Mumbai Part 4..Mumbai Ghettos

Its weekend again....and angst, irritation, work stress are at bay.....relaxed I have for the day....and now its time to blog again.....ouch...sorry for the silly rhyme....Stupidity is my tag for the day...

Okay....back to Mumbai...it's summer time now and I spotted a few tourists walking around when I was going back home from work...it led me to a small flashback...back in collage I used to be extremely excited to have people over from different part of the country/world and show them around the city...know their opinions and thoughts on it.....One thing I learnt from these trips and from my readings...tourists either love the city or simply hate it...its black or white..with no room for any kind of grey area. Mind you, I specifically speak for a tourist, an outsider view, not for those who have come to settle here, for short/long duration. For, the city makes these new comers their own, takes them into its arms or simply kicks them hard, down and out. And these people have their means and adjustments for survival..I choose to call one of these adjustments/ways Mumbai Ghetto...

For those who do not know about the word... roughly, it is a small community or group of people that come together bound by a common past. This past may be real or imagined, say a common region of origin, common religion or a common culture. When you apply the idea to this hectic and huge city, it translates to small areas, bonded by common characteristics. For instance, a ghetto of middle class economic strata of people in Parel or Goregaon, or those with a common language or those migerated from the same region like Bhycalla.

The problem however, with these ghettos is that their existance does not end merely with their strog/feable existance in different areas across the city and stop at commedarie, but is translated into a strong identity and projection of their own. Wheather this is a good or a bad thing, I would leave for the readers to decide. For me hurried judgements and opinions do not make sense, I can think of good and bad both...

Oh damn, I have begun rambling all over again..But the Ghetto-ing of this city is something I have been wanting to write about for a while now. I think it is an very important part of the city, something that contributes to its layered identity to a deep level, and is the reason for making this city what it is....and so it requires a deep telling...It would be silly if I would try to bundle up this tpoic in a single blog, for I risk boredom or my readers or clutter them too much with my thoughts...so I shall leave you with this introduction on Mumbai Ghetto to speculate on....and await my next writing...

Till then, do tell me what you think of the city, and share your experiences on different Mumbai Ghettos that you have encountered....