I have been wanting to write this blog for a very long time …. But alas my job leaves little time for my creative (if at all creative) pursuits. I think this thought laid roots in my mind after watching Wake up Sid. Like the protagonist of the film I have started loving this city in a short span of 3 months. So I started to analyze what was the reason for this new born love…Almost faced by the same options as Kokana…is it my exciting (if so) new job….was it my newly found independence, is it the fact that I now have a bank account and a balance of my own or was it the fact that I had a role to play in working of a huge organization however miniscule the role. Unfortunately a hard to die habit from MBA…I tried CCP from Kokana’s answer realizing she had the same question but writing the answer I realized her answer did not even fall in my list of option. I hadn’t found my sweetheart here and couldn’t claim that my love for the city came from my love for him. Realizing I had to do the project myself and no CCP is allowed I gave it some serious thought.
The first question most people while enquiring about my life in Mumbai asked me was that which celebrity I had seen so was it the glamour that drew me to the city. But I haven’t, till date, seen any celebrities….so what was it? After due thought, I realized it was after all the glamour that drew me to the city. But the glamour was not the one brought in by celebrities it was the one brought in by the mango people of this city.
People might not call it glamorous but to me it is glamorous to the extent to make it romantic. The “it” I am talking about is the way of life of the people here. I know most people won’t agree and I am not sure I would be able to say the same thing 2 years down the line but as of now this is kind of alluring. There is a different spirit to this city that is difficult to explain. While most people, even your neighbors’, might not know you by your name (even after living in adjacent flats for years) but just ask for some help and so many people will take out time to help you. Just when you would have decided to label the crowd here as indifferent to others’ feelings, they will give you all the reasons to believe the exact opposite. The crowd here doesn’t believe you need to be known to one another to be there for the other when required and hence won’t bother with formalities. You will always find a hand clenching on tight to yours in case you are hanging out of local trains or busses. You don’t have to say a word...they assume it to be their responsibility…Try boarding a running train, after helping you in, in every way possible, you will get scolded with concern of a parent. This city is filled with many familiar strangers whom you meet daily; they know when and where they will find you. There are many such strangers who know you just by face; they would give you a sweet smile every day even though they might never have spoken to you.This maddening crowd takes everyone in with open arms.
And then of course there are overloaded local trains, the buses that are so full that they don’t stop at assigned stops fearing more people getting in than the people getting down, a crowd that is always busy running somewhere, people who stay up even on weekend to ensure they have had enough fun to compensate for the week’s hard work. When I started travelling in second class in local train, my concerned elders asked why I was being so stingy and why can’t I travel in first class. Well it might sound stupid but initially second class gave me a sense of belonging and a sense of achievement. Well life in Mumbai itself gives you some sense of achievement, an achievement to be able to simultaneously fit in and stand out in this crowd. It is important that you fit in to this crowd and understand their ways but at the same time you should be careful not to get lost in it. Because life here can sometimes become rude and you might get captivated enough to lose sight of things. And yes to survive in Mumbai either you should have loads of money or loads of energy. But if you don’t have any of the above you should have the ability to enjoy at home like me ;)…because yes travelling is a big headache here and I admire people in this city for being able to travel 2 hrs just for an hour of social visit or a movie or even for a couple of hours of outing or even for a meal. I haven’t learned that yet and don’t thing I would…how can you run around even on weekends and if you do run around how do you call it entertaining. For me home is where my body can lie down ;)…why take trouble….. What I am again coming at is the fact that people don’t get bogged down by anything in this city…..they seems to or at least want to make most of life whether work or joy even if that means running around for 20 hours a day. I now understand what they mean when they say that this city has a spirit and an ability to bounce back. And this I believe is what really makes Mumbai glamorous. A few lines of a song (a little twisted though) that seem apt for this city…
Sukh hai alag aur chain alag hai,
Par jo yeh dekhe, woh nain alag hai,
Sukh to hai apna Chain hai paraye.
Yes it is difficult to get a few moments of peace in this city that can give you loads of happiness since you have to work really hard even to enjoy .
Surviving here is surely an achievement and to me that is thrilling. (atleast as of now)…
