Traveling during the peak hours in Mumbai is no less than an adventure, be it by any means – your private car, cab, auto, bus or a local train. I travel to office in the morning and it’s really a fun for me – some new experience each day. Many a times I have heard people say – “Kya hoga is shaher ka, kitne khadde hai” (What will happen to this city? there are so many potholes) as the bus bumps into some puddle. Close investigation (it’s very easy to get into a conversation with such frustrated people) reveals that people who often curse this city are ones who come here with high aspirations. Welcome to Mumbai - the Swapna Nagari – (City of Dreams), with due respect to whoever named it so.
People come to Mumbai to start business, look for jobs, and study and so on. In the exercise they start taking city for granted. They expect total comfort and pleasures that they probably left back in their parent city. People start comparing Mumbai with other cities, Pune is clean, Bangalore is so organized, this is so well planned, and that is so cool and so on. I don’t understand the logic of this comparison in first place. Why would you compare some city which is just on a development phase with Mumbai, which is so overly developed? And who knows the fate of your city 5 years from now, it could be more miserable than Mumbai. The fact that others boast of their city’s magnificent infrastructure will attract masses and in turn will make that city as much crowded as Mumbai, or even more. Similar thing happened to Mumbai. People flocked to Mumbai in search of opportunities and crowded the place all over. It had lot to offer to anyone who came in and it still does today.
Yes, it is crowded today, roads are not good, there are slums but little introspection will reveal that all of it was because of Mumbai’s image of city of dreams. Nobody likes to see people emptying their stomach along the roadside in the morning but these are not the Mumbaikars but outsiders who have infiltrated the place. Traffic problems and hindrances to infrastructural developments are because of unauthorized constructions, be it huts or chawls. Irony is outsiders have created the mess and outsiders are cribbing about it. People just sit back and enjoy the dilemma of the system or the government. Many shout that this city is a mess and government is useless or corrupt and when government wants to do something human rights society stalls a demonstration against the evacuation.
People come to Mumbai to start business, look for jobs, and study and so on. In the exercise they start taking city for granted. They expect total comfort and pleasures that they probably left back in their parent city. People start comparing Mumbai with other cities, Pune is clean, Bangalore is so organized, this is so well planned, and that is so cool and so on. I don’t understand the logic of this comparison in first place. Why would you compare some city which is just on a development phase with Mumbai, which is so overly developed? And who knows the fate of your city 5 years from now, it could be more miserable than Mumbai. The fact that others boast of their city’s magnificent infrastructure will attract masses and in turn will make that city as much crowded as Mumbai, or even more. Similar thing happened to Mumbai. People flocked to Mumbai in search of opportunities and crowded the place all over. It had lot to offer to anyone who came in and it still does today.
Yes, it is crowded today, roads are not good, there are slums but little introspection will reveal that all of it was because of Mumbai’s image of city of dreams. Nobody likes to see people emptying their stomach along the roadside in the morning but these are not the Mumbaikars but outsiders who have infiltrated the place. Traffic problems and hindrances to infrastructural developments are because of unauthorized constructions, be it huts or chawls. Irony is outsiders have created the mess and outsiders are cribbing about it. People just sit back and enjoy the dilemma of the system or the government. Many shout that this city is a mess and government is useless or corrupt and when government wants to do something human rights society stalls a demonstration against the evacuation.
A Mumbaikar (not necessarily a Maharashtrian) for no reason is blamed and becomes an object of mockery (I have personally got remarks saying – what’s this city, it’s a shit place). However, a compassionate Mumbaikar is still firm on his role of acceptance and adjustments, taking happily whatever comes his way. At end of the day, he calmly sits back and ponders what can be done to preserve this swapna nagari – Aamchi Mumbai. Nobody is stopping you to come to Mumbai and fulfill your dreams but atleast be obligated with what the city has offered – a place where you believe your aspirations are achievable.
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