Several of you have sent in (thanks, Art Vandalay) Suketu Mehta’s op-ed piece “What They Hate About Mumbai“, so it’s no surprise that it is currently the second-most emailed article from the New York Times. In an essay which reminds me of everything I read about our own maximum city seven years ago, Mehta outlines all the ways Mumbai shines, while exhorting us to not be deterred by tragedy.
Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it. I once asked a Muslim man living in a shack without indoor plumbing what kept him in the city. “Mumbai is a golden songbird,” he said. It flies quick and sly, and you’ll have to work hard to catch it, but if you do, a fabulous fortune will open up for you. The executives who congregated in the Taj Mahal hotel were chasing this golden songbird. The terrorists want to kill the songbird.
Just as cinema is a mass dream of the audience, Mumbai is a mass dream of the peoples of South Asia. Bollywood movies are the most popular form of entertainment across the subcontinent. Through them, every Pakistani and Bangladeshi is familiar with the wedding-cake architecture of the Taj and the arc of the Gateway of India, symbols of the city that gives the industry its name. It is no wonder that one of the first things the Taliban did upon entering Kabul was to shut down the Bollywood video rental stores. The Taliban also banned, wouldn’t you know it, the keeping of songbirds. [link]
I didn’t know that last bit about the Taliban banning songbirds; there’s something very poignant about such an act. This morning, I randomly surfed through a wiki page about Osama, who once was so annoyed by music at a race track in Sudan, he subsequently stopped attending races.
But back to Bombay, where a seemingly indestructible Big B (who is a blogger, dontcha know) slept with a loaded revolver under his pillow, for the first time, ever.
Mumbai is a “soft target,” the terrorism analysts say. Anybody can walk into the hotels, the hospitals, the train stations, and start spraying with a machine gun. Where are the metal detectors, the random bag checks? In Mumbai, it’s impossible to control the crowd. In other cities, if there’s an explosion, people run away from it. In Mumbai, people run toward it — to help. Greater Mumbai takes in a million new residents a year. This is the problem, say the nativists. The city is just too hospitable. You let them in, and they break your heart. [link]
That bit I bolded made my heart crack, a little. So did this:
In the Bombay I grew up in, your religion was a personal eccentricity, like a hairstyle. In my school, you were denominated by which cricketer or Bollywood star you worshiped, not which prophet. In today’s Mumbai, things have changed. Hindu and Muslim demagogues want the mobs to come out again in the streets, and slaughter one another in the name of God. They want India and Pakistan to go to war. They want Indian Muslims to be expelled. They want India to get out of Kashmir. They want mosques torn down. They want temples bombed. [link]
Mehta outlines one of the reasons why the “Jewish” angle of the story was so compelling:
In 1993, Hindu mobs burned people alive in the streets — for the crime of being Muslim in Mumbai. Now these young Muslim men murdered people in front of their families — for the crime of visiting Mumbai. They attacked the luxury businessmen’s hotels. They attacked the open-air Cafe Leopold, where backpackers of the world refresh themselves with cheap beer out of three-foot-high towers before heading out into India. Their drunken revelry, their shameless flirting, must have offended the righteous believers in the jihad. They attacked the train station everyone calls V.T., the terminus for runaways and dreamers from all across India. And in the attack on the Chabad house, for the first time ever, it became dangerous to be Jewish in India. [link]
The terrorists have “won”…for now:
The terrorists’ message was clear: Stay away from Mumbai or you will get killed. Cricket matches with visiting English and Australian teams have been shelved. Japanese and Western companies have closed their Mumbai offices and prohibited their employees from visiting the city. Tour groups are canceling long-planned trips. [link]
But Mehta believes that we obviously should not let them:
But the best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Dream of making a good home for all Mumbaikars, not just the denizens of $500-a-night hotel rooms. Dream not just of Bollywood stars like Aishwarya Rai or Shah Rukh Khan, but of clean running water, humane mass transit, better toilets, a responsive government. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.
If the rest of the world wants to help, it should run toward the explosion. It should fly to Mumbai, and spend money. Where else are you going to be safe? New York? London? Madrid? [link]
I love that imagery, of selflessly running to help instead of fearfully running away (not that anyone would blame someone who did that). I wonder, are any of you running to Mumbai? From some of your FB status messages and tweets, I know a few of you are quite understandably having second thoughts.
On a different note, while I appreciate his writing, I hope it is clear that I am not siding with Mehta (or against him); I’ve never been to this beautiful city, so I was hoping you would each give me your take on his op-ed, in the comments below.
