To dream-light dear while yet unseen,
Dear to the common sunshine,
And dearer still, as now I feel,
To memory's shadowy moonshine!
-Yarrow revisited, William Wordsworth
I just finished watching ' Once upon a time in Mumbai'. Though the movie may be called mediocre at best, the city definitely would surpass any adjective, positive or negative that may be given to it.
I have a love-hate relationship with Bombay, or Mumbai as it is now. As a child I had heard of a city of dreams. It was a beautiful land full of beautiful people; of colors and shade; the land where movies were made and the land which had finally tamed the sea. Coming from the plains, just the thought of a metropolis with such a proximity to the sea was what dreams were of! Love!!
My first visit to Mumbai was to catch a flight to Calcutta( No, I can't call it Kolkata). And to be honest, I was devastated. This was not my land of dreams. It was the greatest human tragedy.From the railway tracks to the famous Gateway of India, it was dirty, ugly. Scores and scores of people in a rush to make it through the day. And my beloved sea - well I couldn't see that much of it, but whatever of it's shores I saw wasn't pleasant. This was the beginning of hate.
I visited Mumbai a number of times after that and each time I felt claustrophobic. The only reason I liked Mumbai was for it's shopping and the Mount Mary church in Bandra overlooking the sea. It was only here, that I could stand oblivious to the filth below.
But perhaps like Wordsworth and his famed Yarrow river, revisiting the great Metropolis, not just literally but with an open, uncluttered mind made the biggest difference to me and I fell in love yet again. I have learnt since, that Mumbai welcomes only the ones with an open mind and more so those who are quick to love and slow to judge.
I have seen Mumbai through the eyes of many people- heard a lot, seen a lot, read a lot in the past two years. But I can write about it only as a distant relative and not as her child. Someone once told me, the city is always alive, and once you stop looking beyond the scores of people that throng the local trains and the streets each day, you see her heart.
And the city that runs a monotonous nine-to- five, comes alive in the night. A dialogue in the movie called it, the "city of night". So many unspoken stories are written each night below the glimmering orange lights and each story leaves so much to imagination.
Today, I look forward to each visit to Mumbai. The city never bores me. I can count a dozen stations on the central line, get lost in the smells of cigarette smoke and alcohol mixed with the smell of hot wada pav at 2 am in the morning. And I can dare to travel to Mumbai alone...
So many times, she asks me if I would like to move in. But then like a relationship - I guess I would say, "I don't think we're there yet darling. Maybe soon though :)" ... And she smiles at me and loves me just as much as before..
I don't think I can write what I feel about her in a post and I won't want to try. Each visit opens up so many vistas.So I guess there will be more anecdotes and love notes to follow..
Let me just go back to Wordsworth yet again before I end-
Nor deem that localized Romance
Plays false with our affections;
Unsanctifies our tears-made sport
For fanciful dejections:
Ah, no! the visions of the past
Sustain the heart in feeling
Life as she is-our changeful Life,
With friends and kindred dealing.
Dear to the common sunshine,
And dearer still, as now I feel,
To memory's shadowy moonshine!
-Yarrow revisited, William Wordsworth
I just finished watching ' Once upon a time in Mumbai'. Though the movie may be called mediocre at best, the city definitely would surpass any adjective, positive or negative that may be given to it.
I have a love-hate relationship with Bombay, or Mumbai as it is now. As a child I had heard of a city of dreams. It was a beautiful land full of beautiful people; of colors and shade; the land where movies were made and the land which had finally tamed the sea. Coming from the plains, just the thought of a metropolis with such a proximity to the sea was what dreams were of! Love!!
My first visit to Mumbai was to catch a flight to Calcutta( No, I can't call it Kolkata). And to be honest, I was devastated. This was not my land of dreams. It was the greatest human tragedy.From the railway tracks to the famous Gateway of India, it was dirty, ugly. Scores and scores of people in a rush to make it through the day. And my beloved sea - well I couldn't see that much of it, but whatever of it's shores I saw wasn't pleasant. This was the beginning of hate.
I visited Mumbai a number of times after that and each time I felt claustrophobic. The only reason I liked Mumbai was for it's shopping and the Mount Mary church in Bandra overlooking the sea. It was only here, that I could stand oblivious to the filth below.
But perhaps like Wordsworth and his famed Yarrow river, revisiting the great Metropolis, not just literally but with an open, uncluttered mind made the biggest difference to me and I fell in love yet again. I have learnt since, that Mumbai welcomes only the ones with an open mind and more so those who are quick to love and slow to judge.
I have seen Mumbai through the eyes of many people- heard a lot, seen a lot, read a lot in the past two years. But I can write about it only as a distant relative and not as her child. Someone once told me, the city is always alive, and once you stop looking beyond the scores of people that throng the local trains and the streets each day, you see her heart.
And the city that runs a monotonous nine-to- five, comes alive in the night. A dialogue in the movie called it, the "city of night". So many unspoken stories are written each night below the glimmering orange lights and each story leaves so much to imagination.
Today, I look forward to each visit to Mumbai. The city never bores me. I can count a dozen stations on the central line, get lost in the smells of cigarette smoke and alcohol mixed with the smell of hot wada pav at 2 am in the morning. And I can dare to travel to Mumbai alone...
So many times, she asks me if I would like to move in. But then like a relationship - I guess I would say, "I don't think we're there yet darling. Maybe soon though :)" ... And she smiles at me and loves me just as much as before..
I don't think I can write what I feel about her in a post and I won't want to try. Each visit opens up so many vistas.So I guess there will be more anecdotes and love notes to follow..
Let me just go back to Wordsworth yet again before I end-
Nor deem that localized Romance
Plays false with our affections;
Unsanctifies our tears-made sport
For fanciful dejections:
Ah, no! the visions of the past
Sustain the heart in feeling
Life as she is-our changeful Life,
With friends and kindred dealing.