A Tale of Two Cities

Thousand pens and millions of voices have already sketched myriad images in several shades and mere two visits over a span of little more than a month, lasting little over 100 hours in sum, can do little to add to the canvass. It’s a gross simplification perhaps, or just restricted observations of a prejudiced mind too preoccupied with seemingly more important endeavors. Mumbai was, nevertheless, a revelation. 

Coming straight from New Delhi, one is condemned to lay the national and the financial capital on either side of a line on a piece of paper. Yet, apart from the obvious cultural and geographical divide, there was little to put the two apart. However, one subtle realization was perhaps the most perceptible.  

While you are subtly perturbed by the stench of cautious revulsion bordering on misanthropy in the demeanor of a typical Dilli wallah, one cannot help but feel pleasantly overwhelmed by a strange sense of warmth of a random Mumbaikaar.

 

Delhi grasps you with its peculiarly unsettling aura, grabs you by the scruff and collar and tries to shove its own dented version of Dilligiri down your throat, screaming ‘my way or the highway’. Mumbai too sure approaches you with a mildly unnerving cocktail of aggression, affection and apathy- depending on the time and place- but all that quickly evolves into a generally comforting feeling of belonging. 

Delhi receives such massive cross border influx of people from all around- Punjabis, Biharis, Jats, Paharis etc- that the place seems to have lost its own singular identity (just restricted to parts of Old Delhi perhaps). One can raise the same argument for Mumbai but cannot draw the same conclusion. It is like miniature India- an all embracing entity that still somehow manages to wield a distinctively singular identity.  

Mumbai makes you conscious of the perils of over population. It feels like everyone wants to go everywhere all the time. The air is so dense it feels like someone’s trying to shovel mud down your throat. The rural-urban divide is so abrupt at some places it seems like a rude anomaly. The roads are painfully congested and traffic disheartening.

However, the spirit of its inhabitants is the truest reflection of a city, even more so than its urban aesthetics, transport systems, extent of industrialization or even governance for that matter. The mental disposition of the thousands who crowd its streets and fill its real estate is the most objective, transparent and incontrovertible indicator of all of the above variables. And in this regard, Mumbai- even in this short while- seemed far better off than its metropolitan counterpart.

Be it a random Marathi with his/her barely manageable Hindi or a veteran auto walla who will know at first sight that you might never visit the city again in a long while, everyone is conveniently drawn into your conversation. This is most unlike Delhi, where everyone is so busy mastering the art of stoic indifference that almost every human interaction seems to be building on a "Dilli se hoon BC" footnote.

It is human to generalise- to forget the good and remember the bad. But even for a person who is always looking for an exception- yearning to change his opinions- Delhi only manages to disappoint every single time. I wonder why the search keeps getting more difficult each time...