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.
Suketu Mehta and Mira Nair were “talking” at the NYT building the other day and he said, “New York is the Bombayest city in the U.S.”
Anyway, although some of us postponed trips by a few days, much of my immediate family is heading to Mumbs in a coupla weeks for a wedding. Don’t think the Sea Lounge will be open yet, though.
Anna: Mumbai will come back. It’s matter of time. The people of India are resilient. No matter what these cowards do, the spirit of ordinary man in India is intact. In Gujarati there is a saying which translates somewhat like: “Let the dogs keep barking, it should not affect the royal Elephant”. Ratan Tata, just a while ago told Farid Zakaria that TAJ hotel is a matter of pride for his Grandfather. No matter how long and how much it will take. He will rebuild it. Although I was born and raised in Ahmedabad, Mumbai was my dream city when I was growing up. May God rest the souls of those who died defending my beloved Mumbai.
Some notes:
This was an appalling, heart-wrenching tragedy, but if you cannot comment constructively (i.e. without calling others stupid), please refrain. Disagree in a civil fasion with Mehta, other commenters, whomever…but name-calling and insults will not be tolerated.
Additionally, this is an American blog written in America about and for the diaspora, not an Indian blog written for Indians. Comment or realign your expectations accordingly.
Finally, keep in mind that we close comment threads which require excessive moderation or if/when they devolve to a point where the conversation is no longer a productive one. Some of you wanted the chance to talk about what happened. Here’s your opportunity to do so– but we’re not suspending our clearly-stated guidelines in order for you to do that.
I have always loved Suketu Mehta’s writing and his images. It makes Mumbai comes alive for me. But that’s just his style. Substance of his writing is, in my view (which you may disagree with), is just a bit above mediocre. This op-ed piece, though beautifully written, is by the same person who glamorized the underworld and the “dons” of Mumbai : like Chota Shakeel and his group. For all we know those are the people connected to these attacks. They have been connected in the past. Though, things like this doesn’t change the fact that Mehta is a great writer, it does make his view less compelling.
Thank you, xetra, for showing us how it’s done. I hope others emulate your tone.
I’ve been watching this thread and noticed that a comment made by Sudeep was posted and immediately deleted. I read the comment– it was not offensive (at least not to the degree of some other posts I’ve read on this site in the past). I suggest that if this website is to be taken seriously (especially during such a critical time where open discussion is of the utmost importance), then unjustified censorship should not be occurring.
SM Intern, your comment that “this is an American blog written in America about and for the diaspora, not an Indian blog written for Indians” is somewhat ridiculous. Suddenly, opinions from Indians in India are irrelevant?
I now wonder how many other posts have been deleted from this website…
They do delete offensive comments, but then you also have to give them credit that they allow people to post anonymously, instead of asking people to “register” and post with assigned handles. Keeping that in mind, some annoying posts by trolls can be edited/deleted. I don’t find anything wrong with that. Also, this site does claim to be the 1st Amendment to the US constitution, so hate speech as defined by site moderators can be banned. Anyways, the main reason I came here was to post this link of notable work done by some people in Bombay. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3774023.cms
Anna, thanks for blogging this. I don’t agree with the totality of Suketu Mehta’s commentary on this subject, but disagreement should still be voiced coherently, cogently, and courteously.
SM Intern, thank you for proactive moderation. Sudeep was out of bounds in insulting the blogger. Comments like that have no place here.
Thank you SM Intern for trying to maintain the peace and give those of us watching stateside, a city we love be torn apart, a place to come and talk.
Sepia has always seemed to me to be a place where we could dialogue and use reason to stand together as a community with a plethora of views, even when those views diverged. I hope that as it continues to grow it stays that way, because it give this ABD a sense of hope that our generation will not be as divided as the one that came before us.
I don’t think it’s about hating Mumbai. I think it’s about Kashmir and maybe India and Pakistan need to find a way to resolve this long-standing crisis. Why can’t Pakistan keep it’s half section of kashmir and India her half? It’s like the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. They’ve been fighting over a “patch” of land, which really will have no significant impact on either country.
Sukheta Mehta can delve off into hyperbole sometimes and you’ll notice that if you read his book.
I think william Darlymple’s writing on this issue is much more salient than Mehta’s.
Link here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/30/mumbai-terror-attacks-india1
7 · SomeNdianGuy said
I meant, does NOT claim to be…
SM Intern… Haha, guys please realize that there is no SM Intern character. It is just a pseudonym chosen by all the bloggers themselves to fix things but appear like micro managers. This should not be that hard to understand when you realize that this is an all volunteer blog.
