Nostalgia and Mumbai !!

"kya cheez hain mumbai … aamchi mumbai …

vo vada pav ki chatni … vo mahim ki phirni …

vo local train ke dhakke … vo signal pe chakke …

vo traffic , vo kuda , vo kachra … vo auto taxi ka nakhra …

vo machchi wali ka jhagda … vo bhel, vo pani puri , vo ragda,

vo wadala, vo chakala, vo bandra … kahin sakhubai … to kahin sandra

vo aunty ka adda … saala main road pe ich khadda … "

jaisi bhi hain yaar … apun ki mumbai se apne ko hain pyaar …

The above lines are uttered by Don Sunil Shetty when he is hit by Nostalgia in the presence of the meek Akshay Khanna and bomb-shell Mallika Sherawat in the movie 'Shaadi se Pehle' …

(the last line above is in a different colour … simply because it is not from the movie … its my contribution … my feeling )

As I went through the scene, Nostalgia hit me too … the third time so strongly in the past one month and that too while watching a movie … I was massively hit by Mumbai Nostalgia earlier this month when I was watching ‘Bluff Master’ and then agaion while watching ‘Taxi No. 9-2-11’ …

Both movies were unique (about Mumbai) in their own special way … both had the spirit of Mumbai deeply ingrained in their screenplay and characters …

BluffMaster was an excellent ‘Mumbnai Darshan’ visual treat … The movie beautifully integrated the sight seeing of different locations and landmarks of Mumbai … be it the Rajabai Towers, the Nariman Point, the Race Course of the Gateway of India … it has been a loOOong time since any movie producer / director / cinematographer gave thought to using Mumbai and its fantastic backdrops in movies …

It was indeed nice to see Hiranandani, Powai Lake and Hotel Renaissance in the movie … 2 years of MBA at NITIE, Powai and these were a part of the horizon outside our window …

Taxi No. 9-2-11 … captured the spirit of Mumbai in the Taxi Driver played by Nana Patekar … It catches life as it is in the streets … the life of the common man … no visually appealing locations and landmarks … just the life and style of the street life of Mumbai …

Both movies effectively took me back to Mumbai … my home for over a Silver Jubilee … practically spent my entire life out there .. before coming here … to Yash Chopra’s dream location … Switzerland … J

Life is so different … in Geneva (Switzerland) and in Mumbai (India) … its like being transported to an entirely different world … the two cities are not only different but stark opposite in almost all visible and invisible ways of life …

Be it population, traffic, weather, condition of the roads, corruption, people, rules and regulations, relationships, neighbours, festivals, meeting people, timeliness or for that matter anything one can think of … both cities carry their own brand .. their own culture …

My first one month is Geneva was nothing but a cultural shock … the world is so different out here … I wont say it is better or worse … its just plain different … and in many cases, pretty much opposite …

We might hate the crowds, the conditions, the infrastructure reeling under the population burden … but frankly speaking … these are exactly the things that I miss most sometimes …

I love my Mumbai …Aamchi Mumbai ... Maajhi Mumbai ...

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