To Bombay and the spirit of life...

Once a Bombaiitte always one... I have heard this more than N no. of times from various people and believed it from the depths of my heart. Yet, when time and again I am asked why is Bombay so special or different, I flounder to answer.

I fail to explain to people the romance of the touch generated from being cramped up in a train full of sweaty people; bodies brushing violently, bad breath causing havoc to your internals and maintaining the Maharaja smile as if this was the first perfect date of your life. I cannot explain why the pani-puris taste better in an inverse ratio to the cleanliness of the Bhaaiyya. Jostling under the burning sun, waging wars on the cricket battlefield for vada-pav and coke is un-understandable according to most normal logical reasonings.

So what exactly is this Bombay Spirit.. Is it only visible in face of a calamity? Is there something real thats kind of quanitfiable? Time and again, I read this phrase and get thinking....

And always the answers have been euphorically the same. Bombay has a different existence and it gets mixed in a lil bit with blood streams of evry individual tht stays here.. Longer the stay greater the influence... This is one city that teaches you the real value of life; not necessarily living. Every life that belongs to kith and kin is treasured and every thing else is expendable depending on the situation. Losses are mourned over but only till the time that they dont mix with your money-minting capabilities. There is a price tag attached to evry action, every person and happiness though not necessarily measurable is supposed to be a good enough ROI.

Thus, any and every individual lives in Bombay on the following principles.
I would try to be happy, enjoy my life and do what I please. If my family and friends are involved in this the happiness quotient is trigerred a bit further. All strangers by default are friends bonded by the sameness of the trains or buses. If they are in discomfort I would try to be nice to them; only if I dont sacrifice a larger chunk of my share of niceness and happiness. If the dangers are catastrophic or calamatic, then I wouldn't mind reducing my nicety to a bare minimum. I would compete and strive for greatness by hook or crook; only as long as others can avail the same degrees of crookedness. I would, at large partake in all religious activities with equal fervor; one as it lets me hang my hair down, simultaneously increasing my happiness quotient and also keep the economy bustling; again increasing happiness for quite a few businesses and business-people.


ALL in ALL... this is the essence of the BOMBAY spirit as I have known till date...

We love happiness and would go an extra mile to achieve that. We realize that true happiness stems from the fact that most if not all are happy and we strive for that as well. We are not super-humans and we are hurt too; but lying low and spreading melancholy would just enhance the spectre of gloom and hence we put a brave front to adversity.

Being HAPPY is being a Bombaiitte....

As rightly said: "Jara haske jara bachke.. ye hai bumbai meri jaan"...........