So is there an original Mumbaikar? I'm sure almost everyone who considers himself a true blue Mumbaikar, has moved in from some other state and made this metropolis his own. While its true that every day the city's infrastucture dies a hundred deaths because the constant influx of people from across the nation into the city, the transport system stretched everyday, its too heartless to say that everybody else should return back to their respective homes. And what would happen if all cities across the world would adapt the same attitude, our NRI friends would have to take the next Air Iindia flight back home, but then again return towhat? What could truly be called home? Is my native land, the true home? Or is the land my father migrated to, in search of work, the true home? Or is that land, home, whose native language, I made my own, whose cuisine I devour, whose customs I follow without batting an eyelid, whose culture I made my own?
A bollywood actress, who incidentally, is also not from this city, famously quoted that "slums should be removed...all THESE people should be sent back.." How can you have such an elitist and callous attitude towards that migrant worker, who in the true sense, is in the city for the same reason why the actress moved in here-- to earn a living. Just because the actress has a Pali hill flat, and the migrant worker stays near a station, doesnt make his stay any less significant. He works here and is contributing, to the growth of the city. So whether he's a bricklayer, a taxi driver, anybody, as long he's made this city his own, nobody should have a right to stop that man from legitimately earning his livelihood.
If cleanliness is an issue, then no city can claim to be clean because its citizens are clean. Most cities that are clean, its because of an attitude that is instilled in them, and its a well known fact that most Indians, would give any and every street a step motherly treatment, and wouldnt mind spitting, urinating, on any road in full public view. And cleanliness is not a issue over which we should become parochial. Its not about a south Indian attitude or a north Indian attitude..its about how individually we were conditioned. I'm sure that the guy who defecates on railway tracks, doesnt do it because he likes the cold Mumbai air to slap his butt every morning, he does it because he has no choice!
It almost seems like a joke to say in today's globalised world that you dont belong here, and scream to those 'outsiders' to 'return to your true home'. Its nice to have strong feelings about your city, to protect it, but to cloister it, to build a wall around it won't make the city any better. If anything it will crush the city! Mumbai's the city it is, because of the melting pot it has become and its not flippantly said that Mumbai is a mini India in itself, because you get to see a slice of the different culures that exist in so diverse a country as ours, in this very city I call my own!
first published:July 17, 2006, 19:16 ISTlast updated:July 17, 2006, 19:16 IST
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Its a discussion that I'm sure takes place everyday across Mumbai, Who does Mumbai belong to? And I was party to one such discussion where there we were the outsiders trying to say that Mumbai is a city and everyone should be welcome. And on the other side were the people who belonged to this city, their grandfathers moved into this city many decades ago and made this island city, home. So we went on, raising voices and trying to get that elusive valid point that would score over the other. So I carry this debate forward. About this city...So is Mumbai a city only for the Mumbaikars...the original Maharashtrians, Goans, Paris, Tamilians, Shettys, Gujaratis, Sindhis, who've inhabited the city for aeons now..what about the rest? The others... who've made this city their home? Bal Thackeray says everybody who's made this city their home after 1995 should leave the city and move out, biharis should quit the city, outsiders should move out! If that be the case Mr Thackeray, if we said our adieus to the Bihari population, then you would have no labourers to build those fancy glass walled ten storeyed buildings, you would have over flowing drainages carrying the crap of the city and very few people to ply taxis and autorickshaws.
So is there an original Mumbaikar? I'm sure almost everyone who considers himself a true blue Mumbaikar, has moved in from some other state and made this metropolis his own. While its true that every day the city's infrastucture dies a hundred deaths because the constant influx of people from across the nation into the city, the transport system stretched everyday, its too heartless to say that everybody else should return back to their respective homes. And what would happen if all cities across the world would adapt the same attitude, our NRI friends would have to take the next Air Iindia flight back home, but then again return towhat? What could truly be called home? Is my native land, the true home? Or is the land my father migrated to, in search of work, the true home? Or is that land, home, whose native language, I made my own, whose cuisine I devour, whose customs I follow without batting an eyelid, whose culture I made my own?
A bollywood actress, who incidentally, is also not from this city, famously quoted that "slums should be removed...all THESE people should be sent back.." How can you have such an elitist and callous attitude towards that migrant worker, who in the true sense, is in the city for the same reason why the actress moved in here-- to earn a living. Just because the actress has a Pali hill flat, and the migrant worker stays near a station, doesnt make his stay any less significant. He works here and is contributing, to the growth of the city. So whether he's a bricklayer, a taxi driver, anybody, as long he's made this city his own, nobody should have a right to stop that man from legitimately earning his livelihood.
If cleanliness is an issue, then no city can claim to be clean because its citizens are clean. Most cities that are clean, its because of an attitude that is instilled in them, and its a well known fact that most Indians, would give any and every street a step motherly treatment, and wouldnt mind spitting, urinating, on any road in full public view. And cleanliness is not a issue over which we should become parochial. Its not about a south Indian attitude or a north Indian attitude..its about how individually we were conditioned. I'm sure that the guy who defecates on railway tracks, doesnt do it because he likes the cold Mumbai air to slap his butt every morning, he does it because he has no choice!
It almost seems like a joke to say in today's globalised world that you dont belong here, and scream to those 'outsiders' to 'return to your true home'. Its nice to have strong feelings about your city, to protect it, but to cloister it, to build a wall around it won't make the city any better. If anything it will crush the city! Mumbai's the city it is, because of the melting pot it has become and its not flippantly said that Mumbai is a mini India in itself, because you get to see a slice of the different culures that exist in so diverse a country as ours, in this very city I call my own!
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