Whatever you, I or a thousand other folks say about Mumbai, it still remains as shrouded in mystery as ever to someone who has not spent a part of their life in this place. And sometimes even then.
Imagine then the chaos that seems to hit you in the face when you fall feet first into this crazy kaleidoscope of possibilities that is "Mumbai Nagariya". Things are moving, people are hustling, the air is thickening & the water smelling at a rate & pace that will literally leave you breathless. This absurd, unforgiving pace is what will hit you first about Mumbai.
Followed closely by the people. After travelling the length and breadth of India in my 27 odd years of existence, I was under the impression that I now have the pulse of a mega-city, even a lunatic kingdom such as Mumbai. My bad. I have managed to have educated discussions with autowallahs, seen policemen commit seemingly completely random acts of kindness and had people travel with me, simply to show the way and then travel back to where I picked them on their own fare. Crazy!! And I am from one of the kinder places in the nation.
I am unable to reconcile this with the stereotype of Mumbai as a professional city where everyone is running his own race against the world.
Even though this might be a bit premature, I cannot but include the colours of Mumbai. There is an epic level of class that reflects in the way people conduct themselves in the more, let's say posh areas of Mumbai. Brands mean nothing, looks mean being classy & understated, art means Rajesh Khanna movies with chai sessions, hermes scarves wipe mayonnaise from alluring lips and BMWs & Audi's scrape the roads with Marutis & Fords, an iphone or a nexus is a threshold requirement, while where you party defines your income class.
I like to think that every city, every town, every manifestation of human habitation has a pulse that is peculiar to it. Mumbai doesn't have one. It has a multitude. And I am still journeying to find more of these elusive facets of mad, myriad lord of cities.
Imagine then the chaos that seems to hit you in the face when you fall feet first into this crazy kaleidoscope of possibilities that is "Mumbai Nagariya". Things are moving, people are hustling, the air is thickening & the water smelling at a rate & pace that will literally leave you breathless. This absurd, unforgiving pace is what will hit you first about Mumbai.
Followed closely by the people. After travelling the length and breadth of India in my 27 odd years of existence, I was under the impression that I now have the pulse of a mega-city, even a lunatic kingdom such as Mumbai. My bad. I have managed to have educated discussions with autowallahs, seen policemen commit seemingly completely random acts of kindness and had people travel with me, simply to show the way and then travel back to where I picked them on their own fare. Crazy!! And I am from one of the kinder places in the nation.
I am unable to reconcile this with the stereotype of Mumbai as a professional city where everyone is running his own race against the world.
Even though this might be a bit premature, I cannot but include the colours of Mumbai. There is an epic level of class that reflects in the way people conduct themselves in the more, let's say posh areas of Mumbai. Brands mean nothing, looks mean being classy & understated, art means Rajesh Khanna movies with chai sessions, hermes scarves wipe mayonnaise from alluring lips and BMWs & Audi's scrape the roads with Marutis & Fords, an iphone or a nexus is a threshold requirement, while where you party defines your income class.
I like to think that every city, every town, every manifestation of human habitation has a pulse that is peculiar to it. Mumbai doesn't have one. It has a multitude. And I am still journeying to find more of these elusive facets of mad, myriad lord of cities.