Oh! We’ve been speaking somewhat at cross-purposes. I was calling Chopra out on his general careless and muddled approach to science and life in general (“make happy molecules” etc), not on his specific statements regarding the Mumbai terrorist attack.
However, his statements that the terrorist attack happened partly because of US foreign policy is off-base — he was essentially saying that a large number of Muslims around the world were dissatisfied with the US and its GWOT, and that anger came out in the form of an attack on Mumbai. Even by his own relaxed standards, it makes no sense — it’s not like Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is 10 years older than the GWOT, would suddenly become pious choirboys if the US changed its GWOT policy. It’s one thing to advocate a holistic approach where the best remedy for a problem may need to be applied somewhere else in the system; but it’s quite another to jump from there and say that any action applied anywhere in the system will solve the problem!
Dorothy Rabinowitz was right to pull him up for it.
A fine idea, but the Bengali intellectual is too busy reading Trotsky’s interpretation of Tagore’s thoughts on Nietzsche hugging a whipped horse to spare time for your scheme.
pingpong, I’m sending happy molecules your way.
“Bengali Intellectual”. Apostrophe your oxymorons.
This is a Deepak Chopra of Deepak Chopra. His molecules would be ecstatic.
Is that you, Deepak Chopra? Is this me?
It is all an orgy of molecules…terror, terrorists, Larry, Uncle Sam (who somehow looks like Larry, he can make a killing modeling for ready-to-burn effigies), La Jolla…
Except bank accounts, they are somehow separate and require transactions, mostly incoming.
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Why thank you Bess! I’m retweeting your happy molecules through my quantum joy antenna to transmit Karan Johar-esque Happy Puppy Thoughts to the whole world. For an encore, I plan to show that my actions lowered the crime rate in DC by 18% compared to what they would have been had I not made people feel warm and gooey inside.
can someone explain the American role in the genesis of ISI. someone other than a typical secular. thanks.
I was not impressed by Suketu Mehta’s article in the least. Pandering to NYT readers and full of the usual cliches about Mumbai/Hindus/Muslims. I am so fed up of people like Suketu Mehta and Shashi Tharoor ( though at least Suketu Mehta does not affect a colonial accent and go on about how the singular thing about India is its plurality).
And dhanda is what’s on my ganda mind. How much do these people get for a cut & paste job (see Max. City)? Also see Darlymple’s Bhutto assassination piece, which was a reheat of his Age of Kali piece, which was a compilation of his old essays.
Re: Deepak Chopra – In interest of fairness, Barkha Dutt should interview Benny Hinn on U.S. recession.
I watched the video several times on youtube. Perhaps you should watch it again and tell me why, when all the lights went out, Sidner had to scream, “stop it!”. As a woman who has been in a similar situation myself. I know EXACTLY why she had to scream that.
How much more money pakistan will get from US to fight terrorists. Amazing that people don’t get it, Pakistan loves these terrorists, keeps free money flowing into Pakistan. If OBL and his team got wiped out, the money train stops.
Wait, are there people here who think Pakistan really wants to win the war on terror????
Chopra is on FOX right now (EST), speaking from Vancouver. He just got in a quarrell of sorts with the anchor, Hannity Colms. He says when you over-aggressively attack cancer cells then the healthy cells in the body step up to help the cancer cells survive. He kept going on and on and on, and when the anchor interrupted him, said, “are you going to let me finish?!” I’m not sure why they are asking him to comment. Probably because he’s a famous Indian “with insight”. FOX anchor referred to him as a “spiritual guru”. I guess he’s as good as any to comment, eh?
94 · Piyush Grover said
This is a direct quote from Deepak Chop-me. Please feel free to tell me what the hell it means.
“Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy. Quantum healing involves a shift in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction in an idea that has gone wrong. So quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness.”
Are you still wondering why he irritates so many people?
What he’s saying above is, “mind over matter”. Doesn’t take a genious or PhD to figure that out.
Even if you don’t like his quantam healing theories, the point Piyush Grover was making was; on the topic of the recent massacre in Mumbai, he made sense. I partly agree with that.
Finally, someone keepin’ it real!
Great article…I wonder if anyone here can possibly disagree with it. And if so, how??
Indian govt. needs to get revenge like that movie MUNICH and call it a day.
you guys can sit here and go on and on about deepak chopra, cliches about hindus and muslims and how mumbai is a hell hole and pat each other for keeping it real. the reality is this as well:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/world/asia/02heroes.html?hp
nope, the resilience is not made up, it is real. apparently to a lot of people, living there is not just getting about getting calloused.
