Mumbai

A city differs from another in its ability to excite the different people inside you. A mild case of multiple personality disorder that everyone has. Nobody is monochrome. I have been in Mumbai for a week. Bangalore pampers the idler –who-hates- to-sweat kind of person in me. It’s always the right weather for sitting in your dad’s easy chair, watching the rain and smoking a cigarette while reading a book. Mumbai brings out the wild side, the animal of the party variety that stays out all night long .This is the fourth time I am visiting Mumbai and somehow I get the feeling I am not made for this city.

The first things that is in your face is the mad rush of people all around you, it’s like a fast paced football game. It is not just the speed at which they walk but also the sheer number of people. Travel is the word around which most people’s lives are built and it’s in the local trains that one sees people from all walks of life reduced to a common denominator. Friday dressed office goers jostle along side causal/casual laborers, while reeking Twisted Olivers with their elbows pressing into your ribs hang around the doors. The huge stratified sea of people rushing into and out of trains and stations, staring with blank expressions and chattering away on their mobiles makes you wonder,” Where is this sea of humanity rushing towards?”. The crowd at once seems to be a single entity rushing towards its destiny, its vocation and the very next instant at the next stop the sea gushes out.

As countries develop there will be more mega cities where the extremes of poverty and riches will stare simultaneously catching the attention of one eyeball each .The city will end up governing your life , your decisions , you will be just a cog in the wheel, but do you want to move in the direction the wheel is moving?