A phoenix that never tires..

“You know, it is so different in Bombay”, “In Bombay, we get ”, “Oh! Bombay is”, etc. Well, I am just trying to tell you that decades ago, these were the typical opening phrases one used when they spoke of Bombay. I imagined it to be a fantasy land, a place where everything was readily available, a city where anything was possible. A place where buying a bottle of imported orange marmalade was as easy as buying mango pickle in my hometown. (I am speaking of pre-liberalization era. So Hyderabadis, please don’t take offence, I know that everything is available in our city too, now). It was not just the land of Bollywood, I believed that it was a land where one spun dreams and the dreams manifested into reality.

However, I didn’t get a chance to visit this magnificent city till I was about twenty six years old. As compared to all the literature I had read, the city had changed considerably. It was no different when compared to other cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai with their various retail outlets and fast food joints. Trust me that was just my first impression of the maximum city. I checked into my sister’s place at Mahim and was shocked to know that she was staying in a Pigeon hole with absolutely no cribs. Her answer was “This is one of the best places you can get in Bombay. What’s wrong with this place? And anything to stay in Bombay!!”. It did leave me speechless that a girl who always cribbed that she didn’t have enough storage space even in our three bedroom apartment was perfectly OK with the so-called two bedroom house. My sister played an enthusiastic guide and immediately took me to the holy places of Mumbai, Sidhi Vinayak and Haji Ali. We later went on to see the real Bombay as she referred to it, Fort, VT, Colaba and of course, the Marine Drive. It just took me few hours to change my first impression of the city.

As clichéd as it may sound, the energy of the city overpowered me. I have absolutely no words to describe what I felt about the city as it only needs to be felt.

I have been wondering over the past one hour what prompted me to write about Bombay today. I, then, realized no better day than 26/11 to pay tribute to a city that rises like a phoenix every time tragedy strikes. Be it the terror blasts of 93, the train blasts in 06 or city hijack on 26/11, the people of the city have always shown courage & resilience. I once remember a relative telling me that after the terror blasts in 93, there were serpentine queues of people outside hospitals waiting to donate blood and they had to be dispersed away as the amount of blood already donated exceeded the amount required. Now, doesn’t that speak volumes of a city where people thronged to hospital to help others instead of running away to shelter themselves from the terror that struck their city?

I have visited this city thrice and every visit of mine, there have been minor disturbances in the city – hindu muslim clashes, protests again non-mumbaikars/Marathas and the arrest of Raj Thackeray. As I visit the city next week, I just pray to God, do not put the people of Bombay to test again.