Tuesday, May 22, 2012

I Age, I Change

So I have missed another day in my Life 365 Marathon...And as usual I have reasons too. But who cares? Now, but there is another thing I am not sure about. I'm not sure if I will catalogue this post under Life in the City - My Series on Mumbai. :) Perhaps I should, perhaps you can tell me once you get to the last full stop of this post? 

Yesterday, I had to go to Fort for a meeting. For all those non-Mumbaikars, Fort is that part of the South Mumbai that could make a time-travelling English tourist feel vague strains of familiarity. The buildings are largely the way the British made and left it. If you are a tad imaginative, you can piece together how the area around Flora Fountain, now locally known as the Hutatma Chowk (for a martyrs' monument that has come up next to it), would have looked during its days of glory. Like everything else, most buildings have gone to seed, but businesses, big and small continue to operate out of it. The lanes are narrow, much like the cobblestoned paths of London. The cobblestones are long gone to be replaced by the tarred Indian roads, however, the leafy tree lined avenues would have been witnesses of the centuries past.

I rarely take a taxi once I get down at the Churchgate station - that is by the way, the last stop on the Western Line of the Mumbai local train network. Just as the train is pulling into the Churchgate station, my heart always skips a beat. This is a part of Mumbai that has changed the least in the twelve years that I have known it. Hmmm, on second thoughts, there is little that can afford to be changed.

The flats in these regions are humongous by Mumbai standards and pretty well-maintained from the inside. Incidentally, I have never understood how Mumbaikars can be house-proud but not necessarily building proud. So you could see several dilapidated looking buildings desperately needing a coat of paint, with residents that read like a Who's Who list. Step inside their parlour and you wonder if you fell through a hole like Alice of the Wonderland fame.

There's an old world charm about everything here, the Jehangir Art Gallery, the Kala Ghoda area, the Sassoon library and the crumbling Old Watson's Hotel - said to be the oldest surviving cast-iron building. It has collapsed a couple of times in the recent past, but then Indian ingenuity keeps the building in the survivor's list. Walk farther down and there are the majestic buildings of the Bombay High Court and the University of Mumbai. The hawkers that have encroached the walkways of most of the Victorian era heritage buildings are like a rude-jolt back into modern day reality - reality that the core of South Mumbai might look better preserved than its more recent suburbian offshoots, but a severe toll has been wrought by migration and population explosion on the leafy boulevards of the city.

Now I wonder if it is only the city and its infrastructure that appears crumbling and peeling with age. The train I took to go to the city would easily be over three decades old. There are newer swankier ones that ply on the same line, but these older ones, with the rusty springs poking uncomfortably out of the worn out seat cushions still continue to be in service. The stations that serve seas of humanity every day show evidence of massive wear and tear. In Andheri and Jogeshwari - two stations I use most, I know a few steps that I need to be careful on. If I keep place a foot wrong on those worn out steps, I could very well be slipping down the whole set of stairs uncomfortably. Age and lack of maintenance - the question is when do you shut down the station to undertake maintenance? If the Andheri station is shut off for renovation, there would be bigger riots - people would rather continue using crumbling infrastructure than suffer the inconvenience of taking a longer route to the next station!

As I walk towards the building where my meeting is scheduled, one final thought makes me chuckle so hard that I'm sure several people did turn around to check for the source of that strange noise. I have walked these very streets as a rookie in Mumbai. Then the heat did not bother me as much and travelling light was the mantra - the insouciance and irreverance you may say of the young and free-spirited. This time however, the thought of taking myself to Fort alone, required a lot of enforced mental conditioning. I had to convince myself of the importance of the meeting and the need to be there personally than get it done on skype! Once convinced, my preparations to leave began at about 12 and by the time I'd left home, in my bag, was a bottle of water, a small box of munches (just in case I got hungry on the train), an umbrella for the trek from Churchgate station to Fort and a book to ensure I get in some constructive reading done during the one-hour journey!

I was never this well-planned, I was impulsive, fun and all-over-the-place. I feel like a peeling Mumbai now...I age and I guess I change too!!



14 comments:

  1. I spent a good five years navigating the Fort area and was my favorite haunt for a long walk in the evening!It still is the best part of Mumbai where the heart and soul reside:)

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    1. There is something about this city that infiltrates into your blood and settles in there for a lifetime..:) Or I wonder if it is just me..:)All the muck, filth, squalor and congestion is forgiven and forgotten..

