Many have written about it many will write about it. Different people wrote with various objectives giving it diverse perspectives. When I came to Mumbai (Bombay then) for the first time was completely awestruck by the pace at which the people carried on their lives, everyone was in a hurry to catch something; trains, buses all looked filled with same type of people. Of course it had some level of differentiation but I could only make out one difference that is of people- being satisfied and frustrated. People who were satisfied showed intense love in whatever they did be it the cleaner on the road or the gentlemen with their ties on in a first class compartment or even in taxis; these were the ones who were satisfied. There was another set of frustrated people who were doing their job but one could easily make out that these people were not doing what they wanted to do, e.g., man who was driving my rickshaw was a graduate in arts, he came to Mumbai to work in a mill, he succeeded in doing so but the mill did not run for long and out of shear need he had to get into rickshaw driving, since then he felt that he had been forced to drive the rickshaw. Well is it true that he was forced? Of course he was by the pressure to survive in this fast paced city. Another man I met on my next trip to Mumbai he wanted to be a musician, his dream was of playing in the band of Aadesh Shrivastav a then well known music director, why Aadesh? Because they both belonged to same native place...did he get a chance? No!! What is he doing now? Working in an office as front desk man taking tuitions in evenings and weekends, says this is what has kept him alive till now otherwise he would have died long ago if he left the music. This man was somewhere in between the satisfied and the frustrated. All of the above have their terminologies to define Mumbai, the satisfied says that they are Mumbaikars because they got what they wanted, the frustrated say that they have been cheated by luck and Mumbai betrayed them and in between some say that Mumbai is biased it makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Is it really the fault of the city that it drives people to its glory and gives them dreams which sometimes can’t be fulfilled at all or is it the people who consider themselves worthy enough to give their dreams a shot?
I don’t see any fault in city by providing dreams to people but I also can’t completely blame the people who just want to try their luck but they should also know that till what time they should go on. Some philosophers suggest that if you have belief in your dream then carry on till you reach there, but it is not a perfect fit in our scenario we are a population increasing with every passing microsecond, competition is increasing every day. Is it still relevant to chase your dreams all the way or is it the best way to make a life with a job which can satisfy your basic needs and has a level of interest of yours and to satisfy your dreams you can always pursue it on the sidewalks of your life. We can say that the decision of the musician was a wise one, but still he blames the city. Mumbai can’t provide you with your dreams, it can only give you opportunity to make your life but it won’t give that exclusively, so if you have an opportunity you need to fight for it, simply blaming the city or the system won’t do anything. People have to fall in love with the city then only they can pursue their dreams. You will be seeing people who blame the system all their lives but they need to understand their own responsibility towards the system. As far as the system in Mumbai is concerned it is the best than any other city, during the last decade it has failed and learnt from the mistakes, simply to give an idea you should look at the train stations security now which has grown after the incident of attack and the policing has been at the crest since then. We still got to get the best of it but we got no reasons to blame the system or the city. Many of times we have ideas that can really help the country or the system. Do we take it forward, do we take the pains to make it work; rarely!! Why? Because it’s not easy and we don’t want to take the hard ways, we don’t believe that it’s our job we don’t really believe that we can bring the change. Is it???
I feel we can, we just need the self belief not a city of dreams to correct our lives. May be that is why Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see”. Many people came to Mumbai to get their desires fulfilled, they did what took them to achieve that; Mumbai has given a lot of people what they desired, has it? Or was it the people who got lucky at the right time? Whatever it might be there will always be a divide between the people and their opinions on the marvellous city MUMBAI. For me it hardly matters which city I live in, it will always be my life but I also know the kind of opportunities available will be far ahead than any city in India. So rather than thinking about what the city can give us let’s just do our part, be loyal towards Mumbai give whatever we can to make it a beautiful place to live in and leave the rest on destiny and hope someday day the wheel of fortune will favour us...
Jai Ho....
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