It’s been ~6 months of my existence in Mumbai.
Much has been written about the happening life or the dynamism of this city that supposedly never sleeps. At an individual level though, I feel nothing different about Mumbai than I feel about a Pune or about a Hyderabad, positive differences I mean. Negative differences are many – never ending traffic, high rentals for pigeon holed apartments, choking infrastructure crumbled even more by the monsoons, widespread dirt and filth and the stark socio-economic divide.
Where-else will one find makeshift slums right next to sprawling high end skyscrapers? The perils of poverty are on a regular display on Mumbai roads – with so many adults and children sleeping under flyovers and so many more who regularly ignore these underprivileged lots as if they don’t exist. Honestly, if anything has stuck me in these 6 months in Mumbai it is the absolute importance of money in today’s world. The differences it can create in everyday life are just too starkly demonstrated on Mumbai’s roads. As you see two human beings – one travelling in swanky BMW and the other hanging outside the door of a BEST bus, you realize life treats you according to the amount of moolah in your wallet.
Fair or unfair I don’t know but I am not so sure what is so ‘maximum’ in this ‘Maximum City’. I guess the romantics will claim that this is a city where one can get the maximum out of life by working hard and by chasing one’s dreams. This might have been true for many but another maximum is the gap between the rich and poor in this city. I am no advocate of socialist ideals, but should the gap between the standard of livings of two human beings be so large that one stays in a $1 B fortress with 5 people staying in a 27 storied building and the other sharing a 100 square feet room with 5 of his family members? This makes me wonder what the guy sharing the 100 square feet room did wrong in life.
And thinking from the city’s perspective too – how much load can a piece of island take anyway. With 15 million people and millions being added each year, Mumbai’s population density is one of the highest in the globe. While writing an article at my job, I saw this figure that ~40% of these 15 million Mumbaikars either don’t have a house or have a house which doesn’t meet the socially accepted definition of a house. And this number will only increase in the coming years. What are we doing about this? If you need to experience the pressure on Mumbai’s infrastructure hop on a Western Line local train going north at 6:30 pm on any weekday. With each compartment overloaded 3-4 times more than its normal capacity, it is only a miracle that no major accidents/mishaps occur. Nobody likes travelling to and fro from office to home in such deplorable condition. But is there a choice?
And the most surprising thing is one gets used to even this lifestyle. I think that is called the human spirit or the spirit of Mumbai as the media calls it. Something which one would find completely unacceptable becomes the very acceptable truth of life within a few months. I guess the rat race to maintain a job, to aim for a better and bigger place to reside and to wait for the next holiday outing, leaves no time for a Mumbaikar to stop and ruminate about the pallid conditions around.
Within this he celebrates Ganapati festival and he dances on the streets during visarjan as if there is no worry in the world and he finds small joys in even smaller things.
May be I will also accept the negatives and start cherishing the positives that this magical city has to offer and which makes its citizens love it more than any other city in the world.
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