mum-bhaiyya

I've been living in mumbai for about 1 year now. i've went through all kinds of emotions about mumbai. i've loved its diversity - endless people everywhere, endless faces with wrinkles, sweats, rich and poor, its one of its kind life in india - the city respects every individual. Here in mumbai, Nobody asks you questions, you are free. your next-door neighbour won't ask you about your personal life. you live life in mumbai, you die and you are forgotten, still the pace of the life moves on.

And then there are scenes of traffic jam, pollution, utter chaos and waste of time due to roads and flyovers being constructed in every nook and corner of the city.. it just makes me sad and sometimes cringe for shifting to some other city.

Perhaps i haven't really understood mumbai in its totality. still when i found this link on flickr on photographs of mumbai, i again went through all those emotions and those memories.

When you live in mumbai - you have all kinds of questions in your mind. Everyday, the pace of life remains same. you get up, you run and you do your job in office. your only interaction with the city being the long traffic jams and broken roads. you find yourself crying for some relief.

Sometimes, there are reports in mumbai newspapers regarding mumbaikars loving their city the most in India and i wonder what might be the reason behind it. There is no space to live in the city. Even a 1 BHK in far suburbs would easily cost 25 lakhs. infrastructure of the city is collapsing.

Still, people love it. i've talked with my friends - my room mates and they love this city. Anurag said to me - This is the only city which is alive no matter when you step out of your home. Even at 3 am in the night, one would find roads filled, highways being plied upon by vehicles, you can always find a roadside cigarette and coffee-wala at this time, sitting beside the highway.

There would be girls and boys enjoying and partying in pubs. Even at 12.30 in the night, i've found girls walking alone while they are in tee shirts and low waist jeans. i don't know whether such girls are call girls or not as it rather seems strange to find a girl being so much prepared with make-up. But then, i think that i respect the city's attitude - rarely any man would dare to approach the woman. you are respected. "mumbai mein har koi apne kaam se kaam rakhta hai" i had heard this line often before coming to mumbai but now, i realize it.

In cities like bangalore, i've heard from my friends that the native people of city don't accept the outsiders like me, ridiculing us as north indians. There is no such attitude in mumbai. Regarding pune, it closes down at 10 p.m. in the evening. no open shops, nothing.

I think we all have a tendency to curse the system sometimes. Even when we are satisfied and things are going according to us, our basic system cringes for a change. that's why we humans rebelled in the first version of The Matrix :)

i think i cry because i try to go down into my memories of my college days of BHU. its a completely changed life now. i get up, i go to office, i come back, watch TV, chat to my friends for half an hour or so and go to sleep. i think the 'the fun part' of the life has become rather subdued.

i'm slowly trying to make a sense of all this. i no longer cringe for that night life. however, i do get bored whenever any newspaper brings out an article regarding night life of mumbai. i know that i can be blamed as a case of sour grapes as i myself am not living a very active life, i might be termed 'sour grapes'. But still, with the kind of job pressures, crumbling infrastructure and roads which keep you stuck in traffic jam for 3 hours daily, one might think that night life is only for the sons and daughters of the ameer junta (super riches).

Still, watching those flickr images and the time which i spend in my balcony watching the blue sky, watching slums stretched across many kilo metres, and just observing the passing time and life, i think i forget all my complaints. The city has its charm. i might not cheer up whenever i listen "Mumbai" but yes, it's a different kind of city.

Perhaps we don't know how to live the life. perhaps if i had more money and a less hectic job, i would have enjoyed mumbai more. perhaps if i lived in the posh areas of mumbai - bandra, juhu or south mumbai.. i would have complained less as there would be lesser traffic jams, better roads and infrastructure.

i've never made an effort for anything in my life. i've slowly become a mumbai wallah. i've never watched a sunrise or sunset in mumbai. my balcony faces west and from ground there are tall building everywhere that i can never watch the sun setting in the mountains.

I think we all keep on running for getting something in our lives that has been eluding us. But i don't know whether achieving money, time, life-partner will make me reach there.

PS: the title of my post is mum-bhaiyya. we north indians are called as bhaiyya log in mumbai. that's why i'm calling myself as mum-bhaiiya :) but still i believe that i am always accepted and forgotten in mumbai :) the city doesn't care for you. it won't stop. it won't bleed for you. it would just keep on moving. this is mumbai, and i'm a mum-bhaiiya