mumbai meri jaan!

Mumbai - inspiration for numerous movies, hundreds of books and thousands of poems... I LOVE YOU!

Its been over 15 years since I moved here from the small town of Lucknow and I have never wanted to be anywhere else, ever since. Like a bird out of its nest, I spread my wings here in the fast paced lanes, the crowded suburbs and the dirty bylanes of this ever changing, ever pacing city- and it has made me all I am today!

As kids we were accustomed to the weekly "arty farty" Satyajit Ray or Shyam Benegal movie on DoorDarshan every saturday, which was almost a family ritual, or the occasional bollywood blockbuster on rented VHS players if we had been exceptionally good that month! In the 1990s, when we were about to move here, cable networks were just making their way into India, and Mumbai, which was still called Bombay then, was one of the first cities to offer this service. And all me n brother knew was, once in Bombay - Cable TV, our dream come true would be within reach! Ah! what thrill it was to look forward to a truly "modern" city :-) Yes, surely cable networks changed touched our lives like millions in india, but that was not all!

As I grew up here, it has given me everything I have today... endless opportunities, limitless experiences, friends, family, love, career... when I looked around I found people working hard on enriching their lives, moving forward... I found people exploring ways to share and care for others... there was space for everything in this maximum city... for different cultures, religions, cuisines, fashions, professions and even different sexual preferences unlike most of India...

But today when I look around, I see that a city that was moving forward is now only moving fast... and going where? Whether its arts or culture, food or fashion, mumbai seems to be losing its own personal touch... On one hand are the political parties that go around renaming Victoria Terminus to Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus and Bombay to Mumbai and on the other its media thats projecting a complete farce of an image discussing Amir Khans wedding on front page of newspapers and on all news channels... today there is no space for the poor and for the unemployed in the city... a city that was known for being safe for women is now known for cops that rape young girls...

What happened to my bombay?