I was prompted to write this ‘Limited Edition’ blog on Mumbai, after reading @cyrilsunil’s excellent and sensitive blog ‘A+far+able-dream’, on the lack of affordable housing in Mumbai. Someday,I will write a detailed blog on the'Bombay',that it'once was',rather than the'Mumbai', that it'now is'.For now, let us look at Mumbai,‘that it now is’.
As a Mumbaikar for almost a life time, I have seen the steady deterioration,and decadence of Mumbai, from a city of affordable housing, reasonable civic amenities, pristine beaches, and open spaces, to a city of high rise towers, and slums, deprivation, dirt, and unbridled growth. The land sharks, the builder lobby, the political class, town planners, and the tanker(water) mafia, all had a share in things coming to this pass.
Forget luxury apartments,a simple 1BHK, even in the extended suburbs like Virar, Kalyan, and Panvel are beyond the affordability of the common man, and he has necessarily to avail a bank loan with prohibitive interest rates .After he moves in to his dream home, the ordeal starts of commuting to distant workplaces, by means of a public transport system that collapsed many years back. Travelling to work, and reaching one’s destination in local trains, have been a nightmare for long. The traffic snarls, if you travel by road by car, or public transport elongate your commuting time,by more than an hour from, what should otherwise, be your usual norm. At home, endemic water supply shortages keep you engaged in finding innovative solutions like arranging for water tankers, or rain water harvesting. Frequent scheduled,as well as unscheduled power cuts,necessitate inverters in the extended suburbs.
Needless to add,water supply and the power situation are a lot better in the areas between Churchgate and Borivali,VT and Thane,and Kurla and Vashi,areas which developed as parts of*'the Mumbai then'.There is no redemption in the transport situation,however,as the services,especially the railways,are only a linear extension of the existing infrastructure,and therefore open-ended .
Then, when there are bomb blasts or terror attacks in Mumbai, all Mumbaikars converge on an emotional platform, paeans are sung in praise of the’ Mumbai spirit’, the stock markets boom artificially for a couple of days, and then everyone is back to business and work,as usual, to eke out their daily living.
On the positive side, the work ethos is probably the best, when compared to any other Indian city,I have had occasion to work in.Shops, laundries, restaurants are open on almost all the days of the week, and generally,are at a stone’s throw from your residences. And there are no closures for siestas in the afternoon.Schools,colleges,medical facilities,and cultural and entertainment hubs are aplenty. Even if you don’t have your own,or company-provided transport,you can still peacefully sit in office,and work late into the night, knowing well that the last Virar,or Kalyan, or Panvel local is at 1 AM,and the taxis and auto rickshaws would be plying throughout the night. The BEST, TMC buses also chip in with late night services.
The city that never sleeps, is generally safe for men and women at all hours, though occasionally crimes like a rape,or a murder,or those bomb blasts,or terror attacks,I have alluded to above,become a wake-up call for its citizenry, reinforcing the axiom that evil resides in human minds,or situations,and it has no respect for geographies, or locations.This also underscores,perhaps, the need not to,in my view,label cities with descriptions like'crime capital' or'rape capital'.
I reside in Pune now, but every week, or in a fortnight, Mumbai beckons .They say, you can take a Mumbaikar out of Mumbai, but you cannot take away Mumbai, out of a Mumbaikar.Such is the gravitational, and emotional pull of Mumbai.I love Mumbai!
