The Mumbai Metaphor

“Where the broken arteries join to form a magnificent city;

Where there is no existence of the word-‘good bye’;

It is that city of joy,

Which we today call as Mumbai…..”

Mumbai is my metaphor for India. Living in its central suburbs for over a decade, I don’t get a bored feeling. There is always a moment of happiness, exhilaration and enthusiasm of starting something new. It is more than being the capital city of Maharashtra. For the golden India it is the financial and economical capital. Keeping a stone on her heart on 26^th November’08, she survived being the 3^rd largest city in the world. If it can be the centre of the Adarsh society scam, it can also be the centre for a world heritage UNESCO site - The VT station (now known as CSTM).

As a Mumbaikar, my life in Mumbai has proved to be more than the famous Vada Pavs. After a meeting with Mr. Ashis Nandy on children’s day (14-Nov’10) during the Literature Live event at NCPA, who is an Indian political psychologist, a social theorist, and a contemporary cultural and political critic. Mr. Ashis Nandy who is also a trained sociologist and clinical psychologist; I learnt from him that cities like Lucknow, Dhaka, Lahore and Hyderabad are lost cities. They are not lost physically like Hampi, Mahabalipuram or Troy, but, the culture, the tradition, the unity, the cities of the minds within each of its citizen is lost. In this case, Mumbai still survives.

As the seven Islands-namely Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman's Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion make up one Mumbai; we can say that those lakhs of Mumbaikars are also one. The islands were given to the English King Charles II in dowry on his marriage to Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza in 1662. In the year 1668 the islands were acquired by the English East India Company on lease from the crown for an annual sum of 10 pounds in gold (in today’s rate it is- approximately Rs. 750); so little did the British value these islands at that time. Today you cannot buy a 1000sq.ft home below 2 crores or maybe a Nano a square foot !

Mumbai has 60-80% slums! We feel that New York, New Jersey, Houston and Los Angeles are very interesting cities, but what about our neighboring city, the city which gave us the oxygen to breathe and love to share? The fate of all villages is a city.

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Basically, a village is a prospective city, whether it is San Francisco or Mumbai. All were villages at the pre-Britishers time and Ambarnath was a flourishing empire – the more than 1,000-year old Shiv temple at Ambernath , an architectural marvel bears testimony to the fact !

Slums and ghettos may represent poverty in Mumbai, but within the heart of every Mumbaikar no one can be compared, because each one is the richest in love, care and unity, which you cannot see within a family, living even in America.

We can say that Mumbai is-‘Ancient yet modern, fabulously rich yet achingly poor’. The values of tradition, culture has not vanished, but it has just got suppressed. It needs to come out. Whether you live at a luxurious home at Cuffe parade or a rag-picker’s life at the Dharavi Slums, Mumbai will still respect you. The world is one, so are we.

Mumbai will still remain my metaphor for India. Mumbai will move on and still moves on……and, I have faith in it……Hope you have it too…..