a day noticed the same thing..
so in few word u tried to write abt amchi mumbai being a mumbaikar i knw the very nude fact that this place rocks n also sucks at times cos there is much expected from u n very less given from the city but i agree wid your views abt the city u are lucky if things go well n there are ppl who hav had the worst experience in this city its jus easy to scribble in papers cos they are paid for it but do ppl actaully knw how much a common man in mumbai suffers????
but u hav done a neat job ....ms.chauhan u rock!!!!
cheers!
manc
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