Really? If that is true then I am about to have an existential crisis!
my guess has always been that each of the bloggers takes turns being the intern
There are many things I appreciate about Bombay and there are many things I hate about Mumbai. Lived there for a nearly a year and have visited several times (personally and professionally). Mostly dislike. It is a hustlers city – hence the dislike. The dhanda is preciously why I dont like it. Trains in Bombay run mostly on time – despite transferring many millions of people. I wish Melbourne could learn from this punctuality. It is that one aspect that makes me believe that lack of punctuality is not an inherent desi trait. Yes it is always Bombay 😉
Anna, while I’m sure many folks had the intention to help, I’m not sure what increasing numbers of people surrounding the burning Taj could do to help.
Doesn’t it in fact distract from the focus the pros need to have in bringing an end to a dangerous situation? At least on the News networks I was viewing, the guys (where were the women?) milling about did not really look like there were there to “help” as much as to “gawk”. And then of course we saw what happened to reporter Sidner when surrounded by the same crowd. I think in situations like this one the best thing for such people to do is just stay home. I mean, it’s dangerous as hell for them as well being out there like that milling about.
I don’t really understand why the Indian/American distinction had to be made. It was inappropriate, especially since everyone is aiming for a culture of unity.
Suketu’s article didn’t really speak to me. His whole book was so voyeuristic, it was like he was a tourist and not a native. His article sounded like lots of the same old stuff. I’m Indian American and I lived in Mumbai for 2 and I am sick of everyone talking about the ‘spirit of Mumbai’? How long will that be a sorry excuse for not investing in infrastructure (security, metal detectors, police with more than batons)? Mumbai makes trillions of dollars in various taxes, including an octeroi tax that no one talks about, where is that money going? Yeah the people from Mumbai will rise out of it because they have no choice. If you are lucky to be alive then you have to move on and make money. And really the international media would not have been all over it had foreigners not been involved. At least it has brought this topic into the global discussion.
quite normal behaviour for India. If there is a disaster everyone pitches in to help -whether that is useful or not. At least hang around. What else is there to do? Go home and watch TV ? Why do that when you can see it in real life. Remember, all the shops / businesses were closed.
yes it is. Being in a big hotel does not guarantee you safety – would being your home be any safer. Better to be out on the street. It is a class / cultural difference. The street is a friend not an enemy in indian culture.
There are more people on the street in poor neighbourhoods as compared to Rich ones. True across the world.
Sorry I meant I lived in Mumbai for 2 years.
There’s now increasingly compelling evidence that the attacks were indeed carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists (mostly Lashkar-e-Taiba) and not Indian ones, as was expressed on various blogs and tweets. Also, as suspected, the name “Deccan Mujahideen” was vaporware created to blame Indian Muslims for the attack.
The good news is that as long as the evidence is publicized well, it should preclude riots between Indian Hindus and Indian Muslims.
Assuming solid evidence surfaces of ISI’s involvment in this, what choices does India have? Targetted killings within Pakistan? Or wait for a new administration in DC to put pressure on Pakistan to rein in ISI. Or will it be back to the same as memories of Indians is short.
Ofcourse this might be the work of someone else and India and Pakistan bff.
16 · Piyush Grover said
I thought–I could be wrong– he was making a larger point about the spirit of a city he loves, not that I’m an expert on discerning such things. 🙂 There is something beautifully heroic about rushing towards calamity, selflessly, fearlessly…that’s how I interpreted it. I hope he was not encouraging gawking or focusing on dreamy imagery which would, in actuality, complicate ground realities. 😉
On a different note (not that present company required this distinction) I didn’t write those quotes, Suketu did. While I appreciate his writing, I am not siding with him (or against him); I’ve never been to the city, so I was hoping you would each give me your take on his op-ed.
17 · Meenakshi said
The people whose comments we removed were not aiming for any sort of unity. That slew of ugly insinuations and assumptions hurled our way required such a strong clarification. I’m sorry some of you don’t understand what a difficult position we are put in with regards to India; we’re damned if we do post (“Who the hell are you ABCDs to say anything about India?”), we’re damned if we don’t (“How dare you ignore India?”).
Please, assume the best about the decisions we make on this private, volunteer-run blog. And please, no more comments about me, the intern or what you think of our judgment calls. It’s off-topic.
21 · DesiInNJ said
Well India armed, trained and funded the LTTE, ended up fighting it and had an ex-PM blown to smithereens by one of its suicide bombers, but nothing happened there.
