2 months 10 days. That's the amount of time I've lived in Mumbai...this time...really lived ... Summers I spent holed in a room, oblivious of the city that this is. This time I swore I would move around more. I don't know if that was a wise thing to do or not...illusions are shattered, innocence to some extent takes a hit, starry eyed-edness goes for a toss, and you long for the sense of security you got back home/in the hostel. I never thought I'd say it, but I actually felt safer in Delhi. Time to bust some myths:
1) Guys in Mumbai are no better than guys in Delhi. They stare...gape...open-mouthed...at anything that looks like a girl. Yes, they pass comments, put their hands where they shouldn't in crowded trains, and leer around anywhere and everywhere.
Gone are the days when you could move around in Mumbai unscathed by the leering eye...Men will be men.
2) I thought only Delhi Punju jats moved around in gaudy clothes, wearing dark glasses at night, playing music loud enough to make you want to wave your fist angrily at them whenever they pass you...Wrong again...almost everyone in Mumbai loves doing that. Gaudy is in...Sober people definitely don't hang around too much...sigh...
3) Band Stand sucks. Totally. You come away feeling totally disgusted...coz there's no sea to see...just extremely openly mushy couples everywhere...ughh! To think I went all the way! I thought Shah Rukh's house would be the saving grace...but you can barely see it over the gates (Don't blame him...with the hordes of people standing outside...yours truly stayed at quite a distance like the lady she is :D)
4) Okay..this isn't a myth...something we all knew...there are TOO MANY people in Mumbai...It drives me nuts...Went for shopping to Bandra yesterday...and at the end of the day...simply the sight of people standing together drove me NUTS...
When my parents tell me "Don't go here...don't go there...coz it's a lonely stretch"...I laugh it off...Tell me ONE place in Mumbai where there aren't so many people, and I will bless you from the bottom of my heart!Hell...Gateway of India is crowded at 7 in the morning!!
5) Hang around in Colaba around 10 at night...and you see the strangest mix of people. I swear I've never seen such a thing in my life....
Prostitutes...small children...cross-dressers...old couples...all walk around, frequently crossing each other. The famous Leopold's overflows...beer...people...call girls...all in abundance...
I've ended up sounding too pissed off...but then...I am! You end up feeling disgusted at the end of each day. There's only so much you can take of people running like the world would come to a stop if they didn't, hordes attacking train entrances...almost creating a stampede every time a train stops at the station...Empty or not...people have to push-pull, kill others....it's crazy (and this is despite the fact that I travel opposite to the traffic flow!)
As if the mauling weren't enough, you are constantly clutching your bag because of all the horror stories you've heard. Get home, hop out to grab a cup of coffee...and you are introduced to a world of prostitutes, drunkards, conmen (yeah...got Rs. 500 from me coz I believed his sob story...found the jackass a few days later looking for a new victim and screamed at him!).
There's so much poverty...it kills you. You see an over-the-top gorgeous corporate house one moment, and abject poverty the next. The taller the building, the worse the condition of the slum that follows.
You help one guy and end up getting cheated...you don't know who to trust...and new office life on top of that...where everyone smiles a lot...but their eyes say something else most of the time...and for some reason they think you don't know what's actually going on in their minds!
Ok...enough of bad things...good things happen too.
Marine Drive for one is amazing (if you go at a time when the cars aren't honking your ears off and people aren't bumping into you everywhere).
The same women who almost kill me while getting into the train, shift over and invite me to sit down despite getting squished in the process.
Some well-meaning men exist too...like the one who told me to move out of the empty compartment that he was leaving and shift to well..a more crowded one...when he got off.
The auto-wallah who took me all over Bandra...and showed me all the shopping places taking the shortest routes possible when he realized I was new to the town.
Some days (very few of them)...I could swear I'm at home in this city...but the illusion is shattered soon enough...and you feel desperate to move out of the self-centred existence that you are leading and just doing something for someone....whether it is the giggling girl wearing bright pink revealing clothes who goes to Leopold's every night to earn a living, or the one with dark circles I found crying in a corner on Sunday morning, or the 10 year old who tries to sell me cheap raakhis on the train...or the old lady who can barely walk, but tries to sell me home made mawa cakes...
One minute I want to run away...the very next moment...I want to take these people away from their current existence to someplace safe.
Never in my life have I felt so lost and helpless. There are too many questions...too few answers...
