Tale of two cities: Mumbai - Meri Jaan and Delhi - Meri shaan

I have been itching to blog for a long time now and had a lot of topics like MDI, Marketing, Kashmir, India-Pakistan, etc (which shall obviously follow in due time now that I have loads of it :P) in mind, but than I read my testimonial in the marvelous Yearbook 2010 and the first line was I sleep, live, walk, talk Mumbai. Hence, it becomes imperative for me to blog on the two cities where I have lived for a considerably long enough time to write about them confidently. Also, both these cities have been very close to my heart (contrary to many other beliefs) and I am writing this blog post as an unbiased Indian.

Delhi - Easily the oldest city in India with records stating habitation dating back 2600 years ago. I remember having read about its existence in the Mahabharata with the city referred to as IndraPrastha - the capital of the Pandavas and than the Kauravas. And that status of it as a capital has been nurtured and preserved even today. Delhi epitomizes polity and power. Just a visit to Janpath will make you smell the power and security in the air. My dad always jokingly says when he sees the Parliament near Rashtrapati Bhavan "This is from where one of the largest economies of the world functions and to make it function better, just blow up the place when it is in session" :P.

Delhi (referring to NCR as a whole) is the largest city in terms of area and size in India and from what I have experienced in the past 2 years, it has really started using this large area to build superb infrastructure, infra of the caliber you would have only dreamt 5 years ago anywhere in India. And the best part of this infrastructure is that it is not scattered in some parts, it is consistently very good in most parts of NCR. Huge good quality roads (6 by 6 lanes in many parts), cleanliness in most areas, a concerted effort to reduce pollution, sparkling CNG buses, crisscrossing flyovers and of course the Delhi Metro are highlights of Delhi which would make any Indian proud including me. The old UNESCO heritage monuments in Old Dilli like Red Fort and Jama Masjid with Chandni Chowk as the common link, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, etc reflect the Mughal regime and grandeur of Delhi. Personally, my favorite place in Delhi is Dilli Haat where you can see a mesmerizing blend of all cultures of India, food of the best kind. This place can be really called mini India which is not made by a Delhi or a Bombay but by all the various cultures amalgamating in the melting pot.

But there are things which I do not like about Delhi too - things like the treatment meted out by a majority of autowallas, bus conductors, shopkeepers,etc (I call these people the face of a city); things like the negative pride and ego associated with the power and polity; things like an utter disrespect amongst the common Delhiite (most North Indians) for South Indians; things like the lack of cheap comfortable public transport apart from the Metro; things like the insult of such awesome infra and roads by a huge chunk of bus and car drivers; things like the fear in a woman's mind to step out of the house alone even at 9 PM. Hence, I would say Delhi is a cosmopolitan but far away from being a metropolis as of now.

Bombay/Mumbai - Historically, Bombay is a very young city. Bombay was built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands, about 250 years ago by the British. Bombay was developed extensively by the British as they realized its logistical advantage of having a deep natural harbour which served as a crucial port in the trade activities. The 32 km railway line (first in India) laid between Thane and VT in 1853 (yes, 1853!!) was the inflection point which had laid the roots for what Bombay is today. This railway line laid by the British  is still the lifeline of the city. And it was this local railway line which attracted a huge number of migrants to Bombay from when it was made. Personally, I have had few of the best moments of my life travelling in these local trains since my childhood days. Where else in the world will you be able to travel on a stretch of 32 km, unlimited number of times in a month paying just Rs. 125 today ??? And yes, it is very comfortable if you leave out the 7 AM - 10 AM North to South and 5 PM - 8 PM South to North peak hours.

Let me talk about the infra and the face of Bombay now. Bombay has by far the BEST bus service in India, the best and most trustworthy autowallas, taxi drivers, shopkeepers (a majority of them), the best variety of food at the cheapest of prices, the most helpful and spirited people (common Mumbaikars). Bombay is a city of options - it has options in everything for every kind of person. It can cater to the needs of a beggar surviving on alms, the needs of a middle class family earning 10-15 k per month and also to the needs of a Mukesh Ambani - one of the richest people on earth. I can personally recollect numerous times having filled my stomach eating a Rs.5 lip smacking Vada pav and also paying Rs. 1200 for a lobster dish once!!! Also, Bombay does not belong to any religion, caste, background or region. I have grown up, played and studied in school with a Gujarati, a Punjabi, a Jew, a Tamil, a Muslim and a Bengali. I doubt any other city in the world depicts this kind of secularism and unity. Talk about freedom and fear, few of my friends (yes, am talking about women too) interning at Bombay have unabashedly roamed on the roads at Marine Drive at 2 AM and returned home alone at 4 AM!!! Bombay has places like Marine Drive, Worli seaface, Bandstand, Malabar Hill and loads of them which makes it enchanting and welcoming to one and all. The entertainment capital of India and house to the biggest film industry in the world i.e. Bollywood, you are very likely to bump into a celebrity if you live here for even a month. Also, Bombay is the most romantic city where you shall find hordes of couples lined up everywhere without the fear of anyone (except for a few idiots being blown out of proportion by the media).

