MAXIMUM CITY - MUMBAI LOST AND FOUND

I read this book ( written by SUKETU MEHTA) long ago. I was simply waiting for someone else to read to it so that I could have a discussion with that person about this book. And finally today the chance came.

Neha called up yesterday night and as usual I started yapping about how cool my little bro is and she stated agreeing with me wholeheartedly.

I also showed-off by saying that
“ Neha I think its high time that you all started listening to different kind of music!!!”
To which she very happily replied that
“ I agree that I may not understand the music that your talking about but I definitely understand I have now got the maturity to Try and appreciate different things. I am not at the age in which I would have ended up ridiculing music or even making fun of it.”

Point very correctly made and also well taken Neha!!!!!

So as our conversation continued, well actually we flew from one topic to another, she suddenly remembered her real purpose of calling. And the purpose was to discuss the book Maximum City!!!!! Yippee!!!!!

So here is our conversation. I have tried to recollect each and every word that we both said. And here it is:

Neha : I really didn’t like the book when I had earlier read it . Right now I have finished reading it till underworld. I think kaphi sara padhliya maine. And u know what, I simply love the book!!!!! Earlier I thought that it was such cynically written. Everything about Mumbai was negative. I was completely in a state of denial about this city, I mean the way its described in the book. But now, I simply love the book!!!!!

Manasi: Yup I no exactly what you are saying. Have gone through that stage completely. So I can totally relate with what you’re saying. And you see, I relate to Suketu Mehta’s point of view about the way be has to adapt back in Mumbai. And you know what, the part of the book in which he writes about the riots, I was soo shocked!!! It maybe because I was not witness to them and did not even remember this event affecting my life.

Neha : Arre pan malahikahi aathavat nahi. I simply remember not going to school during that time. That’s all!!! And also whatever the newspapers reported.

Manasi: Ya true, but I didn’t even experience that until like recently when I really came to know what all gruesome things took place and how bad things were. Maximum City was an eye opener !!!!

And then here is the best part!!!!

Neha : That’s what, I never can really say when I started coming out of the state of denial………

Manasi : WAIT…..WAIT…………….lemme say what you want to say………
This book in the beginning makes you feel sick. You feel offended coz the author has obviously written all possible negative things about this city. You then started thinking that this is the most cynical way of writing. You hate him for painting such a sorry picture of the city that we all love. You also think that this bloody author spent his youth living a well cushioned life in the States and he would now happily paint a sorry picture of this city.
Why is it that people like him always wanted to show “poor India and hungry India”???
All this while we are completely in a state of denial.
THIS IS JUST NOT THE CITY THAT WE LOVE!!!!!
But as the book progresses, this state of denial slowly and steadily turns into a state of acceptance!!!! You are like; Yeah my city is like that. So what!!!!! These maybe THE very reasons why we love the city. Actually these maybe truly the only reasons why we love the city so much.
And you know Neha, at the end of the book, you simply can’t say when and were the transition of your thoughts happened, but your glad it did. Bottom-line, you end up loving the book and this city even more!!!!!!!



For the next half hour we both discussed endlessly about the things that we love about the city and how this city has helped us find our own identity. You may enter this city as a person with the most unpleasant feeling of anticipation for it, you will, I promise, curse this city for all the time that you would spend here. But you will realize its importance in your life only when you’re away from it. This city has indeed lived upto its name of City of Dreams.

And the only way for one to find out the wonderful and also not so pleasant things about this city is to live in it for as long as you can, to simply curse it for its traffic, its ques, its endless need and thirst to run behind things irrespective of the day and time and so on and so forth. It surely would be the only possible way of discovering the true Mumbai and what’s it like to live in such a vibrant city.

So this post is dedicated to Mumbai and all those people who would never want to move out of this city. And also to those whose future is embedded in the very foundations of the city. May we all live in harmony and peace.

Here’s to the City of Dreams – Mumbai.