Behind each glittering light lies a world of deceit, behind each colgate smile...lies god knows how much lies...
Brings to mind the song from CID...
"Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena YahanZara Hat Ke Zara Bach Ke, Yeh Hai Bambai Meri Jaan"
1) Guys in Mumbai are no better than guys in Delhi. They stare...gape...open-mouthed...at anything that looks like a girl. Yes, they pass comments, put their hands where they shouldn't in crowded trains, and leer around anywhere and everywhere.
Gone are the days when you could move around in Mumbai unscathed by the leering eye...Men will be men.
2) I thought only Delhi Punju jats moved around in gaudy clothes, wearing dark glasses at night, playing music loud enough to make you want to wave your fist angrily at them whenever they pass you...Wrong again...almost everyone in Mumbai loves doing that. Gaudy is in...Sober people definitely don't hang around too much...sigh...
3) Band Stand sucks. Totally. You come away feeling totally disgusted...coz there's no sea to see...just extremely openly mushy couples everywhere...ughh! To think I went all the way! I thought Shah Rukh's house would be the saving grace...but you can barely see it over the gates (Don't blame him...with the hordes of people standing outside...yours truly stayed at quite a distance like the lady she is :D)
4) Okay..this isn't a myth...something we all knew...there are TOO MANY people in Mumbai...It drives me nuts...Went for shopping to Bandra yesterday...and at the end of the day...simply the sight of people standing together drove me NUTS...
When my parents tell me "Don't go here...don't go there...coz it's a lonely stretch"...I laugh it off...Tell me ONE place in Mumbai where there aren't so many people, and I will bless you from the bottom of my heart!Hell...Gateway of India is crowded at 7 in the morning!!
5) Hang around in Colaba around 10 at night...and you see the strangest mix of people. I swear I've never seen such a thing in my life....
Prostitutes...small children...cross-dressers...old couples...all walk around, frequently crossing each other. The famous Leopold's overflows...beer...people...call girls...all in abundance...
I've ended up sounding too pissed off...but then...I am! You end up feeling disgusted at the end of each day. There's only so much you can take of people running like the world would come to a stop if they didn't, hordes attacking train entrances...almost creating a stampede every time a train stops at the station...Empty or not...people have to push-pull, kill others....it's crazy (and this is despite the fact that I travel opposite to the traffic flow!)
As if the mauling weren't enough, you are constantly clutching your bag because of all the horror stories you've heard. Get home, hop out to grab a cup of coffee...and you are introduced to a world of prostitutes, drunkards, conmen (yeah...got Rs. 500 from me coz I believed his sob story...found the jackass a few days later looking for a new victim and screamed at him!).
There's so much poverty...it kills you. You see an over-the-top gorgeous corporate house one moment, and abject poverty the next. The taller the building, the worse the condition of the slum that follows.
You help one guy and end up getting cheated...you don't know who to trust...and new office life on top of that...where everyone smiles a lot...but their eyes say something else most of the time...and for some reason they think you don't know what's actually going on in their minds!
Ok...enough of bad things...good things happen too.
Marine Drive for one is amazing (if you go at a time when the cars aren't honking your ears off and people aren't bumping into you everywhere).
The same women who almost kill me while getting into the train, shift over and invite me to sit down despite getting squished in the process.
Some well-meaning men exist too...like the one who told me to move out of the empty compartment that he was leaving and shift to well..a more crowded one...when he got off.
The auto-wallah who took me all over Bandra...and showed me all the shopping places taking the shortest routes possible when he realized I was new to the town.
Some days (very few of them)...I could swear I'm at home in this city...but the illusion is shattered soon enough...and you feel desperate to move out of the self-centred existence that you are leading and just doing something for someone....whether it is the giggling girl wearing bright pink revealing clothes who goes to Leopold's every night to earn a living, or the one with dark circles I found crying in a corner on Sunday morning, or the 10 year old who tries to sell me cheap raakhis on the train...or the old lady who can barely walk, but tries to sell me home made mawa cakes...
One minute I want to run away...the very next moment...I want to take these people away from their current existence to someplace safe.
Never in my life have I felt so lost and helpless. There are too many questions...too few answers...
Behind each glittering light lies a world of deceit, behind each colgate smile...lies god knows how much lies...
Brings to mind the song from CID...
"Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena YahanZara Hat Ke Zara Bach Ke, Yeh Hai Bambai Meri Jaan"
