Amchi Mumbai (Our Bombay). Review on Social Life in Metropolitan Cities

Amchi Mumbai (Our Bombay)

Bombay has become Mumbai, just as Victoria Terminus(VT) has become Chatrapati Sivaji Terminus(CST), Flora Fountain has become Hutatma chowk and many others. Yet you can still buy a ticket to VT, ask your way to Fountain and you will be guided properly by any Tom, Dick and Harry on the road.

Bombay is a metropolitan city where hundreds of languages and dialects mix with the typical Bombaiyya language which is unique to any one else in the country. Where else would you find the poorest of the poor rubbing shoulders with the richest of the rich? Where the worst slums in Asia(Dharavi slum) exist with the Tinsel town of Bollywood? Where Shabana Azmi, Hema Malini, Aishwarya Rai and other film stars have enough causes to fight for, enough poverty and sick people to look after?

It is Bombay that hosts the most attended cricket matches, programmes by Michael Jackson and others, yet has the worst clashes ever. Communal clashes, bomb blasts, accidents, murders and the like.

People from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu make their way to Bombay to eke out a living and succeed. It is the place where the Udipi idli vada sambhar and masala dosa have equal rights and importance as the local vada-pav and missal, where restaurants catering to every taste and pocket are within shouting distance from any area, where box type flats rise up high in the skies.

Bombay is the place where the lifelines of public transport spew out millions during the rush hours. While there is not even breathing space on the western railway trains, people still laugh, play cards, sing bhajans, do shopping and discuss politics, films and television. At every station the trains vomit out hundreds and suck in double the number, all within ten to fifteen seconds. It is the place where bus conductors give the exact change and remember faces which paid them a hundred bucks for a eleven rupee ticket some fifteen stops earlier, where people are friendly, offering seats to pregnant ladies and the disabled, yet fighting over seats reserved for women.

Bombay is unique, it is changing all the time yet remains the same. The Queen?s necklace at Marine Drive in South Bombay might be age old, yet the latest string of lovely lights on the Palm Beach road in Navi Mumbai cannot overshadow it. The Hanging gardens, the Nehru Planetarium, the Museum, the Gateway of India with the Elephanta caves across the sea, the beaches are age old tourist attractions and the Expressway to Pune is a marvel across the Western ghats-that is Bomaby, amchi Mumbai.

The local people are unique also. They may turn a blind eye to the happenings in the nieghbouhood, yet may extend a helping hand to a total stranger on the road. They may live in a one room chawl but have the latest mobile, the latest television set and the most modern car. They may dress well, may never have gone to school yet have the knowledge and the accent in English of the most polished person. They may fight over reservations, yet be broadminded as to want equal rights in everything. They may flock to see the latest film ,yet do not hesitate to create a ruckus at the slightest provocation in it.

Bombay is Bombay, no other place can replace it or live up to it. It is a city of contrasts, of excitement, of opportunity and of teeming millions. Yet it is amchi Mumbai, our Bombay.