The Indomitable Spirit of Mumbai (with inputs from my wife)
I just want to take some of your time to discuss the so called Indomitable Spirit that Mumbaikars are said to be blessed with. How unique is this spirit? Is it only the Mumbaikars who have this spirit? Is it something you are born with or is it something that grows on you as you stay in the city? Do you have to be a Mumbaikar to have this spirit?
I was witness to the Mumbai local train blasts. I was also there during 26 July 2005 when rainfall broke all previous records in Mumbai and left a lot of Meteorologists wondering if they should ever open their mouths again.
I have been living in Mumbai for the past 3+ years. What did I do when these things happened? I did what every “Mumbaikar” did! Stayed at home for one day and then went to work the next day. So does that mean my spirit is “Indomitable”? Does that mean that I am a “Mumbaikar”? I sure hope not! I just did what any person anywhere around the globe would have done if they were faced with the same circumstances.
The Tsunami in South East Asia, the attack on the World Trade Centre, the killing of Bihari daily wage workers in Orissa by the ULFA, the bomb blasts in London, all these are just things that can happen anywhere around the world.
When these things happen, people behave as per their survival instincts. These instincts are so basic that geography, race, creed, country does not make a difference. The reaction is the same no matter where you are. The recovery is the same no matter where you are. You automatically try to bring your life back to the same familiar ebb and flow, because that is what is comforting to you.
The people of Mumbai definitely showed a lot of resilience during the floods and the blasts, but, frankly, it does not make their spirit any more “indomitable” than the people of New Orleans who had worse floods or the people living in Tornado Alley who get their houses blown away almost every year and then come back and make them again.
The “INDOMITABLE SPIRIT” is a media gimmick that only pushes up network ratings and not the spirit of the people. All that people need to do when tragedy strikes, is to believe in the goodness of man and believe that they will always have help.
about 1 year ago
hi abhilash, got link for ur website frm anmol’s… we wroked together at mastek.. hope u dont mind ‘tress-passers’..
Ok, coming to ur blog abt ‘indomitable spirit’ of mumbai.. i m a thru and thru bbyite.. born and broght up here… so i feel very very passionately abt this place.. but while responding to ur write up, i m reminding myself not to get emotional but to stick to facts..
firstly, the difference betn floods at New orleans and rains in bby – at New Orleans the entire govt and other support mechanism is very well in place.. there met dept has been always bang on in predicting hurricanes and difficult weather conditions. evacuations and reestablishment r highly processised .. people dont hv to run frm pillar to post for whats rightfully theirs.. they get all teh assistance they r entitled to..
in bby that was not the case.. noone forcasted that kind of a rainfall.. secondly when the agony started noone from govt,police, hospitals came down to help people.. they were all well secured, inside their houses (probably sipping a cup of seaming tea) .. but people on the street took care of themselves and others like them… a guy who sells vada-paav at the roadside and makes his daily living seved the same stuff to people who were walking to their houses in waist deep water (and mind u, didnt ask for money in return)…
my father-in-law spent a nite on the highway in santacruz in his own car (along with 7 other strangers) coz his car was floating in water near the subway… some guy from nearby slums brought them hot biryani at 12:30 in the nite… it didnt matter wheather it was cooked in clean pots..
those days, i was staying with parents in andheri with my 2 month old daughter.. my father had gone down to see the ‘situation’.. and when he came back home, he broght 9 more people (that included 4 yr old boy too) . who dined and stayed in our small 1bhk house that nite..
This doesnt happen anywhere else in the world.. i m very confident of it… i hv only give u a few instances.. but not just on 26th july, i hv been experiencing this goodness all the time.. hope you will be able to experince this some day for yourself.. so that u hv ur first hand opinion of ‘indomitable spirit’ of mumbaikars..
about 1 year ago
Hi Himagauri,
You have written an extremely passionate comment.
Having said that, this passion, that people who are born and brought up in Mumbai have, is the best and the worst thing that they have. (Mind you, not everyone has this in them. I think you are one of about 30% Mumbaikers who is so passionate about this city).
