Scene : Juhu at 8 p.m. last friday – self with friend from Bangalore – trying to get a cab. As one cabbie after the other refused to take us – and were rude to top that – (as our destination was fairly close by) – my friend said, what is happening to bombay? I can’t believe this is Bombay!
What is happening to Bombay? This is the city that I have grown to love in the past eight years that I have been working and living here – although I have lived in Bangalore and London in short spells in this while, I have returned to Bombay each time feeling happy to be back “home”…
And now, everything that I held dear about the city (all the myths?), I see being shattered one after the other…
Bombay has always been considered one of the the safest places in India – especially for women – and now, who can point fingers at Delhi any longer?
Power cuts used to be unheard of earlier – and now residential areas in any case swelter in summer with the frequent power shut downs; Bombay says hello darkness to billboards too…
And for me the last straw was when I went to ‘town’ (I live in vashi, alright?) last weekend and found the second hand pavement book shops had all but disappeared. Part of the ‘cleaning up’ of Bombay… ironically these shops were missing earlier too during the Kala Ghoda and Mumbai festival – why, these shops are (sadly, were) as much part of Bombay’s heritage as any British era building
I used to think living in Bombay spoils you for life in any other place… no longer? Slowly for me this city is turning into Mumbai… ‘Morality’ before all else!
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Once was Bombay is the name of a book by Pinky Virani
It can squeeze the heart to see a their hometown or favourite city change. No matter how nostalgic such sights and sounds might be, a city needs to evolve. Even good things (like those second hand book shops and heritage structures) needs to give way for something different. Different doesnt necesarily mean better but it adds to the heritage, culture and history.
However as far as power cuts, safety, taxi etc, dont worry. The wheel will turn a full circle. Lets just hope that it rotates fast….
I find some of the things to be happening in Bombay to be bizarre, to say the least. All cities in India are changing, Bangalore has changed beyond recognition in the past 15 years, but Bombay’s has been in its soul. The city of hope, no longer?
Sunil
I would agree with deepak here all this momentary, I would think it would take a turn towards the positive.
Dheepak, I agree that a city has to evolve – but I definitely do not agree with the process of old making way for the new – it is not always a good thing – old buildings, for instance… the book shops are a part of Bombay life and heritage – cant think of what can replace them in fact, why cannot the old coexist with the new?
Sunil, yup, Bangalore has changed way beyond anyone’s expectations – way beyond redemption, it feels sometimes…
Akshay – think there is hope for Bombay though – such a vibrant city can never go downhill – or can it?
oops, and I forgot, all of you first time here at this blog… welcome 🙂
I guess it is because the city is no longer “Bombay”. it is now “Mumbai”. Strange, but true, how a name can pre-dispose a person or city to a certain type of behaviour
I guess Mumbai just cannot be the same as Bombay! and believe me, it is tough to keep a ‘cool head’ when you see what is happening to Bombay!
Yes sir. Share the same feelings about this beloved city. Though the cabbie incident can be brushed off as a stray exception (expected in a city of millions), but in general yes, Bombay is going to the dogs. First came the pavement book dwellers which I feel the BMC is not handling properly(Read indianwriting.blogspot for more posts on this). They are a part of city’s heritage and history. And then we have Irani cafes downing shutters, where we can’t even blame the administration for once. It feels like dying thousand small deaths – one at a time.
About the cabbie, it was definitely a stray incident. The cabbies and rickies in the city are THE best in the country, and one exception shouldn’t change it.
Ditto about the Marine driver rape case. Just a stray incident, as I have written on my blog.
The other things you mention are simply infrastructure not keeping pace with growth. Don’t think the name ‘Mumbai’, or whatever you think it symbolises, has anything to do with it. Marathi folks called it ‘Mumbai’ for ages, and Shivsena’s stupid name-change has not really caught on, the way ‘Chennai’ has (hardly anyone calls it Madras now).
Bombay, Mumbai, Bambai….whatever you call it, still rocks.
whoa whoa gaurav, this is not about Bombay (or Mumbai) versus rest of the country – sure Bombay rocks – in itself or as compared to other cities – this is just an observation of Bombay as opposed to what it was earlier… I definitely don’t think the cabbie was an isolated incident – have you tried to get a cab at the airport recently? ditto for the rape case
in any case, my point is – isolated or otherwise, one did not expect such incidents in Bombay… and they are happening now – and who is to say they will not happen again?
as for Chennai, Madras has always been caled Chennai in Tamil – even in mainstream Tamil news – always – so there is nothing really to ‘catch on’ – in any case, the worse thing is the attitude that such a name change promotes – for instance, changing the name of Mahatma Gandhi Road (popularly and only known to Madras-wasis as Nungambakkam High Road) to Uttamar Gandhi Salai!!
yup Suhail, it hurts – especially since this city grows on you and you expect nothing to ever go wrong with it!
Bombay’s changed over the years and I think like most of urban India, the pace of change is higher nowadays, and hence probably the change is more palpable.
But having interacted with Bombayyas in other environments, I can testify that there is something about the spirit of the city that is still alive, within these people.