Haji Ali.... the next icon that has become a defining landmark for the city of Mumbai...and again a much explored and exploited one....and again spoilt with several overladen symbolic meanings and references in different types of literature....
One thing that I invareably see when I visit this beauty is that people are reluctant to walk that mile in the sea, to the actual building. They stop to take the pictures at the enterance and then head to the juice center and are off then...such a pity...
Haji Ali is thought of in several different words by different people....mosque, for muslims, thanks to the films now, it is thought of as a terror hangout as well....seldom is it look upon as a structure in the middle of the sea..standing tall...welcoming visitors with open arms, saving them from the furies of the voilant sea.....seldom is it thought of as a place of peace, tranquality, worship, a place which lets you reach in the recesses of your soul, inner self.....
Haji Ali to me,....a Mumbaikar like me, is defined as a board of peaceful heaven, of quawali, of music, of happiness and of smells, smells of the sea, and tranquality....it is the place I want to go to, when trouble and fear and hate and anger gawns at me....a place that gives me confidence to be,..its strength against the sea, giving me strength to withstand the odds and to move ahead.....
Walking that mile to reach the building, surrounded by the sea, is a walk towards trance, trance that leads me to my thoughts which get lost in the choas of my city's sounds sometimes...a trance that makes me believe in that lost God, in faith, in some self beyond me.....
Haji Ali....another face of Mumbai....another fascet of this schizopharnic city....a gem that shows the deep soul of Mumbai.........
No comments:
Post a Comment