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....

Mumbai....Part 3

Its been long since I posted something here. Lots of things happened, good, bad, stupid, and to add to it my laziness kept me outta sorts...

Well, Mumbai Part 3 today.....a lil bit of anger is what I feel, the motormen are on strike, trains have stranded and Mumbai too...Local Trains as they say is the life line, blood line of the city...After today, everyone has realized that I assume. Its time they do something good for the motormen and the aam junta...

Anyway, am not gonna brag or crib about trains today..Its the streets of Churchgate, Town and VT, I am going to rattle on about..and my love affair with them...

South Churchgate aka Town, always held my fancy, since childhood..Its wide and beautiful streets, side walks, the many hues of the ancient buildings, the spread out blocks with fancy pedestrians walking around leisurely, the chic homes of the ultra chic people...Royal was the word I used for it.....Beautiful, Intoxicating and Royal....Till I went through that one day and what reality check it was....

The time of the day was early evening. Not much of a day it had been, just the regular, a few absolutely non-thought-provoking classes in the morning, the hustle and annoyance at not finding books at the library, and some pigeon poop on my shoulders, which meant I was irritated enough to take off on a walk around the oval, towards the far stretching sea and cool it off.

The soft, soothing breeze, and a relatively empty street was a relief. And then I saw it...A woman was ruthlessly trashing a guy, just around the corner on the road...I almost walked past till a smothered scream held me rooted. I began looking around for the source of the sound, and there in the corner it was. Close inspection showed the class difference and the dominant employer and submissive employee relation, written in the clothes and attitude they were wearing. Not that this is new to me. But what followed was a shocker..clouded with worry and fear, my eyes made a frantic search for some help...And that is when anger gave vent...a cluster of very well to do people watching all of the going, like it was some drama unfolding...I went to ask a bystander to help me stop the woman trashing the man black and blue. The prompt reply was, "Kaun padega ga jamale main?"- "who will get involved in it?"- as he swiftly walked off. Others around had overheard me by than, and began their escape. I tried to yell the woman down on my own and heard something to the effect that, kamchor ki saza...

Ashamed at my inability to do anything, I stood there as the woman threatened the man his job and made for home. The guy then stood up and began laughing loud. He spat on the road, cursed the woman and looked at me..."aare madam, idhar aaisaich hota hai, Wo marta hai, lekin paisa bhi deta hai na....tension nahi lene ka...hum unka naya vase bech ke aacha maal kamayega, saab vasul hota hai..." ...

Not so proud a Mumbaikar I was then...not to proud to see the stark negative side of the city...The deep recesses of my mind bought out the forgotten words..ye hai Mumbai, Yeh hai Mumbai, Yeh hai Mumbai meri Jaan....

Mumbai...Part 2

All those who have lived in Bombay aka Mumbai for a few days will agree with me that you cannot escape travelling to get to anywhere while you are here..The added advantage is that this wonderful city has a great public transport system in place...Be it trains, bus, taxis, rickshaws... all of it is pretty usable if not comfortable...Considering that I travel a fairly long distance to work everyday (2 hours one way), I believe this is the apt topic to begin my musings on....I guess trains, rather the local trains in Mumbai is what sets the city transport apart from the others...besides after all these years they still do not cease to fascinate me...so here I go...

Actually, I have been travelling on the trains since I was a toddler....But I do not count those days. Not till I began using them on my own did I begin looking around me and noticing the beauty that a hideous, tedious train and a train ride may be like. Well I do sound stupid and silly I know, but wait till you have heard/read this one...a true experience...

I was travelling back from a extra hectic, bad day of work, and the delay of the trains was defiantly not helping . Battling large crowds I hopped onto this Kasara local, used all my strength and worked my way to the other side of the compartment, ensuring that I would be able to get off on my station.

Standing next to me was this very happy lady, dressed in a dainty shirt with simple jeans, smiling away to herself. Somehow, (and there was no reason for this) her smile pushed me into a sweeping rage and I shoved my elbow into her sides with the intention making more standing space for me and a secret intention of making that smile disappear. She looked at me, a little surprised, and gave me a questioning look. I began yelling away at her for the way she was standing, the way she was holding her bag, even for the way she was holding the handle to prevent toppling over others. She retorted back with perfect calm, that instigated me into yelling more. No reason for it again, except my bad day was catching up with me. I kept yelling away at her as the stations flew by and she kept giving me some monotone and monosyllabic answers all the way. Finally it was my turn to get off on my station and I pushed my way out of the train and felt a calm hand tapping at my shoulder as I began walking towards the exit. She simply said, "I hope you are not angry anymore and I managed to help. Have a nice evening." and walked off. I kept looking at her, till I realized she merited a sorry from me, I wanted to talk to her but she was gone. I will never forget that nameless women, I can still remember her pretty smile and her amazing attitude to life. What a Stress Buster! and what a understanding women......what an experience..

This is only one of the many things that has touched my life... I use the train every single day to travel to and fro..and sometimes interactions, sometimes observations have taught me so many lessons of life....Trains are not simple ways to get me to places I want to go to...they are microcosm of life itself....

I wish I could narrate more of my experiences.. I wish I can tell you about my precious train friends, but time is short and there is so much to do, so much about my Mumbai that I want to tell you....Sometime, Sometime I will, when you would want to hear, me want to tell,...TC folks and have fun,...life is too short to waste in anger and irritation...that lady did remind me....

On Mumbai...Part 1

Mumbai, India. A place I have been interacting & romancing with since my childhood. A city, that is called by many names, and stands upto them all. Much has been said about it, geographically, historically, philosophically, fictions have been centered around it, films made. Out of many, one book that comes to my mind is Maximum City, a song that comes to me is the very peppy and poignant "ye hai mumbai meri jaan".. However, I have never been able to relate to any of these. All of them I know, are true, they are different flavors of the city, different aspects.. but they are not my Mumbai, my Bombay....I believe that Bombay, Mumbai is different for all, is an construction of mind, its more of a mental space, and how you see and react to the happenings here, is what the city is for you..And this is exactly why, I love listening to everyone talk about it, of it...and now, after thinking about it for really long..I want to tell you, what this place is for me...Hence forth, I will write about my interactions, experiences and above all my thoughts on this city in the forth coming blogs. I hope I manage to interest you enough to read the series and tell me about your experiences on them....till the next one then, am signing off...

Introduction..

In case you do not know me, My name is Chaitali... I got little else to say about myself. But I do have a few ideas, opinions and thoughts on different things.....something that my conditioned brains thinks out when I hear, see, feel on the happenings around me...which is why I call this little speaking heaven of mine, simply "thoughts"....these my thoughts on things.....I hope you will enjoy reading my posts and have something to say about them.... Happy Reading....