Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan !!

That is a line from the song from a Hindi movie of 60s (acted by very popular comedians of yest years Johny Walker). This blogger too finds Mumbai quite a different city as compared to other metros. It is “maximum city”; a city that exposes extremities of human experiences at short notice, every time it stretches imagination. It is a city of unbelievable human degradation and fabulous rich coexisting without much of a paradox. Every street corner, every experience making one feels quite insignificant. Nothing alive, it seems, has any value, there though is high premium on everything else. The nonchalance in conversation, the accent, tone, the ease, is what hits the outsiders first. Maybe a caution for things to expect if not careful, on the other hand it could even be an invitation- simplifying the complication of pretense. It is a city with many masks. I guess it touches something primal, it probes. It leaves you to choose. You can like the city you can hate but it will definitely influence you.

I had probably turned 14 when we first visited Mumbai (then Bombay -I always liked the sound of this name!). We were in Pune so during holidays it was decided to go to Mumbai. We stayed in Colaba (significant Army presence), I recall walking to Gateway of India and admiring Taj Hotel building, later to Birla planetarium and aquarium. It was a great experience. Next few years visited Mumbai many times. In last few years also I had visited Mumbai many times, last one being a month back. Infact I plan to go again early next year as I realize that I need to spend more time at BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society for the uninitiated). Most of my visits are only for few hours as I cannot afford to stay for too long. I generally stay at Pune and so catch the 5.30pm train back from CST (earlier VT). Once I came from Chennai to Mumbai for a job interview, bathed in Railway station toilet (it’s yuck) gave the interview roamed around in chowpathy and caught the night train to Chennai (unreserved compartment ofcourse). Those were hectic days for me. And what happened to the interview…well during the interview one guy in the panel said abruptly that we are wasting time, I promptly agreed with him. So that was it!

Somehow I never could like Mumbai, the city has been quite harsh or maybe I have spent far too less time to judge. It remains an intriguing place.

Post Script: Many of Indian English writings has Mumbai as the focal point right from Naipaul, Mistry, Rushdie, Chandra, Mehta, De…and many more. Mumbai needs different minds to grapple. The best movie on realities of Mumbai street remains Meera Nair’s “Salaam Bombay”, Ram Gopal Verma’s spectacular Satya captured the other reality lurking and exploding on the street, Mani Ratnam’s hugely successful “Bombay” tries to humanize the riots (it did had some brilliant songs). There are many movies, documentaries, fiction, non fiction, poems….so on about Mumbai, obviously there is something special about this place.

Bloggers are invited to my new blog www.photodepalan.blogspot.com where i will be posting the photos i take from Nikon D-60 (its a beauty), sample this snap. Amazing stuff....