Amongst all of this India (specifically Assam) was affected by a bomb blast on a train this morning and there are 3 people dead with 30 people injured. The attacks in India are getting to the point of ridiculous. As with the Mumbai terror attacks I am sure this too will be used by the politicians to bring each other down, instead of standing together and bring down the perpetrators.
Chopra himself disagreed with it last night on FOX. He said she is not very well informed about the history in that area of the world.
That’s no refutation…just an empty statement. And her comments had nothing to do with the history in that area of the world. They were general comments that rang true regardless of the history in that part of the world.
121 · rr said
I agree with you here. All terrorist attacks in India occur because of politicians playing politics. If we show our unity by lighting enough candles and politicians can be made to stop playing politics all terrorist acts will come to an end pronto. On Peace TV’s “Islam: The Solution for Humanity” Zakir Naik echoed the same sentiment quoting a delightful analogy – if you go to a prostitute you will get AIDS. terrorism is like a prostitute, and politicians are like their clients who can’t help themselves.
USA funded and trained the Mujahadeen of Afghanistan to fight the Russian communists and kick them out. Those men took what they learned from the USA, as well as the weapons and formed the Taliban. Taliban later went into Pakistan and recruited supporters there. The rest is history.
Kids these days…
Zakir Naik echoed the same sentiment quoting a delightful analogy – if you go to a prostitute you will get AIDS.
Zakir Naik is a buffoon and kayastha_lady is it’s chamcha.
The fact that you listen to people like Zakir Naik explains so much about you. Weren’t you banned by the way?
The Indian and Pakistan governments have the great opportunity now to cooperate and combine forces against terrorists, despite the desires of terrorists to cause instability and escalate violence between these countries. Let’s hope India’s government chooses its response carefully and has learned to avoid the foolish path of the Bush administration after 9/11.
Mathelist, The nytimes article you linked to is describing acts of bravery. Resilience, on the other hand, is rebuilding the city’s spirit and the destroyed property. It means the govt. asking the citizens to make sacrifices (god knows there is any more space for sacrifice for most Bombayites), the citizens trusting that after the sacrifice the city will be a better place to live. And everyone then working to keep it that way. And most importantly – resilience means more openness – not a further splintering into groups. I hope this does happen. I do not deny meeting good and brave people in Mumbai. In fact, on my first day there i was lost trying to get from Central to Harbor railway and some gentleman who was going my way bought me train and bus tickets and said “follow me”. And i arrived safely. But that , again, is on an individual level. The bar has to be raised – reslilience cannot be restricted to one’s ability to bear the sight of grown men defacating by the tracks on your way to work. Or, worse, to get used to the idea that squatting out in the open is your only option.
The foolish path of the Bush admin has kept mainland America safe for the last 7 years. Maybe it’s time for India to try that path.
WTF is up with the stupid people who think that the Indian and Pakistani governments are equally innocent (or culpable, depending on how you look at it) when it comes to these attacks in Mumbai (Indian government is definitely responsible for a lot of things, but that’s domestically). The current PM of Pakistan is the husband of the former PM of Pakistan who OK’ed the Pakistani military cleansing the Kashmir Valley of Hindus. And you want India to cooperate with him?! Granted, he did try, but intelligence officials refused. LOL. Shows how willing they are to co-operate.
I’m not a fan of Bush, but the big mistake he made was a) starting the Iraq war for the sake of oil, and b) never catching that jackass Osama.
USA funded and trained the Mujahadeen of Afghanistan to fight the Russian communists and kick them out. Those men took what they learned from the USA, as well as the weapons and formed the Taliban. Taliban later went into Pakistan and recruited supporters there. The rest is history.
My take: USA funded and trained the Mujahadeen of Afghanistan through Zia Ul Haq of Pakistan. Arming the Pashtun Mujahadeen with the goal of wresting Afghanistan from USSR could give Pashtun nationalism a boost and breakup Northwest Pakistan. He used the money and raised more from Saudi Arabia to promote Islamisation on Pakistan’s Afghan border. This tactic would keep at bay demands for a Pashtun nation, since Islamisation trumps tribal affiliation. The Islamic Pashtuns later became the Taliban. Part of the funds were diverted to the Indian border to foment the Sikh separatist movement. The seeds for the terrorist outfits in Azad Kashmir rebellion were also started at this time.