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  2. I have practically lived in Mumbai. I love the city just too much. My first memories of Churchgate was going to the Gateway! And kalagoda, gosh we practically visit that place every year. and i so agree with the alice in wonderland type of houses :-)

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    1. I guess Mumbaikars will instantly connect with this post. Walking along the Kalaghoda area is my favourite time in the city...even more fun than going shopping on Colaba Causeway and the mandatory pilgrimage to Cafe Mondegar.

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  3. Yes!This post does depict life in Mumbai.I travelled Juhu-Churchgate-VT everyday while working at St George Hospital and the whole thing just came back to me.I work from Andheri and Jogeshwari now so Deepthyji, when not in hurry,drop in please.About those beautiful sprawling apartments inside old buildings in town,I know exactly what you are talking about..Parsi homes at Nana Chowk are just like those.I am scared to climb the stairs in the building opposite Khyber ,I wonder how the structure is still erect.
    Loved the post about my Mumbai :)

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    1. Yes indeed!! We so must meet...Mumbaikars, neighbours... :) Glad you enjoyed the post Doctor Sahiba..:)

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  4. Like I said in the email, I loved your narrative of South Bombay...I somehow have a super fascination for that place...I dont know why...its got this feel, which is impossible to find in the suburbs..thanks for your reco :) I am going to try and let you know :)

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    1. Have fun R..and keep me posted about how the little one likes the Baby's Day Out..:)

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  5. The city of Mumbai never ceases to amaze! I still can't get over the 1 room concept! When I was new to Mumbai looking for a place to rent, I assumed that 1 or 2 rooms meant 1 or 2 bedrooms, not the total number of rooms in the flat! Joint families living in shacks within a room...And filthy rich money lenders or businessmen sitting on sacks of currencies in a shabby room...Phew, it happens only in Mumbai! The rush, push & shove in trains was a rude shock to me. But then it all grows on you that someday you miss all of these very things that had eaten up your comfort zone!

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    1. That's so true RGB! Nice to hear from you, Mumbai is such a city of contradictions, isn't it?? But somehow when I do the mental comparison between Delhi and Mumbai, I think Mumbai treats all its people - rich and poor in the same yardstick..In Delhi, I'm reminded of my financial status and buying power more..Here, everyone is more practical and less flashy somehow!

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  6. Jisha Kishore Kumar23 May 2012 at 12:20

    Beautiful narration…I’ve never been to Mumbai, but reading your post was like taking a trip to the place…and I liked the way you concluded the write-up..!

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    1. Jisha, people who love the city, love it unconditionally, despite the muck and filth and poverty and the space constraints...there is a vibrancy and energy about it that's unmatched...Strangely, to let you in on a secret, now that you do mention the last part, the piece on Mumbai started from my personal reflections about how things have changed in the dozen years that I have seen this city for me personally and how little the town side -which is South Mumbai has changed in the meantime..:)

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  7. My dear Deepthy,

    I finally got fed up and decided to leave Mumbai at the same time
    that I decided to get married in 1982 and move to Pune.

    I first came to Mumbai as a boarder in St Stanislaus, Bandra, (1961-63);
    then St Mary's, Mazagaon (1963-67); St Xavier's College (1967-71);
    and back again during 1977-83 after I went away to the drought-prone villages.

    I am sorry, Deepthy, I share not one bit of your nostalgia for Mumbai, the place.

    Always, the place was and is and will be -- made by its wonderful people.
    If not for them, I would never come to Mumbai again.

    So, your piece deserves a piece from me entitled "My people of Mumbai":
    starting with my first teacher of English, Mrs Philomena D'Souza (Valladares);
    my earliest friends, Krishna Nabar and Spenta Wadia;
    my college teachers, the late Prof V.V. Nadkarny and R.S. Kamat;
    my comrades the late Francis, Bhabhi, Dr Vivek Monteiro, the late Prabhaker Sanzgiri;
    my Lok Vidnyan Sanghatana activist-friends and hundreds of ordinary people,
    who continue to struggle in Mumbai, since that is their only home and they have no choice,
    like me who fled the sick city, never to want to return.

    So my dear Deepthy, at my age of 61, I thank you for your last words:
    "I age and I guess I change too!!"

    Peace and love,
    - Joe.

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    1. :) Joe, everytime I see your comments, they automatically bring a smile on my face, no matter that we are looking at the same topic from two sides of the fence. I guess the beauty of a topic is when you can look at it from both sides and appreciate the other's point of view for what it's worth. It isn't necessary that it echoes your experiences and assessment! :) thank you for that.

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