Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The ultimate city..

As soon as I landed the cool breeze hit my face leaving a smile..After a long stay in hot cities where rains only add to chaos than give respite, this city was a welcome change.. I had landed in Mumbai..
Before a Mumbaite starts celebrating this post is surely not about Mumbai.. but my sense of the city..
All my life I was on the other side of the eternal Mumbai-Delhi war..boasting about wide roads in Delhi, the space and how the city does not stink..My first visit to Mumbai was horrible..the city stank, it was humid and crowded and could hardly walk an inch without stepping/bumping someone..but with each subsequent visit..i started liking the city..and with this visit i loved it.. The small shops, the boys getting ready for the dahi handi festival, the local colony friends playing carom at night, the parlour lady talking in typical mumbaiya hindi..i loved it all..but above all i liked the city for its acceptance..
And thats when i realized why people despite struggling to make a living in the city, love it..coz the city is accepting of u...
And as a friend very correctly said "Acceptance is the main thing we all strive for"
It is this hunger for acceptance that drives us all to do what we do.. It forces us to lie, to pretend, to be someone else, to not be happy being who we are, to kill our own wishes, to live for others..
and a city that accepts us provides all that one can ask for-love,warmth,security,happiness,.. and thats the ultimate city.. 'the spirit of mumbai' does not lie in its local trains but in its greater level of acceptance...

2 comments:

  1. Here you go

    You mention Mumbai as a city where rain does not bring chaos....!! Young lady you gotta rethink this one or may be wade through the water once.

    Acceptance - Try shopping in markets with your delhi accent. Try talking to People from UP and Bihar whose taxi's are burnt so often. Try searching for that warmth on a local train.Try asking them why could they not accept dal makahni without sugar.

    In spite of that one can develop soft corner for the city and the sea , probably thats why I write such a long comment.

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  2. thats why wrote a caveat at the begining..its not about the city but my sense of the city..
    about burnt taxis thats not your everyday people..its a political move..but by and large people were ok being who they were without pretending to fit in..comfortable with their complexion without the extra need to look 'gori'..thats what i got from it..

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