Its the best thing because it allows you to do things like the ones the people of Mumbai did during the rains. Sadly, its also the worst thing because it makes you think that you are unique, and that you are the only ones who do this.
The only reason that this is brought forth is because it is a calamity striking Mumbai (financial capital etc etc), and would go un-noticed else where. Both the calamity and the peoples spirit would be lost if this were not Mumbai.
Having said that, my opinions are based on my experiences, and till date (5 yrs in mumbai), I have yet to be overwhelmed by the spirit of a person or by the people as a whole. Also, my view is based on the fact that I have lived in many cities in India for years at a time.
Believe me when I say, that what the people of Mumbai do once a year in terms of showing their spirit, there are people elsewhere who do it every week or every day of their lives.
about 1 year ago
‘unique’ ??? yes, i dont agree with this word either…. i believe, there is nothing unique abt anything or anybody in the world (unless we r talking abt 7 wonders) .. but again, its not necessary that we shud celebrate only ‘unique’ things..
the funny part is , non-bbyites hv coined this term ‘unique’.. they talk these things like ‘spirit’ and all.. a typical bbyite, wud not even see it for himself.. he is so busy living… he doesnt care abt how he is perceived… instances i gave u on a rainy day – do u honestly think, anyone of them ever cared what others r going to think abt their ‘noble’ acts?? what they did came to them naturally (may be because they hv received similar treatment some time in their life)
So may be u r rite.. its all a media/govt gimmick.. possibly to cover up their own incapabilities while providing good enough law-order and administrative framework for this city… but then bby is still a winner, inspite of all odds.. it has found its own mechanism of survival…
the places i hv seen life outside bby r blore, chennai and pune and now in US (2-3 years each except US) .. and that made me agree with this adjective ‘unique’… life for a common man is much more ‘possible’ in bby… and mind u, here i m not referring to ‘professionals’ like us who stay in high storied buildings, move around in AC cars, shop in big malls, eat in restaurants after reading their reviews in the newspaper etc etc… bby is not ‘us’.. bby is of all those service class people, who make life in bby so very resourceful… the real bby is far beyond its glamour and riches and it actually belongs to them..
please understand, i m no way trying to say that bby is prblem-free.. just like any other city, this place too is full of issues- may be of different types and magnitude.. but i still think life here is ‘cool’.. and i would want my daughter to grow up in bby (surprisingly my non-bbyite husband thinks the same way)
i m not surprised at ur % figures.. that there r abt 70% people who think that bby is lousy.. i think exactly opposite.. i know, many who love this place (who r outsiders) .. but i guess, we hear what we want to hear..
i agree with u that there r many people who r living here think that this city sucks… but the sad thing is they still stick to bby.. obviously because they want to cash on the good part of bby.. but r much happier shouting loudly on how this city has poor quality of life, or how crowded it is, how bad the traffic is, how dirty and un hygienic this place is etc etc… i am not going to make a snobbish statement like ‘bby wud be far better without such ungrateful lot’ etc etc like ‘some politicians’… but then it’s a catch 22.. this city is paying its price for being what it is… if it was not a land of opportunities (besides everything else it is) people wud not come over and lets accept that excessive population this city is bearing today is the real root cause of its ‘pathetic’ state.. so whom to blame and more importantly ‘why to blame’ … are we not a part of and reason for this problem???
i hope this is not getting personal… i m only trying to make my point.. not trying to make u like bby or show u a positive side.. noone can do that anyway.. its like falling in love.. it has to happen for own-self.. its possible that u hv different expectations from life and a certain idea of how to live, and bby fails to fulfill that .. but then u still chose to be here…
so why not demonstrate ‘mutual tolerance’ and do it respectfully??
about 1 year ago
Having lived in Mumbai for the last 5 years, I too believe that I am also a bambai-ite. I do feel nice to say that I am from Bombay when I meet a Delhi-ite. But the people who today make up the Bombay that Bombay is known for are not from Bombay.
Since Bombay has become such a melting pot etc etc… the spirit remains of the people only and not of the city. The people who did those acts of kindness, courage and selflessness would have done the same had they been elsewhere.