What happened to my city?

Yes Bombay is my city. Mine. I may technically not be Maharashtrian by birth or ration card, but yes Bombay is also mine. At least I made it mine when I was growing up in it. It shaped my thoughts and perceptions and allowed me to breathe. It is home and its even mentioned on my passport, so geographically and emotionally it is mine.

I never felt more attached to Bombay than when bomb blasts rocked the city during my tenth grade exams. The feeling heightened when riots ravaged the city like no one ever imagined they could. Many years later the same feeling came rushing back when terrorists hijacked the city and innocent every day people were held at ransom. I may have left the city, but it never left me. I guess when I left, I lost all authority of caring for the city. I'd like to think that's not true.

Bombay used to wake up to a multitude of voices that sang in harmony. Now anyone who stands up to bullies is almost certainly facing a lone battle. Has the city lost its voice? Is no one left to argue for the city's once famous cosmopolitan identity? Or do we only reserve our comments for carefully edited sound bytes on breaking news channels?

Is any city only for those who speak a certain language and think of a certain ideology? That is strange because the Bombay I remember was one where anyone who had raw grit and determination could make miracles happen. A city where a railway platform singer could become cinema's singing sensation overnight. Where people who needed help during a flood were given food and water by complete strangers. I'd like to believe that heart of the city still thrives. It may have clogged arteries and be in need of desperate repair but its still holding on.

Surely we haven't become so obssessed with outsiders and insiders, to allow the city to belong to everyone? Who makes up these arbitrary rules, these lines of control? It is perhaps you and me. Who sit quietly and watch the city burn. Who discuss important every day issues in hushed voices so as not to upset anyone's IPL carts. Who grumble about the city's struggling infrastructure and then litter the sidewalks, expecting the municipality to clean up after us.

It is perhaps naive to expect that the city which I left behind would not change. A recent visit only reconfirmed how much it has grown. Though I'm not talking about the new malls, bridges and skyscrapers.

However all is not grim and bitter. People still help you if you've lost your way. Your local barber won't over charge you even if he knows you can pay him much more than you used to when you were a regular. These are things no one with a political agenda can steal from a city or its people.

I'd like to believe that simply changing the name of a city cannot purge it of its true identity.

Image: A view of Bombay's ever dramatic skyline taken on a recent trip