To Love A City

Hey Everyone,

Today I’m here to tell you a love story. The story of falling in love with a city.

To start with, have you guys watched Wake Up Sid? If you have, you’ll know Konkona Sen Sharma’s character in that- ‘Aisha’. Well, I always related to her. That’s the whole reason I love that movie so much. Oh, and it’s music of course. But I digress.

You see, like Aisha in the film, I too recently moved to this continuously moving city of Mumbai with an aim to become a writer and to be more independent. I’ve been here 10 months now, and I have achieved both those aims to a certain extent. I am a writer by profession, living independently in this metropolitan city. But, I am not doing the kind of writing that I really want to do, so there’s still more to achieve.

Again like Aisha, I have also developed certain feelings for this city of dreams. However, unlike Aisha, those feelings aren’t actually for a guy, but the city itself. There are so many shades to this place, that I feel that a lifetime here wouldn’t be sufficient to learn all of it’s secrets.

There is so much happening at a time, that it is difficult to keep up with it all. If you go out in the morning or day time you can see one shade of Mumbai, where everyone is running the rat race, trying to get to work and make money and a living. But, if you go out at night, well… that’s a whole other picture.

At night, the roads are emptier; and the city slows down a bit. But not by much. You’ll still see people around, bazaars open, street food, and lots of vehicles. You also have the cafes and the clubs full of people, enjoying some time off their busy schedule, particularly on the weekends. There are lights, and colours, and smells enough to overwhelm you.

Mumbai at night is beautiful.

But don’t get me wrong. Mumbai is not some gentle mother that will take care of her children. Rather, she’s an indifferent one, that holds opportunities for everyone; but if you want them, you have to go out and take them. Otherwise, you’ll just be left behind, disappointed. Moreover, if you don’t keep your wits about you, you could get badly hurt as well.

I’ve also seen that this city is resilient. For example, just 2 days after the Monsoon floods last year (2017), Mumbai was back in operation. And the Elphinstone Bridge disaster? 22 people dead! But even that didn’t bring Mumbai to a halt for more than a day. Like I said- resilient. And if you aren’t as resilient as her, you won’t survive here. No matter your condition, you have to just grit your teeth and move on.

This isn’t to say that nobody in the city cares. On the contrary, the people here care more, and are a lot nicer and less judgmental than any I’ve met in other places. But that’s a whole other blog post, so I’ll come back to it later.

My point is that, in spite of its seeming harshness, I have fallen in love with this continuously changing city. I have fallen in love with its lights, and flow, and even its darkness. There is a magical quality in its air that has charmed me (and countless others, no doubt).

To quote my sister (who has also lived here) about this, “Mumbai is overcrowded, dirty, and rat infested, and isn’t a place I would normally like… But this city holds a charm that isn’t there anywhere else.”

My sister and I hardly agree on anything, and this statement of her’s is one of the few things we do agree on.

And as cliche as the following is going to sound, the famous song from the film CID, sung by Mohd. Rafi, had it right when it said, “Zara hatke, zara bachke…. Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan!”

Well, that’s it for today… Until next time folks!