Underwhelming article. Suketu Mehta is turning into the Deepak Chopra for the NYT in terms of all things Bombay. Anything for a buck. There is time for raking up Hindu/Muslim or India/Pakistan slime and there are times when only slimes are unable to resist pointing to hindu culpability no matter what the occasion.
I appeal to your professed secularism to allow me to post part of a longish response from S.N. Balagangadhara.
Beginning with the attacks of 9/11, I believe we see a metamorphosis in the nature and structure of these terrorist
networks': they are now being transformed into a multinational enterprise. Through mergers, takeovers, and the establishing of new branches, the terrorist networks of yesteryears are transforming themselves into a true multinational firm. They arethinking globally while acting locally’: bombs, suicide bombers and rockets in Iraq and Israel, aeroplanes in the US, grenades and AK-47s in India. They do not have a single signature or a modus operandi: they are adapting, changing and transforming their ways of working to suit the conditions they find themselves in. They effortlessly undertake purely criminal activities (just think of the drug money in Afghanistan), mix easily with the local criminal population but yet manage to retain their identities as `elites’. These are their equivalents of joint-partnerships with local firms.The war in Afghanistan sounds the death knell of the old business model of going to a particular place for training, living with other `comrades’ in tents, and learning to make a bomb or blow up an armoured vehicle. Today, one has to make use of local conditions and develop strategies for dealing with different places in different ways. This, I believe, is the biggest lesson of Mumbai: instead of ineptly trying to copy Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrorists are being taught the lesson of how to be maximally effective in exploiting local conditions. This lesson was needed because the Indian terrorists created no waves despite simultaneous bombings in multiple sites in India; the international leadership stepped in to teach them how to act so that the maximum could be achieved. I believe that this is how the leadership demonstrated how things have to be done, perhaps at the behest of the terrorists in India, aimed at a very broad group of would-be terrorists across the globe.
This has very important implications for policy makers. One cannot treat the terrorists anymore in terms of loosely coordinated networks. Today, we confront a multinational firm with a clear
business model'. Much the same way the national governments are helpless in controlling multinational firms, national intelligence agencies will not be able to do much about this emerging phenomenon. Exchangingintelligence’ among each other, or coordinating activities on an ad hoc basis are not sufficient anymore to contain and neutralize this threat. Neither the removal of a CEO (say, an Osama Bin Laden) nor the destruction of a training camp (say, in the tribal areas in Afghanistan) will damage this `business model’. At the very least, we need a multinational intelligence agency with a clear mandate and the required legal powers to successfully take on the transformed nature of crime in the era of globalization, namely, terrorism.If we forget to look at this crucial dimension but instead focus only on the `Hindu-Muslim’ conflict or the possible role of Pakistan or the religious identities of the terrorists, then, I think, we fail to learn from Mumbai while most would-be terrorists would have learnt their lesson.
23 · Sam said
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blockquote>21 · DesiInNJ said
Assuming we learnt from it, this time around an operation would be more successful.
Yeah, that seems right.. I thought the 1993 bomb blasts made that score even. Looks like I’m mistaken. I should add that I’m not from Mumbai.
How about the NYT give the food vendor squatting on a sidewalk a mike and let the cameras roll.
Sukethu’s piece is for easy consumption and that’s ok – given such a tragedy needs all the optimism one can muster. But, enough of the romanticism of a failing city like Mumbai. I have lived there, i visit there as briefly as possible, and i too romanticize about it.
I had/have ressies at the Taj for Dec holidays. Being as it’s NRI season, we are still debating whether to go out there to shop for my bro’s wedding next year.
BUT, I, like Mehta, do want to go support the city, the people, the dream. More so now, I want to show the Taj, the town, and the visionaries, that the terrorists do NOT win. While we are currently discussing the safety and even possible shut down of the hotel, our heart is making us run to a place that we, Indians, want to call ‘home.’ I’ve never been, so it was to have been my first time, but, the terrorism doesn’t frighten me. The lack of support and nonchalance about the vision does.
7 · SomeNdianGuy said
I posted an inoffensive link to an article and it was deleted. Arbitrary, no? Maybe I just didn’t exude the right tone. shrugs
Can someone who has lived in mumbai for a few years give a first-hand, non-biased, honest, description of that city?
“non-biased” description is a figment of someone’s imagination. It is logically impossible. All observations (insofar as they are made my humans) are biased (you should seriously consider reading some philosophy or cognitive psychology)
‘Can someone who has lived in mumbai for a few years give a first-hand, non-biased, honest, description of that city?’
