The title of this blog post is stolen from my friend Surabhi's blog post, but she has no right to complain for I have an equal right on the title as any other Mumbaikar! And as of this blog post, my another friend Pritam almost made me write this (for I was really getting bored sitting in some other city), but I am not really sure whether I'll be able to do justice to the title of the post. Mumbai pe jitna likhu utna kam hai!!
My experience with Mumbai is really short. Up till last two years, I hadn't been to Mumbai even once. Or like any other kid, I might have been there to catch a train or a flight or to meet some obvious relatives, but that was just a visit, I didn't feel the city right then. I don't really recall when and where I heard about Mumbai for the first time but it seems as if I've known Mumbai since I know I exist and I'd always been keen to be a part of the hustle of the city! All this made me decide back in high school, that I will do my graduation from this city and given that I wanted to do engineering, the first thing that came to my mind was of joining IIT Bombay and I did realize that getting admission is tough, but don't worry that did not make me study hard! Its just that I kept dreaming (didn't work hard) and fate brought me here. Probably I was destined to be belonging to Mumbai.
I so properly remember my first day here. I came to do some paper-work for my admission at the institute. My foot stepped the first on Andheri station and the very feel of the moment was awesome! I still don't understand from where did I get this feel, but yeah, it was there. I was all full of energy to discover the entire city, but for that day, task was defined and time was limited, we had to leave Mumbai by lunch time. Mumbai gave me a warm welcome that day with its continuous drizzling signing no hopes of stopping! Unavoidable rains is something most people hate about Mumbai, but for me, that is something which gives me the feel that I am in Mumbai!. That day was anyways a short encounter with Mumbai. It was almost a month later that I properly shifted to Mumbai and probably even a month after my shifting did I decide to go around places.
More than places, it was the public of this city which caught my attention. Everyone has such a precise calculation of his time, counting every second involved in catching a local to finishing a file in office. In the rush and crowd of everyday life, simple things that grant pleasure just amazed me. The feel of you peeping out of a rushing fast local and the breeze thrashing your face, the taste of vadapav available at almost every local station or nearby areas, the ambiance of a simple mall, the sound of rain pattering on your umbrella, the holy air of a small temple or masjid around.. all these make up the hidden elements of this city, the fun of which only those can enjoy who have been a part of the inevitable flow of the city.
Often people would ask me, whats there in Mumbai that you're mad about and my answer completes with one word, the 'feel' of the city. Its this feel that I miss whenever I am not here. This feel can't be explained though I can make an attempt at trying to give you too the 'feel'. When I went to Marine line for the first time, I was gripped by this awesome feel.. yea that was the same marine which was eternal to movies from Chalti ka naam gadi to Guru. All these years, so many things around have changed but this marine line remains the same, so much like the way it was. The view of illuminated Queen's necklace at night, the feel of dirty Juhu chowpatty, shabby sea-side at Gateway, the 'let-it-be-as-it-is' elephanta caves, really beautiful Victoria Terminus and surrounding area, always crowded Siddhi Vinayak, sea-facing fresh-breezed Mahalakshmi Temple, another crowded Haji Ali Mosque, the ages old and its own Mumba Devi Temple, the self-sufficing Nariman Point, the rich-and-posh Bandra-Worli Sea link, Bandra's unavoidable fashion street, vast Powai lake and our very own Sameer hills with the adjoining National Park, it is all this which constitutes this city. The locals, which are unmistakably the heartbeat of the city for it executes the flow of people and goods across the city, exist to liven up the city.
Yea, you'd heard it right somewhere, Mumbai is very crowded! Managing a space to live in this city is a big deal! The actual land area of this city was originally very small and it has been build up to accommodate the crowd flowing in and on this land stolen from sea, there is utter lack of space! The exorbitantly high property rates and cost of living reflect this. But despite this, in addition to housing the country's richest, this city has a heart big enough to accomodate the country's poorest. Almost in each and every meter square of Dharavi, a life breathes. As the song correctly quotes, Ae dil hai aasaan jeena hai, suno mister, suno bandhu, ye hai bombay meri jaan, a person hailing from any corner of the country can manage to earn a living here. And this attractive nature of the city is not new, from before independence (almost since its birth) till today, people of different classes, of different parts of the country come here, settle here and belong here!