If you haven’t, watch the Pakistani Ambassador on Charlie Rose last night. There were some truly awkward moments.
sorry, i’m off-topic (albeit a rob-kinda girl): 1. building is a function of available land, which is ultimately very expensive in bombay. so no matter how free government policies are real estate in bombay is bound to be expensive. in any case, population of willing homeowners is increasing much faster than livable square footage. 2. real estate firms in india are probably pretty collusive (directly or indirectly). 3. building beyond a certain range is probably not a good idea; a sustainable city has to have adequate inratsructure in place to accommodate its inhabitants. open or forested areas would be a nice bonus. bottomline: it is quite unlikely that real estate prices are going to fall in bombay. even abolishing rent control as a policy wouldn’t accomplish that much at this stage.
Pakistan’s has two possible futures, right in front of its eyes. One is Afghanistan, towards which it is sliding. The other is India, which it is trying hard to turn into another Afghanistan.
The overall Pak strategy is idiotic, both literally and in the sense of the following quote:
“Never argue with an idiot. They bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
Pakistan has more experience managing Afghanistan-type environments, so their plan is to turn all of South Asia into an Afghanistan, and then rule it using their experience. In general, this is what all bullies and terrorists try to do. They are not successful competing in meritocracies, so they try to break down society to bare knuckles living, where they have a better chance of reigning supreme.
Really bad losers.
And to conclude, here is a really nice theory about terrorism. Accounts for middle-east, Pakistan and the IRA, but not LTTE, ETA and Punjab.
Does anyone more about this moron ? I’d admit that Dallas 104.9FM Radio Salaam Namaste is a place for latest Bollywood tunes and not for high minded political discourse still one would expect little common sense from the “Talk Show” hosts.
This self confessed political junkie drew parallel between the “terrorism” involved in trampling death of a Wal-Mart employee on black Friday and the massacre in Mumbai. She went on to express her disgust with words like – Jesus Christ would be so disappointed that Christmas is making people do this.
The funniest thing was this crap was immediately followed by callers affecting American accent saying that this Wal-Mart terrorism has terrified them and they are scared to shop.
Maybe I have stumbled into the kayestha_lady
I have grown up in Mumbai, South Mumbai to be precise. My dad was in the Indian Navy,and NOFRA the residential colony for Defence officers is located on the southern most tip of the city.So we were those mUmbai aberrations who lived in a sea facing 3 bedroom apartment but drove a Padmini Fiat. My parents are from Bihar, and no matter what mr raj thackeray says I will always call myself a Mumbaikar. For a girl born to bihari parents , life comes with fairly limited choices, but it was Bombay (now Mumbai) that told me that if your willing to put in a day of hard work I will take care of you, I will make sure you get home safe after a night out with friends, I will make sure you can have a great time whether you have 20rs to spend or 20,000! And I agree with SUketu Mehta when he says that this is a city you feel immediately at home in. It can be intimidating at first, but it makes some place for you.
But the attack on the Taj has hit this city very hard. And some may say that why are we crediting an elitist estabilishment like that with more than its due. But the taj is not just about elitism, it is about the attitude that makes bombay different from any other city in the country. When Jamsetji Tata was denied entry into the Watson’s hotel , since it was strictly ‘Whites only’, he decided to not sit on an indefinite hunger strike outside the watsons hotel, but build something grander instead. I think that set the tone for what Mumbai would become, a city of possibilities & opportunities….
But yeah, suketu mehta’s description of ppl running towards the explosion to help is very true, at least from my experiences. I remember when working in canary wharf (one of the less pretty parts of london in my opinion), a coughing fit in the office elevator resulted in everyone else taking a few step away from me. In bombay , my new neighbour heard me cough in the stairwell and came over with a thermos filled up with tulsi ka kadhaa to make sure I would get better soon.
I am more than certain that things will revert to normal soon. Went to leo’s a few days ago with friends, and all was normal xcept the longer route we had to take as causeway has been cordoned off. But I do wonder….that the very thin line that separates resilience from indifference , might just be wearing thin….
This is a general attitude difference between India and the West. In India, people are curious about new faces, are friendly to them, and try to help/know them. In the West, people turn away from new faces, or put up the invisible frost shield everyone seems to carry around. Then they complain about alienation and loneliness.
I was born and raised in Delhi and moved to Bombay in late 90s. For me personally Bombay is what you make of it, you can be miserable if you want as it is overwhelming but for someone like me, it was nothing short of welcoming. Bombay for me is people from all religions going to the Mount Mary church to celebrate the Bandra Festival and people from all religions celebrating Ganpati. Please don’t let anything that has happened stop you from visiting this lovely city.