My tryst with my city

My Tryst with My City...

It’s funny when you don’t know which place you will start living in when you breathe your first breath on earth. You cannot choose the place you start your life in. Fortunately or unfortunately, the place where my heart first beat echoed was in Mumbai, the city of dreams. This is just one meaning given to this maximum city. Mumbai, I like calling it Bombay. But, there are some who could not stand the name and rechristened it as ‘Mumbai’. But as Shakespeare said, “what’s in a name?” Whatever it is, it’s my city. And my tryst with it is a continuous process as long as I am living here.

The word city is simple, but when ‘my’ is joined to this word, it becomes personal. ‘Obviously’, you all will say. But, it also conveys a different emotion and a feeling. When everyone says, “My City ”, a feeling of oneness comes about. But what oneness, I may ask today. I am a citizen of Mumbai for 20 years now, but a lot has changed since the time I went to school, since the time I stayed in Bandra and today in Dahisar. The face of Mumbai has changed. It is no longer that only a slogger comes to Mumbai to work and earns bread and butter for him and his family. And also, it is no longer the city where the top notches of the city, living in downtown Mumbai, are the richest businessmen in the city. Today, along with the slogger, there are others who come, who don’t know why they are coming into the city. Alright, let me put it this way, that i-don’t-know-why-i-am-here person comes along with a few(or many!) more people, who comes with the person because they don’t know where else to go. Then this person looks out for a job(which is not an easy job). Maybe, gets one with daily wages. But, where do this person along with the others who came with him stay?? Easy answer- in Dharavi. Let me tell you one thing, if you live here in the suburbs of Mumbai, you will know there are 10,000 Dharavis. There is one more type of extra people who are here in Mumbai-The ones who want to make it BIG. I don’t want to stereotype any occupation or state (readers can make their own, I intend to enforce stereotyping in you all!!) they all want to become Amitabh Bachchan (isn’t the stereotype emerging??) or SRK or Sachin Tendulkar.

Along with all these, let us talk about the other end- people who shift from Delhi’s hottest area- GK(Greater Kailash, for those who are not familiar with New Delhi ji!), or from Pune’s NRI area- Kalyani Nagar, or direct foreign return from Manhattan yaar! Do you know this? The male population who fall under this are ‘NRI businessmen’(a prefix to the already existing population). But the maximum female folklore, are jobless ji. Abhi kya karein? We toh will do some shopping vopping? But kitne din tak? Lets open some boutique-shutique! We are toh Fashion designers now. No No, jewelry designers ya, Fashion Designer is passé. Welcome to the crème of the city!! The socialites Dahling! In the day- boutique, in the night- Party, next day morning- Page3 mein Photo!! Aur kya chahiye ji, husband gaya baad mein, I am earning money, fame in seconds. Who will leave such a city isn’t it?

Somewhere between this bheed stays a man, who is globally called as the “middle-class” man. He too is a slogger, but in today’s Mumbai, they are not an extreme, they are in between the two extremes. They are people who slog their butts and get some income which helps them maintain a healthy lifestyle. Be it the local BMC guy, or your next door call-centre employee, be it your mother, who is a teacher, or your brother who works for Wipro. That is where we fall, where I fall in this city. Whatever the extreme people do, others pay heed (this includes media-electronic or paper and thus, even us). But, we bear the brunt. WE. And we are the ones who will write such stories, and we are the ones to publish it. And read it, think about it and then forget it. Bhai, now-a-days socialites also write haan. What? Of course about people, kaunsa charity  fashion show kiya, who went to Paris, which Hollywood celeb had come to town this weekend.etc.etc. Who reads their stuff? We middle class people! This is how our city thinks, our youth think. Because we think about what we read right? ( see. Queenie Dhody’s article this Sunday Mirror)

As I mentioned before, the dream city is just one metaphor to this city, the other one which I gave it is- Bipolar city. This city has two psychological disorders- Bipolar disorder and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Ill tell you why- Bipolar because- one part of this huge city has the best party in town, and the same place some other day may become a victim of a terror attack, then sudden depression. Because, one house may celebrate success and promotion of a householder, some other day- a wave of depression among those people due to layoff. It has DID because- I see garbage lying on the road everyday, but tomorrow Uddhav Thakrey is coming rey...No Garbage. Is this the same road? The same place? Yes, no, different lag raha hai na, it has multiple facets. That’s why, DID. This is my city. It is changing. I am changing. Change is good, isn’t it?

Besides all this sarcasm, my city has taught me to become me, to become myself. A middle-class life teaches us everyone something. Till date, the school I attended, the friends I met, the teachers I was taught by, the buildings I stayed in, everything is attributed to my parents and Mumbai. Mumbai has taught me many things:

1.          how to adjust, 3 seater mein char log baithenge toh kya bada baat hai.

2.          how to respect others, however poor or young they are.

3.          how to get comfortable sleep in a train which is overcrowded.

4.          how to study in the most crowded situation, be it bus, or trains

5.          how to travel from one corner of ‘my’ world to another world which has many things to offer.

6.          how to have friends who stay in that part of the world, and yet meet them everyday.

7.          how to live life to the fullest.

(DISCLAIMER: these are thoughts of an educated, law abiding and life loving citizen of Mumbai. Those who do not come under this, will not agree with the above.)