I lived in Bombay (yes, Bombay) for the first 23 years of my life and it is a very resilient city. In fact, while parts of South Bombay were affected, most people in unaffected areas were working (My dad and my sister worked on Thurs, Fri and even Sat this week). I have studied in schools in the ‘burbs and South Bombay and have pretty much been to all the landmarks targeted. What has happened is unfortunate and the best thing to do is to move on. In my opinion, its not the people who are the problem, its the politicians and the powerful crazies! They are the cause of the divisiveness and hate that has been the focus of the city for a long time.
I was in India the last time when the local train blasts happened…My grandfather lived in Bombay from when he was 12, he started out selling post cards and maps to British travellers outside the Taj and the Gateway. Its a tragic how Bombay and India are becoming unrecognizable to the generations before ours.
The article was good. But this whole “Spirit of Bombay” is so cliche, a lot of these people have to go back to their jobs because they have no other choice…Aside from those some indulgent flights it pretty much encapsulates an attitude that is deserting India.
I leave you with Jonny Valker
The article is somewhat lacking, but all I know about Mumbai is from reading the book Shantaram. Strangely Cafe Leopold is also in Shantaram, i wonder if it’s the same place as that was attacked?
CaramelM, yes that is the same Cafe Leopold in Shantaram. Its a major tourist hot spot.
I’m planning to go to Mumbai this weekend. I think what sets this attack apart is: (1) that it hit so many spots that are so well known to Mumbaikars (particularly middle class and up, although the train station is a place that cuts across many class lines) — so many have been to Cafe Leopold or to the Taj or Oberoi on a special occasion or business meeting; and (2) the way the attack was drawn out, heightening the tension and feeling of helplessness and terror — unlike in a bomb blast, which happens in an instant, this left many glued to the TV and wondering what was coming next. My cousin in Mumbai was saying that everyone he talked to knew someone who was injured or worse, which is not unlike 9/11 for us in that so many of us knew someone who was hurt, killed, or who narrowly escaped.
caramel – yes same place. and hello to a fellow melburnian (?) aussie-desi.
If this kind of stuff keeps happening, Bombay Sapphire will be the only spirit of Mumbai that’s left.
Yes Caramel that is the one and the same place. My wife keeps drilling that into my head.
The best way to describe Bombay is to take one’s relationship with the trains. If you are nimble enough to hop one one, rugged enough to find standing space, and fierce enough to elbow your way out – you can survive. Living is only those who are privileged and rich. Anything less is a hot, sweaty, and can’t-wait-to-get-out existence. Where the word roommates is literally that. It is one place where the dictum “misery loves company” has been raised to a high art. South Mumbai is as much Mumbai as Malibu is to the rest of Los Angeles. And even now, those shots of Colaba Causeway from the recent news reports are the same jumble of kiosks,corugated metal, indeterminate drains,rickety old buildings that i remember from my days there. There is some measure of infrastructure – but it has not kept pace. 80% of Mumbai still stores water in buckets for daily use. God help you if you need to find a clean restroom or even a restroom . Only upscale restaurants nowadays have them. I enjoyed being a student there , getting work was not too hard, but the moment i had a to find a place to live i couldn’t wait to leave. Of course, i am tlaking from years ago, so if this has changed much i’d love to know. The only people i know who won’t leave Bombay are those who have family and support there – where a financial and real estate structure is already in place. Where the parents already have a man Friday to fill the water tank, hold the parking space, shoo away beggars from the building compound – constant annoyances that would drain a newbie. That was has been so frustrating about the bloggers out of Bombay – they talk of getting caught in the crisis while dining out at Indigo or whatever. Meanwhile, i am haunted by the photo of that woman (barely)who lost two children at CST. I think here name was Chitris.What happens to her? Does her life go from bad to worse? There are pics of dead policemen wearing sandals!! I know this is all very negative, but that is Mumbai. Blame the politicans, blame corruption, but i think saying it is resilient is sweeping a lot under the rug. The day I left for America , i took a cab from the flat i shared – 2 bedrooms, 7 guys – and honeslty, have not missed “living” there. It hardened me, for sure, and that is a good thing. But I like to think of it as being calloused. A dulling of my humanity. Multitply that 19 million times or just watch the pushing and shoving on NDTV.
I lived there for several years of my childhood and teens and have visited it on and off over the years. I can’t promise “non-biased”, but I’ll try.
