IN THE LAP OF MUMBAI

I shifted to the outskirts of this city back in 2002, I was a kid unaware of the miracle that this city welcomes us with. It has been almost 13 years, ever since my first encounter with the Mumbai and its life. In the span of these 13 years, I have seen Mumbai being flooded, bomb blasted, halted and bouncing back with the same spirit. While I carefully travel back, across the years that I have been spending in this city, I came across a belief that Mumbai is not merely a city.

It would be tough for me to zero down at a level and find a word for Mumbai but all that I can say as of now is that Mumbai is not just a city.. it is much broader, deeper and higher in all the given perspectives. What fascinates me about Mumbai is that this city belongs to no one. No religion, no language, no community, no perspective, no businessperson, no industry, no society, no class, no gender, no rich, no poor can claim that Mumbai is mine and yet, this city resides in everybody’s heart.

Being a person who lives in the outskirts of city, Mumbai definitely fuels in my desires. For me Mumbai is aspiration that beholds my desires impeccably. Standing at the door of local train, that endlessly takes humanly wants and desires in the heart of the city, Mumbai fills me up with a warm strength of ambition. Like million migrates who travel in the city with certain aims in their sight, I look upon Mumbai as my wish granting pot, which never grants you a wish unless and until you earn it through your dedicated efforts. Bangalore, Lucknow, Delhi, and all the other cities might be civilised and beautiful but Mumbai... is alive.

Mumbai is the place where at one side you would see a BMW crossing at the signal and on the same side, the same BMW would be knocked by hunger driven, malnourished humans; A place where despite of numerous differentiation of classes, you would find people carrying each other to the hospitals during emergies. Mumbai is indeed a place where a Madrasi can sit in an auto driven by a Marathi conversing in Guajrati to other Gujarati passenger. This amalgamate of cultures has made Mumbai an emotion. The air around Marine lines will narrate you stories of love, romance, heart break and loneliness, someday you might find someone sitting alone fixing their sight at the vast expanse of the see whereas a few meter ahead you might find love birds planning their future together at the shore. .

If you ask me “what is Mumbai?” then I would answer that Mumbai is all those stations that has withstood people and welcomed them from all the regions. Mumbai is all those individuals who lost themselves in the crowd, Mumbai is everything that keeps the engine burning on road, Mumbai is those tall buildings and the shanty slums around it, Mumbai is those concrete roads and potholes accompanying them.. Mumbai is the air that touches you while you are busy weaving your dreams in the local train, Mumbai is the kid who begs and studies in the night school...

Mumbai is everything and everyone that is in the city and yet it belongs to nothing, it belongs to no one.

Sense of Non sense

We cannot deny the immense power of influencing the opinions that social media has, and certainly, that is the reasons why we are supposed to be extra careful while posting something or rather anything on any digital platform, be it facebook, twitter or your private website. The point here that I am trying to make is that – whatever you put on the internet stays there, you might delete it later but it stays in the minds of people like an embossed stamp, which is tough or nearly impossible to erase.

It was yesterday morning when I came across a highly narrow minded, regressive and aggressive article posted on www.returnofking.com – 5 reasons why not to date an Indian girl. However, I somewhere expected that either the title is sarcastically designed or maybe there is an attempt to sound funny but this came out like a shock to me to read that the article was neither funny nor sarcastic, it was literal and filled with racism.

We have always believed that maybe issues like racism, lies in the minds of illiterate but it lands me in bafflement to see how an educated man with writing skills of no less quality, writes something so regressive and illogical. Not just that the five points stated were offensive, but there was an unfair generalization with the touch of absent-mindedness.

The points ranged from Indian women are unattractive, prudes and self-loathing to them being feminist and mentally ill. Not only this, the author even used words like “menu” to denote an Indian girl and added that an Indian girl has a coke can figure and ad genes. This makes me question the mental health of the writer who has attempted a clearly shabby picture of Indian women through his rearward thought process.

However, while everyone found it offensive including me, an amplified lesson came out of this particular incident. We, the young generation of the era have the power of pens in our hand which in a way talks about our freedom to express but what we consign to oblivion is the responsibility that this ‘power of expression’ brings on to us. Solely because the account on social networking site is mine, or a particular website is mine, I cannot put any random theory across in order to mislead people. Off course, I have a right to have my own set of beliefs but beliefs that are counterrevolutionary in nature, beliefs that are plainly generalization, beliefs that are not tried and tested and lastly the beliefs that are shrunken in nature should be think twice-thrice before publishing it anywhere on social media.

For those of you who still did not come across the most offensive and disgusting article that had ever posted on social media – here is the link - http://www.returnofkings.com/51395/5-reasons-why-you-should-not-date-indian-girls.

Do not criticize because it has done amply, just read, and learn about the mistake that you must never ever commit or repeat on the social media platforms.

Remember – Social media is for you but it is not yours.

Ek cup coffee

थके हुए बेजान से दिल में,

थोड़ा दम भरने के लिए. 

दिन के सपनो से नाता  जोड़,

नींद भरी निगाहो से नाता  तोड़ने के लिए,

या फिर कभी यूही 

ज़िन्दगी से होकर खफा,

जिसकी चोस्किया लेकर ही,

एक आशा सी है लौट आती,

वो हैं  पास, मैं और मेरी कॉफ़ी। 

कभी दोस्तों से यूही बातों में,

कभी बरसात के संग चंद  मीठी यादों में,

या फिर कभी कभी यू ही पन्नो के बीच उलझी ज़िन्दगी का मज़ा,

उठाया है मैंने, एक कप कॉफी  में. 

दो पल ज्यादा साथ रहने के बहाने,

कुछ न हो केहनेको फिर भी जाते लम्हों के हवाले,

अकेलेपन  में मानो  जैसे कोई सहारे,

वो है हमेशा पास,

मैं  और मेरी कॉफ़ी. 

दिन तो हैं  बदलते ही रहे हमारे,

वक़्त के पन्नें  तक पलटते रहे. 

ख़ुशी, ग़म हम भी  सब  साथ समेटकर 

 फिर कॉफ़ी के धुएं में उड़ाते रहे 

वो कॉफ़ी के कप सिर्फ प्याले न थे,

ज़िन्दगी के कुछ हिस्से भी थे।

 जिन हिस्सों को हम प्याले में मिलते रहे,

और मीठी कभी कड़वी कॉफ़ी बनाते रहे. 

लम्हे शायद न रहे अब बाकि,

आगे न रहगी साँसें न ज़िन्दगी,

पर  हाँ तमन्ना रहेगी तुम्हारे साथ 

एक कप कॉफ़ी पिनकी,

और  तमाम हिस्सों में  जोड़नेकी.