Its been a while since I promised to put down the part two of Mumbai Gheeto...and well...looks like today is not the day as well....but today demands another painful telling....very painful for me atleast..
The last few weeks have not gone on very well for me. Among other things, my loss of faith in words put me in a sort of whirlwind...days began to feel like a drab, unending and meaningless. Words are still elusive, and the few I can think of or even hear from others, sound phoney/bogus..all layered lies..topped with dollops of chocolate syrup so that their meaninglessness is masked in the sweet syrup of stuipd praises....and an incident that I witnessed in the train while comming back from work is making me loose the little faith in humanity I had...
As usual, the trains were super crowded...after accomplishing the momentious task of boarding the train at dadar..I rushed to the second door, the side I would have to get off eventually. At Kurla, pregnant lady made her way in, batteling the crazy rush...
A few women began yelling at her, for being stupid and risking her and the baby's life by getting into the mad rush. With a demur stance she tried to explain her troubles...asking, pleading, requesting for women to make way so that she could move inside the boggy and the safety it offered. I moved around, expecting others to do the same and let her in. My surprise came when the lady behind me began screaming at this fully preganat lady...I cannot forget those words, they made me loose the little trust I had in Humanity of my fellow mumbaites- all of us running the race to becoming the best robots around. She said, "Its really not my problem, find your way in if you can, you and ur baby can go to hell, you seem to not care anyway.." The pain shot to physicality when I heard a few other women around murmer in acceptance..
Yes, it is true, it is indeed true,..Mumbaites run a mad rat race, a race with no end...where running ahead and overpowering the one in front of you is the only aim...but they are also known to help those running along....it is this quality, this helping, humanistic nature of the Mumbaikars that made me hold my head high when I spoke of the city. We seem to be loosing this as well....Is this what my beautiful, undaunting, overwhelming, unbeaten maximum city is being led into? Is anything about the city worth then? Its glamour, beauty, its grandure, anything at all worth it?
Are Mumbaikars humans no more? can they not spare any thought, anything in the crazy race for their fellow beings?? Can we risk becoming inhumans? Is the success of the city dependent on its stark, robotic behaviour? What do you guys think? Don't you think its time we stand back, stop, catch our breath and think? Think, about what we are? who we are? are we caring and accommoditing as we claim to be, or do we only pretennd ?
I wrote this piece with a small idea, I want us all to sit back and think, pause and think....
was this right? are we too obssessed with ourselves to stop bothering? Is this what we are?? I want to hear from you guys.....I hate to think we are all bad, all wrong..I wish I can restore my faith back in humanity, in Mumbaikars, in words.....
