Mumbai (Bombay).....

Hello Bombay.

I will be saying this once again in about 197 hours from now - just a little over 8 days.

Is it truly the land where my destiny lies? After 23 years in my city I ventured out to Ghaziabad, to IMT, for my MBA. I had made up my mind then - that this might be the last time I get to live in Mumbai. It could have been the last time Mumbai was my home. An MBA today from a good B-school can get you a job anywhere in India and then you have to adjust to a new city.

And yet, now it seems that my destiny lies in Mumbai, at least for the immediate future. Which is both awesome, and scary to an extent.
Mumbai, I am coming.

Mumbai doesn't care really. Mumbai doesn't care about who leaves her or who enters her shores to make a living. Most of the ballyhoo about Bombay being hostile to people especially from some parts of the country is utter nonsense, and having lived all my life except about 9 months, in Bombay, I can vouch for this.

So despite the communal politics by all parties (yes, all), Mumbai remains defiant. Mumbai remains multicultural and cosmopolitan.
What is so refreshing. I shall tell a half-secret here. Any social discourse dominated by Marathi is anathema to me, though Marathi is my mother tongue. In fact, any discourse dominated by strong regional flavour of any kind is anathema to me.
Mumbai is the only city yet which has saved me from experiencing this travesty. I have deliberately avoided Marathi events, Marathi groups, et all. I have consciously done it for a decade and more and will continue to do so. But the refreshing part is that I have been able to avoid them without ever being looked upon either as an outsider or as a traitor. Something I have never found anywhere except in Bombay.
In Bombay the milieu has little time for these trifles. It is indeed a blessing for Mumbai that it is such a fast city, and a blessing in several ways. One of the ways is that it helps the city ignore trifles, ignore incidents of little practical consequence, and also ignore propoganda to a large extent. No one really has time to wait and ponder over whether the pavement dweller really belongs here or what some right wing party is bleeting about.

If a stranger walks the streets of Mumbai, she will for sure discover this ignorance in many ways and sometimes be befuddled by it. "People always seem in a hurry", says a friend who is from another city, a metro yet much slower and more laid back. Everybody in Mumbai is in a hurry to reach somewhere - many times the railway station or the office, but also to the nearest restaurant, CCD, market, PVR, or even to a stationery store! Everyone is in a mighty hurry.
In Mumbai time is counted in minutes, even seconds. Catching the 8:52 fast to CST becomes a huge concern of everyday life. People get fidgety if the train is 3 minutes late. "We have spent 25 minutes in this hotel", is a commonly acceptable refrain and 25 minutes in a hotel is a long time here if it's not Sunday evening. 

And yet people find time to smile at each other, on the streets, in hotels, in pubs, in cafes, and even if you step on their feet in the overcrowded local that can be more aptly described as a human demolition derby at peak hours.
Simply because everyone understands that everyone else is also in a hurry and facing the same hurdles that everyone faces in Mumbai.

The filth in Mumbai is nearing monstrous proportions. There are swathes of land breathing in garbage and dirt. There are areas you would never wish to see again in your lives. In the monsoon this gets worse.
The Bombay monsoons are sexy nevertheless - at least from the window of your home or office, or your car. A friend said to me a few days ago in Delhi - "Oh, it's raining heavily!". You wanna see what's heavy rain? Come to Bombay. When it rains so heavily that you can't see five feet in front, that is a heavy downpour. The thrill of that downpour is something no outsider will know unless he or she keeps all biases aside.

There is no real infrastructure except the swanky office buildings. Traveling from one side of Andheri to the other is a perfect nightmare, which can take hours. The metro is being built forever - the work looks like it will be completed by the time Delhi creates infrastructure for virtual transportation. The roads are "fixed" a few months before each monsoon but develop cracks soon after. There are hardly any checks at even major railway stations - this is actually humanly impossible due to the vastness of the crowds and their frequency. And there is more.

And of course who can forget the epic crowds? EPIC. A measure should be included in the census to determine the per square metre crowding of roads in Mumbai. We would beat almost any city in the world, hands down.

And yet - Bombay is gold.

Those who have lived in pleasant, slower cities will never realize what fun it is to be in a hurry all the time. Yes, it is fun to be in a hurry. It is fun to think that 8:52 is a very important time for us. It is FUN, to fight your way into a local. It is fun to grab a vada pao at the street corner because you didn't have time to have a proper lunch!
Why is it so much fun? Because the things we do in a hurry in Bombay forever define the things we do in our lives. The things we do daily are the things we find happiness in. Mumbai forever lives on hope. Mumbai lives in anticipation of a better future that can apparently be cultivated by doing all the things we are doing in a hurry. The feeling is this - I must do XYZ right now (or on time), it will help me gain PQR (something small yet cherished).

