Mumbai....

I am very protective about Mumbai – my native city. Having lived there all my life I jump to defend it and often also silence critics by glorifying it. Hence it becomes all the more difficult to accept that Mumbai isn’t perfect. Far from it, in fact. In many ways, after the urban studies classes, I feel Mumbai is capitalism (in whichever form it exists in India) at its best. The constant hurry and lack of time, the chaos, the orientations towards benefits and profits and stark inequalities are characteristic of Mumbai. And one thing every Mumbaikar is accustomed to is collapse of services – anytime and anywhere.

Having reported on varied issues of Mumbai, I can count the number of times the citizen was let down by the state. Be it July 26, 2005 when I found myself stranded at varied points for a period of three days and I saw the city held to ransom. I remember the Chief Minister and Civic Commissioner looking at each other when questioned about the complete failure of services across Maharashtra and also the fear on the faces of hapless citizens who climbed onto buses and ran to higher floors as they saw their homes submerged. The sight of dead buffaloes in Goregaon still haunts me at night sometimes. I saw the Prime Minister promising crores of rupees as relief and then reporting on how that money never reached the victims. With so many hands working to propel Mumbai towards capitalist efficiency, each time the city only seems to be on the edge forever.

Another incident that comes to mind is the Gateway murder which again raised issues of security and crime in Mumbai. Were the streets safe for women? Were criminals lurking free in Mumbai? They say Delhi is unsafe for women and no one ventures out after 8 pm. Mumbai is the city that never sleeps, expect it seems we all successfully manage to put our conscience to sleep. We manage to overlook the gross injustice and disregard for our emotions and hardwork and keep on working day in and day out to earn the ‘productivity’ tag. It reminds me of Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times wherein everyone works in the assembly line, each minding his own business and going back home feeling he has been productive.

Still Mumbai is home and will always be. What the city offers in terms of opportunities is still higher compared to other cities. As a reporter the maximum number of stories I have done have been on the Fort Booksellers. I have followed the story, each and every development and seen the brutalities of bureaucracy and red tapism. Hypocrisy is dominant with Fashion Street with many illegal hawkers being allowed to stay put (because they give hafta) and raiding the stalls of the book sellers time and again because they refuse to pay. When they did finally pay, they were told to come after 3 months! The raided books lay in the municipal godown where rats were feasting on them and I was told they would be later sold in scrap and the money would be pocketed by the officials. Yes, it is true that the booksellers sell pirated books. And having exposed the piracy racket myself in the Harry Potter series, I can assure you that the sellers are the smallest fish in the pond. This is a much bigger racket which is actually a business that brings in huge profits just as film piracy does. Thus who gets the blame? Who gets penalised? The powerless, the desperate and the smallest link in the story.

The inequalities in an urban setup also came out well in the documentary film ‘Kachra Kondi’ directed by Ajay Pete. An entire subsystem exists within a city who are deigned to live in dirt, grow and perish there. Lack of access to services is evident when graduates also take up the broom, join the conservancy staff and get into mud racking literally. The most poignant point of the film was when they showed how dead bodies were also waste that these workers had to cremate and on a daily basis deal with mangled and decayed bodies. What is the essence of such living? What is the level of helplessness to continue working in such inhuman conditions? What are the power politics that relegate them to such work – time and again? And what progress are we talking about if the earlier scavengers are now rag pickers??

Of the recent films I have watched I liked Life in a Metro. The complex characters who are neither white nor black. The struggle of having dreams and using different means to achieve them. The assertion of sexuality and its implications. The entire mosaic of characters who aren’t apologetic for their run after money, who are confused perpetually and who are figuring out their lives at every stage.

Since on the topic of sexuality, I have noted that urban setups are the epitomes of contradictions, especially in terms of sexuality. So while on one hand, we have homosexuality coming out of the closet, on the other hand, we have moral crusaders joined by anxiety-ridden parents protesting against Valentine’s Day and the concept of “love affairs.” That these days came into existence in the first place is thanks to globalisation. The existence of both these extremes shows how complex we humans are. And it intrigues me because we are the land of Kama Sutra and yet we have a “dignity” to uphold.

In comparison to Mumbai, Pune is a slower, calmer city, I feel. Is it because capitalism hasn’t permeated fully here? is it because resources are lesser here? The other day I was chatting with my friend with Mumbai and he said “Pune is a dead place na. Everyone is so laidback.” And to my own surprise, I retaliated “But what is the hurry? Where are we dying to reach?” Moving out of Mumbai has confirmed my Wilson classmate’s theory that “Those who live in Mumbai believe that the world starts and ends with Mumbai.” Today when I see the news I note that 90% of the news is about Mumbai – everything from its fashion, to night life to weather and of course economics.

The contradictions are also visible in terms of religion and its expression in urban setups. In an increasingly uncertain and chaotic world, lot of young people are gradually turning to religious institutions for stability. On the other hand, many are rejecting the tenets of religion and turning into atheists. This whole jihadis versus nastiks is evident to me in my daily life – wherein people either want to subsume themselves in religion or isolate themselves from it – neither of them questioning or reflecting.

Shilpa Ranade’s research on gendered public space in Mumbai (April 2007) made me think of how women’s staying out late needs legitimacy and only certain spaces are “safe” for them. Walking through lonely lanes, ill-lit streets and rowdy nakas have always been a struggle for women. And this is important more so in urban setups which are supposed to be equalitarian and liberating. If public spaces are predominantly male and women are restricted to mark a group’s honour, where is the emancipation and empowerment that urban areas are said to be granting to women? Urban areas are recasting women into newer forms of restrictions albeit giving them some opportunities nonetheless.

Finally, an entry on the 6 years punishment to Sanjay Dutt in the 1993 Mumbai Riots case. Many issues come to the fore here – insecurity, crime, punishment, reformation, public scrutiny, judicial justice and power. While sympathies are with Dutt, the truth is few are given this chance to improve – to better their mistakes and Dutt got it because of his background. And even fewer get this kind of media support and public sympathy as Sandipan Deb rightly points out in the Indian Express that “Many others stories will remain unheard, their father’s grief unheard and their tales …possibly laughed at.”

We mustn’t forget that Dutt is where he is today because of his social capital. Though the man has reformed himself, this opportunity was granted to him – a chance many languishing in prisons as under trails would die for. As Judge Kode was right – “In a city like Mumbai every citizen on the street felt threatened during the riots. All of them didn’t resort to possessing illegal weapons to protect themselves.” There are many sides to this story and many would say his celebrity status is going against him. But his celebrity status is also getting him Z plus security as he is shifted out of Arthur Road Jail to Yerwada Jail. He is unlucky but also advantaged.

And since this journal entry was predominantly about Bombay I would like to end with verses from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “To the City of Bombay”

…..And the men that breed from them
They traffic up and down,
But cling to their cities' hem
As a child to their mother's gown……

Now for this debt I owe,
And for her far-borne cheer
Must I make haste and go
With tribute to her pier.