In the deepest of my heart and brain, I am a hard core Mumbaikar!!! I have always loved the city and the people. Inspite of being away from Mumbai for 3 years now, I still take the same pride in claiming that I am from “Aamchi Mumbai” that I have always had when I spent my 24 years in Mumbai….
Mumbai with its crowd, hustle-bustle from early, very early mornings to late, very late nights, and all the hungama makes me feel “at home”. Right from VT (now CST) to Kalyan and Churchgate to Virar ..I just love it…And yes I do firmly believe that Bombay extends right all the way upto Kalyan and Virar. The boundaries don’t cease at Mulund and Borivili for me…people up there lead a very much Bombay life and are very much Mumbaikars…And this I am saying not because I am from one of those places..(I am from Goregaon) but because once you step out from Mumbai and know what a non-Mumbai life is…you realize what is a Mumbai life and who are Mumbaikars?...
I have always enjoyed every aspect of a Mumbai…BEST buses to over crowded local trains, vada pav stalls to continental breakfast at Oberoi…the zeal and zest of the city keeps it moving…moving real fast. You meet all kinds of people here…people that sing bhajans in trains, people that travel 3 hours to reach office, people that throw pan spits on the road and building corners, people carrying 4 mobiles, fisher women in local trains shouting “machiwaali”, door to door bhajiwaalas and the six sigma business model dabbawaalas, dressed up people at Nariman Point, the share dalals with tika on foreheads at Fort, the executives getting restless in their accords trying to get to office in midst of traffic, bollywood actors, politicians, people rallying in Azad maidan, others taking their kids to show gateway of india and elephanta caves, people fighting in big queues for railway tickets, buses and taxis…not to forget about the big queues at siddhivinayak, people hanging of the trains, corner paanwaalas…different colors, different personalities..all mumbaikars at heart…
But, we all share common characteristics..characteristics of being a Mumbaikar…we love local trains ..(no buts and ifs)…we love eating roadside bhelpuri and panipuri….we hate rains most of the times.. all the dahi-handi, holi mania, ganpati and diwali craziness…all the bargaining at fashion street and linking road, we love playing cricket on road and rickshaws with bollywood songs…....love it love it love it..
By the way...Only if you are not in India, one can know how important a rickshaw is…I terribly terribly miss rickshaws..the pleasure of getting into a rickshaw when you step right outside your house and the pleasure of taking it to a distance ranging anywhere between 1 mile to 100 miles in a price that is affordable to a common man is enormous and incomparable…
Three cheers to Mumbai and the spirit of Mumbai.. The city of rich and poor, home to all people all around India..city that has given everyone that came to it an oppurtunity and a way to find what they aspired for.. city which sprung up to life in 2 days whenvever a natural or man made calamity has tried to destroy it..city where you are related more to a neighbor than your relatives and a city where people call themselves as "Mumbaikars" rather than identifying themselves as "Maharashtrains" or "Gujuratis" or "South Indians" or "Punjabis" or "Bengalis" or anyone else...
Love you Mumbai ...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I completely agree with you....£ cheers to Mumbai and its life....I also love Mumbai...
Post a Comment