Mumbaikars live in the moment. Some people never understand what fun it is to live in the moment, what happiness it gives. Mumbai tries to gain happiness in small steps. And it strives hard to achieve this simple happiness. Happiness and comfort are always earned in Mumbai - the city throws out anyone who bakes their bread living off others' effort and wealth.
In Bombay it is a source of great satisfaction if you don't miss that particular train, or if after a hard day's work stretching into overtime you find that vada pao or pani puri vendor still working. These may be dismissed as very small things to be happy for, but this is what makes Bombay life so beautiful and many of its people so content.

And then you have a Marine Drive, or a Bandstand, or even a Five Gardens, to spend a very measured time in the evening. The fact that you only have, say, 20 minutes which you can spend here, actually improves the experience. It's like when you have less time for recreation, you decide to enjoy every moment of it and subsequently enjoy it more. The stolen moments of recreation are moments of indescribable joy in a Mumbaikar's life. Those who put effort into their day, toil for a piece of bread, and thus experience these moments are the happiest of all. Perhaps that is why the younger people in Mumbai are so optimistic.

This daily hardship also brings about a down-to-earth and friendly attitude amongst the populace. Bombay is known for its warm people. How can people be warm and at the same time, in an amazing hurry and blind to the surrounding atmosphere? But that is how it is here. There are some rude, arrogant idiots too, but by and large the city shows great warmth to strangers.
Perhaps it is just the fact that everyone is just a dot in the many-hued yet united picture of destiny. Everyone is running a hard race and thus everyone empathizes with everyone else.

Then comes the fact that anonymity is never sought in Bombay, it is granted, even to women. "Live and let live" is practised daily here - it is not an ideal sought to be followed here - it is the way of life. Mumbai does not try its best to be liberal, to be non-interfering and tolerant - Mumbai is liberal, non-interfering and tolerant. It's not a belief - it is another taken-for-granted facet of life, almost completely ignored, thus restored to normalcy. Perhaps because we realized long ago that we could not exist and be successful without being liberal and accomodating.

Even safety is almost assured. It is very heartening to live in a city where even the womenfolk do not fear to step out alone even at midnight.

And we do not showcase any of this. The substance in every facet of life far, far exceeds the exhibition.

Bombay is a crazy success story of human will and effort. It is living proof of what can be achieved by a group of motivated human beings. It is also a place where capitalism in a raw form has succeeded beyond boundaries, albeit not universally.
And yet we hardly get the appreciation due. From the most important bank in the country, to the stock exchange, the mint, and several offices and institutions most vital to the very survival of the nation exist and thrive in Mumbai, in the crowded space, expensive space, in pollution, traffic, filth. Just consider BARC and the implications of one terror attack on BARC - a nuclear holocaust is not a far-fetched assertion! And all this is in addition to the money created every day in Mumbai - by various private and public entities - a mindboggling figure.

Bombay is a complete bhagwan-bharose city, ignored for long both by its own corrupt politicians and state goverment, as well as the Central goverment, so focused on North India and the Hindi states. It is almost entirely self-made, brought to glory by its masses, its people, who have toiled for decades, each contributing their bit to building the edifice of its glory.

India might be governed elsewhere, its English-speaking youth might be earning accolades elsewhere, its best educational institutions may lie elsewhere, but India breathes in Mumbai and due to Mumbai.

And this is why I love Mumbai so much. Mumbai, I am coming.

I am a fan of relatively old Bollywood music. When I say relatively old I mean from the late 80s to the late 90s/ early 2000s.

I am not such a big fan of the films of that era, today. I was a big fan of those films, at that time. Why the change now? It seems those films were lacking way too much in creativity, and were way too cheesy, compared to many films of today. Of course there were exceptions but the general trend was what I just described.

And yet today I miss so many of the facets/ nuances of these films:

1) The oft-repeated love story, only with small twists in the script, in each movie.

2) The cheesy dialogues, and the cheesier romantic scenes.

3) The actors dancing in parks, on streets, in gardens, on top of buildings, anywhere..

4) 8-10 songs per movie (and 14 like in the case of Hum Aapke Hain Koun).

5) Movies lasting over 165 minutes, sometimes over 200 minutes.

6) First the depressed/ angry heroes (late 80s - early 90s) and then gentle and kind heroes (mid and late 90s).

7) The fact that heroines had little work except being the girls the heroes chased around.

8) The fact that a "hit" movie ran to packed theatres for 3 months, a "superhit" ran to packed theatres for 6 months and a "blockbuster" for a year or more. Today a movie that lasts 3 months is hailed as "one of the biggest hits of all time". Duh.