Been in this city for only two years and that too largely in the walls of my Institute, I already feel as if I belong to this city, as if.. if there is some place I could choose for my death then that is Mumbai!
My experience with Mumbai is really short. Up till last two years, I hadn't been to Mumbai even once. Or like any other kid, I might have been there to catch a train or a flight or to meet some obvious relatives, but that was just a visit, I didn't feel the city right then. I don't really recall when and where I heard about Mumbai for the first time but it seems as if I've known Mumbai since I know I exist and I'd always been keen to be a part of the hustle of the city! All this made me decide back in high school, that I will do my graduation from this city and given that I wanted to do engineering, the first thing that came to my mind was of joining IIT Bombay and I did realize that getting admission is tough, but don't worry that did not make me study hard! Its just that I kept dreaming (didn't work hard) and fate brought me here. Probably I was destined to be belonging to Mumbai.
I so properly remember my first day here. I came to do some paper-work for my admission at the institute. My foot stepped the first on Andheri station and the very feel of the moment was awesome! I still don't understand from where did I get this feel, but yeah, it was there. I was all full of energy to discover the entire city, but for that day, task was defined and time was limited, we had to leave Mumbai by lunch time. Mumbai gave me a warm welcome that day with its continuous drizzling signing no hopes of stopping! Unavoidable rains is something most people hate about Mumbai, but for me, that is something which gives me the feel that I am in Mumbai!. That day was anyways a short encounter with Mumbai. It was almost a month later that I properly shifted to Mumbai and probably even a month after my shifting did I decide to go around places.
More than places, it was the public of this city which caught my attention. Everyone has such a precise calculation of his time, counting every second involved in catching a local to finishing a file in office. In the rush and crowd of everyday life, simple things that grant pleasure just amazed me. The feel of you peeping out of a rushing fast local and the breeze thrashing your face, the taste of vadapav available at almost every local station or nearby areas, the ambiance of a simple mall, the sound of rain pattering on your umbrella, the holy air of a small temple or masjid around.. all these make up the hidden elements of this city, the fun of which only those can enjoy who have been a part of the inevitable flow of the city.
Often people would ask me, whats there in Mumbai that you're mad about and my answer completes with one word, the 'feel' of the city. Its this feel that I miss whenever I am not here. This feel can't be explained though I can make an attempt at trying to give you too the 'feel'. When I went to Marine line for the first time, I was gripped by this awesome feel.. yea that was the same marine which was eternal to movies from Chalti ka naam gadi to Guru. All these years, so many things around have changed but this marine line remains the same, so much like the way it was. The view of illuminated Queen's necklace at night, the feel of dirty Juhu chowpatty, shabby sea-side at Gateway, the 'let-it-be-as-it-is' elephanta caves, really beautiful Victoria Terminus and surrounding area, always crowded Siddhi Vinayak, sea-facing fresh-breezed Mahalakshmi Temple, another crowded Haji Ali Mosque, the ages old and its own Mumba Devi Temple, the self-sufficing Nariman Point, the rich-and-posh Bandra-Worli Sea link, Bandra's unavoidable fashion street, vast Powai lake and our very own Sameer hills with the adjoining National Park, it is all this which constitutes this city. The locals, which are unmistakably the heartbeat of the city for it executes the flow of people and goods across the city, exist to liven up the city.
Yea, you'd heard it right somewhere, Mumbai is very crowded! Managing a space to live in this city is a big deal! The actual land area of this city was originally very small and it has been build up to accommodate the crowd flowing in and on this land stolen from sea, there is utter lack of space! The exorbitantly high property rates and cost of living reflect this. But despite this, in addition to housing the country's richest, this city has a heart big enough to accomodate the country's poorest. Almost in each and every meter square of Dharavi, a life breathes. As the song correctly quotes, Ae dil hai aasaan jeena hai, suno mister, suno bandhu, ye hai bombay meri jaan, a person hailing from any corner of the country can manage to earn a living here. And this attractive nature of the city is not new, from before independence (almost since its birth) till today, people of different classes, of different parts of the country come here, settle here and belong here!
Been in this city for only two years and that too largely in the walls of my Institute, I already feel as if I belong to this city, as if.. if there is some place I could choose for my death then that is Mumbai!
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