When
I stepped in this magical and glamorous city called Mumbai I was a naive small town girl
chasing after her dreams of a bright future. I landed here with my bags and
dreams. Like many other I struggled through a lot of things, more than that I
was scandalized with the change in culture, I would literally stand on road
wide eyed and gape at people. But thankfully professionally my struggle ended
quite quickly and gradually I learned to look beyond the veils of lights and glamour.
Almost 10 years here and I can proudly say I am a Mumbaikar by heart now. This
is my home and I owe it a lot. It did change me but I would like to believe, it
changed me for better and taught me things that I still carry with me.
Below is a list of few things that I learnt in Mumbai. Some
are quite obvious and some are quite unique, part of an experience that only
Mumbai can give you.
1) Spirit of Mumbai: I am a part of this spirit. I walk,
work and progress. I have learnt to never break down, never give up even in the
face of the most difficult situation always carry on. Always move forward, always
progress. I swam through floods, have hung on local trains, have traveled
through riots and shoot outs and have survived, worked and progressed. It was
not easy, there were times when I was ready to give up like after the bomb
blasts [I was trapped in a riot and I survived by begging with folded hands to
let me go] I saw people going back to work the next day and I really felt that
they were heartless running after their careers and money. When I shared this
sentiment with some of them, they told me that if you stay at home, you are
giving more power to terrorists; you are telling them we are hurt and unable to
move on. Ofcourse we are hurt but each hurt, each attack, each dent gives us
more strength, makes us more powerful, makes us realise the value of life and
how much we love the city. Isn’t it true? Yes it is. If we continue to live in
the moment of our sorrow, we give more power to the person who has hurt us.
Giving up and breaking down is more easy but moving on is more difficult and I learnt
to do the more difficult thing.
2) No personal space: If you live here you know what I am
talking about. Everyone is at everyone’s face. There is no personal space;
every free space is free for everyone. Like a true Mumbaikar I have picked up the trait inspite of being claustrophobic I don't mind sitting within centimeters of a complete stranger.
3) Privacy: There is no personal space but there is enough
privacy. Even if you are sharing the same sq.meter space; the other person
gives a dam about your personal life. You can easily go on about your personal
life, fight, cry, laugh...no one will interfere.
4) Lend a hand: If you ask, everyone is willing to lend a
hand. They may not have the warmest face but they do have their hearts at the
correct place. But you need to ask.
5) Never say no: Really no one says no here. If you ask for
help especially directions people will always help, even if they don’t know.
They will never say no. And neither do I but I try and not lead them to
incorrect information.
6) Measure distance in time and not in Kms: We talk time
and we walk time. Distance is never measured in kilometres. It is always
measured in how much time you will take to reach a place. So Thane to VT is not
60-70 kms, it is about hour and a half.
7) Walk: We walk a lot. Most of us do and we walk fast.
Walking is like second nature. Anyone who uses public transport here would
easily walk around 4-5 kms daily and would walk fast. Sometimes it does get to
me and I really feel if just for few minutes all of them could stop, and breath.
These were some of the things that Mumbai taught me. What
about you..where do you live? What has your city taught you?