9) This one I really feel bad about - the fact that actors and actresses of that era had so much more natural or cultivated ability, so much more screen presence and seemed so much more real than those of today.
Yes, this last one is really true in my opinion - what the artistes of today cannot convey through sensational dialogues or dramatic sequences, the artistes of that era could convey through mere expressions.

And of course I miss the melodious music. From Tezaab (1988), all the way to Mohabbatein (2000). The songs of those times weren't just songs; they were musicals. The ample use of instruments coupled with the epic melodies made for some really wonderful music.

I remember how deeply the characters were brought out in Tezaab. Each character from Anil Kapoor's to Madhuri's to Chunky Pandey's to Anupam Kher's to Suresh Oberoi's was very well constructed and almost each character served a purpose in the movie. The film was great because of its characters and of course, its music.

I remember the music of Saajan (1991). It was in my opinion one of the most melodious albums that I have known. Then I remember Divya Bharti in Deewana (1993), and the fact that most of the movie's songs were excellent. I remember loving SRK's role in Baazigar (1993), as the crazy yet calculated anti-hero, and understanding the fact that Darr was his film, and not Sunny Deol's, even though he played a psychotic villian.

I remember Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan in Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), a movie that lacked good direction and was full of the nonsense that is a North Indian marriage. And yet the movie was superbly carried by Madhuri and Salman and its music. Some of the scenes in the movie are so entrenched in my memory that I will not forget them even when I go senile in old age.

DDLJ was a movie I intially ignored and yet it provided the defining image of 90s Bollywood - the image of SRK and Kajol hugging in a lush green field - one for the ages.

I could go on describing, but I wish to cut it short. Suffice to say that I thorougly enjoyed the songs of now-cheesy and outdated films like Dil To Pagal hai ('97) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai ('98).

And then came Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000) and Hrithik, and he was awesome on debut. I remember how the kids went crazy over his Ek Pal Ka Jeena dance, his hunk like looks and his height, how the movie ran to packed theatres for months and then for a year, and how people boasted about having watched the movie some 20 times, 40 times, 60 times. (I have myself watched it 18 times and I dunno why, it was not THAT good!).

But most of all I miss the fact that many of us had long memories in those days. Our favourite songs and our favourite movies lasted months, even years, in our minds, and we cherished it when we were able to watch these movies, however cheesy they may seem now.

The internet age has undermined the significance of durability in many ways, and yet I might be speaking like an outdated idiot, or a fool, because 30 years later, the internet age of today might seem like a slow, boring, outdated time to those that come after us.

But that old era will never be forgotten, at least by me.

Boredom....

It's been about three weeks.

A lot has happened during the last 3 weeks and most of it has been bad.

But that is no longer on my mind. My path is somewhat set and only the wheels need to work now.

But this is BORING.

Boredom is one of the greatest curses in life - it is more lethal than the most lethal drug ever invented.

And it has followed me for about two weeks now.

In fact, since a week or so, it has become nearly unbearable. Prior to that, I at least had anxiety to help me spend the day.

One visit to Delhi two days ago was tiring on the body but at least momentarily refreshing on the mind. For the first time I was able to meet a friend who has been a friend for over two years. It was fun, CP was fun, the cafes were fun, the rain was fun.
And yet it was only momentary. The moment I returned to boring Ghaziabad I was pissed off again.
Delhi would have been a nice place to hang out every day. But it is about 30 kms from here. 30 kms to any worthwhile place in Delhi. About 25 kms of that is a stretch of uncivilized stupidity. How can there be a city in which there are NO sources of any real entertainment, where the surrounding is so sick-looking and unfurnished, where there are no street lights and where 70% of the crowd is a bunch of jobless vagabonds? Add to that the general lack of any sort of safety even in broad daylight.

I guess this is the effect of having lived in a metro for 23 years - I find some small towns very repulsive.
But that's not my fault, is it?

It's obviously impossible to travel 60 kms every day for entertainment. It might still have been possible if not for my shallow pocket and the hole that would be burnt in it if I were to travel to Delhi and back, each day.

I have wondered for a long time now, why was IMT not built in Delhi? But I guess it matters little now.

I am planning on one more trip to Delhi, again to meet the same friend, since I have some time on my hands now. I hope it is a 7-8 hour meet up this time, and no rain because it ruins the possibility of exploring a place, however much I like it.

But one more trip in 9 more days means at least 7 days of utter boredom, even if I manage to spend one day doing some new interesting things.

I pray to whatever I consider God, to make these 7 or 8 days pass without boredom engulfing me whole.