मुंबई - मायानगरी की माया

Mumbai - City of dreams, a dream which many Indians have, giving it a name of Mumbai Mayangri. Somehow, I never felt so.

First time I came to Mumbai was three years back. I remember the day - It was Sunday - 5th June 2005. I had come to Mumbai with a friend, who has spent good years of his life in Mumbai , when it was Bombay(Wish, our politicians find a better work to do !!)

We both were in Mumbai to join our first job, at Tata Chemicals Limited. And his first day lesson to me was - " मुंबई में जीना है, तो लोकल में ट्रेवल चाहिए "। Fortunately for me, my first day was a Sunday, so I got a good lesson in local travel. Also, my organisation gave me accomodation near my office, so i didn't really felt the need of my first lesson's practical. I was happy, life was settled............but I was feeling uneasy. I was restless to know ....... where was the Mumbai.......which everyone talked of, which every second person wants to go to.......this mumbai which i was watching was like any other crowded indian city... same potholed roads, same bumper to bumper traffic, same endless number of heads seen everywhere, same dirty beaches and same hustle bustle........

Was there something I was not able to see, or was the whole hoopla about Mumbai - the city of dreams, a farce? I was trying to find my answers and before i could, i was posted in Delhi and it was the end of my quest. Although, I kept coming to mumbai after that, but it was always for a spell of 2-3 days......never left time for me to think. I was a visitor to the city.

But, as the fate decided, 3 years later, my second job brought me back to mumbai......and this time i was about to get the lesson, the harder way.......i was put up in Navi Mumbai and to reach office, I have to daily travel one way, 1 hour by train, plus, the time to reach station seperate. The destiny wanted me to learn that lesson, and reopen my quest.....and so I did.

And the experiences I had in that train journey over past two months........had been a reveletion of sorts.

First of all, let's talk about the local train itself - the so called life line of Mumbai. Simply inhuman.....people travel in local trains in conditions worse than anybody in Europe, would even dream of putting even their stray animals. (...and we hope of India becoming a developed nation!! Or politicians speak of making Mumbai as good as Shanghai.....I am sure, the person who spoke that have either not travelled in Mumbai or have not travelled in Shanghai.) At peak office hours, a person who enters and fixes himself in a particular position, can not even bend or twist, till atleast two to three next stations. So what, if the person standing (...oops..stuck) next to you is smelling of fish / rotten vegetable. Some local cheepo politicians call this as equaliser in society. Mr. Leader..........its easy saying so, without ever travelling to office that way. What happens to your polished (your life old lesson of .........gentlemen wear polished shoes to workplace) Bata shoes, can only be termed as rape (or rather gangrape). No doubt, that these local trains have been the cheapest and fastest mode of transport in Mumbai and have served the society for long but they certainly can't be called the lifeline............as lifeline must have oxygen to breath properly, which they don't offer.

Coming next to Mumbai's cosmopolitan nature. Let's begin with understanding the definition of Cospmopolitan. It is a name given to a place where people of many ethnicities, religions and cultures meet and live in close proximity . Bombay was such a place, as we hear from elders, read in books or watch in old movies. Mumbai is not - here there are ghettos of Muslim areas, Sikh areas, Parsee areas and so on.....residential colonies are divided based on what state you belong to / language you speak. Recently, novice street politicians with no agenda have made regionalism their new matra.........and the kind of support they are deriving from bottom of society.........is a reflective of Mumbai's non cosmopolitan heart.

The kind of attack on North Indian taxi drivers........was more of a reflective of frustration breeding amongst local populce from nearby towns and villages, who have not been able to put in enough labour themselves and neither can they tolerate anyone else, earning their labour. The way local political parties create havoc about a person wishing to speak in national language is sick. Worse are the responsible national political parties who rather than bringing a close to such regionalism are mum about the subject - thinking about next year's elections more than the long term interest of the country. Commercial properties are being forced to rampage by local goondas on the pretext of not writing names in the local language - so much for a city which dreams of being called a global city. I can clearly see that a day is not far when Mumbai will be Singur..........and all sane businessman would prefer staying away from Mumbai. Definitely, Mumbai is not cosmopolitan.

Third reason, why I thought people treated Bombay as the city of dreams was the film industry. Films were more of a reflective of dreams - all things good and beautiful. People see themselves in the protagonists. they dreamt of coming to this city and seeing their heroes in real and that was why this city was called city of dreams. Since then, has anything changed. Yes, people now understand that cinema is nothing but a mass media for entertainment. People don't come to Mumbai for seeing their heroes / heroines. TV sets and print media have taken all things about them in every household's drawing rooms and made everbody realise that they are ordinary humans only and no dreams.

All this apart, Mumbai is a beautiful city - Be it the architectural pleasure of british era buildings in Fort, or the new age flyovers, bridges, sea links or high rises like Hiranandani. Its true, that Mumbai is the financial capital of India with BSE, RBI and HQs of all major companies in Mumbai. The Taj at gateway still reminds us of the rich legacy. A walk at Nariman point is still a pleasure.

But, one thing for sure, Mumbai may be anything - But it is not the city of dreams , that Bombay was.

People say, what's in a name change ?

I say, everything. See, Bombay - a city of Dreams have become Mumbai - the intolerant collection of ghettos which mingle not becuase they want to , but because the space crunch forces them to.