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.