On the minus side, the city is grossly overcrowded (local trains carry several times the passenger capacity listed on their side), and the city has a huge footprint on energy and agricultural resources that extends well into the hinterland. On the plus side, the only sort of people who can live for long periods in such high densities are the ones who respect each other’s space as much as they can (which may not be much given the environment constraints, but nobody goes out of their way to offend others – too much effort). This means that the people are pretty broad-minded in many respects compared to other places in India. Unfortunately, many (most?) of the city and state government administrators are not from the city, but are from more conservative places in interior Maharashtra, and some of them become reactionary when they see large non-Marathi populations in the city (among other trigger factors).
By and large, India as a whole is very resilient, and Mumbai very much so. It’ll recover in a few days. But Suketu Mehta’s account seems overly romanticized — it may be that he is subconsciously airbrushing the blemishes from his writing, but the city he describes sounds a lot more liberal-utopia-with-smiling-citizens-of-diverse-ethnic-and-religious-backgrounds than reality. He is describing the fictional city that Karan Johar builds for his movies, with people taken from the same bin that Sooraj Barjatya picks his characters from.
I somewhat agree with Neale. A lot of the poor live really hard scrabble existence in Bombay. But a lot of poor live in a similar way almost every major city in the world. I have seen a homeless old man die on a street of Bombay while people were just walking past him without even bothering to look. And I have also seen a homeless guy suffer a sudden fit of epilepsy and collapse into the storm drain and people going out of their way to make sure he got to the hospital quickly.
It is a very tough city to live in, if you are by yourself without any kind of assistance. You need to have a great social support to survive there.
The problem is, the romance of moving to Bombay that was perpetuated in the past, brings people from other parts of the country into the city that really has collapsed in terms of infrastructure. And sadly politicians and the goverment are busy playing their power games to pay attention.
It is also a very expensive city to live in. Things are worth as much or more than what they are worth in the U.S. and I am just talking basic essentials.
The bloggers who describe their experiences on the attacks in upscale places are very much a part of Bombay and have a right to voice their opinion as well.
South Bombay is a lot like Lower Manhattan, both in the geography and demography. Only ‘old money’ and very rich can afford to live in South Bombay. The Bombay experience of a South Bombayite (one who has grown up in South Bombay) is very different from an average middle class person from Borivali (north ‘burb).
Neale – exactly my thoughts. Very well put. I took a huge step backwards in terms of pay and orgn position to move away from Bombay and get to Bangalore. My boss who had huge capital (social & $$) could not understand why I wanted to leave.
Marina – it is not the poor in Mumbai who struggle – it is the middle class. Life is a struggle in Mumbai and often not worth it. Poor have their netas to take care of them – not the middle class.
“Unfortunately, many (most?) of the city and state government administrators are not from the city, but are from more conservative places in interior Maharashtra, and some of them become reactionary when they see large non-Marathi populations in the city (among other trigger factors).”
I remember from the old days, for a Bombayite, working for the government meant you were a loser of sorts! The best jobs were always in the private sector. I knew of a guy from the North who was studying in the city and wanted to be a civil servant. And my friends were laughing at his naivete.
One can argue that the correct comparison is South Bombay <-> Upper East Side. But you get my point !!!
29 · sunzari said
Sunzari, sometimes we accidentally delete things. I apologize. They really should allow me to sleep more.
Back on topic, sorry for interrupting.
Melbourne Desi-I understand how easy it is to get cynical while living in the city. I was told that the level of middle-class’ness’ in Bombay was very different from the rest of the country (I mean other cities and towns). In the sense that, you could be middle class in another city with a house and a vehicle and better amenities while in Bombay, middle class could mean having a small matchbox size apartment with running water for 4 hrs a day!
I have to honestly confess, while I did grow up in Bombay, I have extremely limited knowledge of the rest of the country. Most people I knew or grew up with, had also lived in Bombay all their life.I have traveled to Chennai and Bangalore just once and had never known people from other parts of India, until I came to the US. But those experiences are stories for another time!
Not true. Many of the apartments in complexes in Cuffe Parade, Colaba and Worli are owned by public sector companies and banks. Many middle class people (Managers in banks and public sector companies) live there, suffering pointed references such as “PSU-wala ka ladka” etc. Your neighbour has a Maybach, you have a Maruti.
Mumbai is not generalisable.
47 · SM Intern said
Dear Intern, Be careful. You may have to delete your own comment if perceived as dissent against the (sepia) management on labor/sleep issues.