Now, the things which I do not like about Bombay - First and foremost, the wrong message that is being sent out by few @$$es who are maligning the true image of Bombay. I can say with full guarantee having taken birth and lived in the city for more than 22 years that at least 90% of Mumbaikars do not believe or feel one bit of the shit that is being doled out by these so called Marathi manoos'. They openly welcome all Indians, help them, take help from them, celebrate their festivals, laugh in their happiness and stand up with them in times of sorrow. Bombay dos not feel what a particular Raj Thackeray or Bal Thackeray says, Bombay feels what true Mumbaikars like Sachin Tendulkar, Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and many more say. Second, the role media has played in blowing so many things related to Bombay out of proportions. Live in Bombay and form an opinion on what you see and not on what the media shows you while you sit at your home. Third, the amount of poverty and filth present in Bombay (which is in fact an asset in many ways) but needs to be upgraded and given a better standard of living. Fourth, Bombay contributes to 5% of the Indian GDP and approx 40% of the income tax revenue of the Central Govt and also is home to 2% of India's population. But I have never seen even a considerable fraction (leave alone a  proportionate amount) of money and effort being directed towards the development and well being of the city. Fifth, the amount of anti-social activities which are on the rise in Bombay leading to terrorism. The Mumbai Crime Police (regarded second best after Scotland Yard) has done a great amount of work in cleaning this dirt but it still has a long way to go. And there are many other smaller problems too like any other city in India. But still, I feel Bombay is a true metropolis and a true cosmopolitan which deserves better treatment from the Central and State Govt.

Comparison - I believe comparing these 2 greatest cities and pillars of India would be a crime, a sin that I would not want to perform in this post. This is something left alone to the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) which has rated Mumbai as an Alpha World City and Delhi as a Beta World City +. For me, each city has its own beauty, its own problems, its own lifestyle, its own pace, its own demeanor and I love them both as they are (of course both can be much much better).  I want to conclude this post by saying what I have experienced about these 2 Kohinoors of India : Delhi - A role model for Indian cities in terms of infrastructure, roads & flyovers, cleanliness, less pollution, maintenance of heritage monuments, Delhi Metro & politics.....Bombay: A role model for Indian cities for everything else.....love both cities....Delhi - Meri Shaan, Bombay - Meri Jaan :)

- Straight from the heart of an Indian !!!

Friends for Life

Sorry for the layoff, but a few really significant things happened in between and hence, it has taken me 10 long days to write my second blog post. Also, there were a lot of topics that deserved to be the title of this blog post but it took me all this while to figure out this title which is also one of the primary reasons for me naming my blog "Dil Chahta Hai" - a story of three friends for life.

GOD binds us into many relations at some or the other stage in life - Parents at birth, siblings, children, uncles, aunts, grandparents et al. All these people love you unconditionally and you to do the same (in most cases) because it is GOD's will that you love them and they love you. There is no doubt that parents, siblings and children occupy the most important place in most people's lives and that is why you call them FAMILY.

But, there are certain people in everybody's life whom GOD did not bind them with like in my case. People whom GOD has made with characteristics similar to me, people in whom I can see a my reflection and who see their reflection in me, people who will do anything for me and I'll do anything for them, people who do not have to necessarily love me or care for me unconditionally but they do, people who cannot see me down and out and whom I cannot let down. I call them my FRIENDS FOR LIFE. GOD has probably made them for me, but had left it upon me to identify them, cherish them, treasure them and convince them that they are my friends for life.

As one of my friends for life said, "You make 99% of your friends before your 25 years old and just 1% of them after this age", I now aged 24 feel that I have identified these people who will be my Friends for life. These are people whom I do not just love and care about, but people for whose convenience I am ready to put myself through any amount of inconvenience. And the best part is that these friends are sensitive enough to know this and reciprocate in a much bigger way. These people are Pratik (Joyzaar Bhai), Samuel (Bashinda), Rohit (Painter), Pratap (Bhaiyya), Shweta (Maate), Amey (Lombya), Rahul (Bhandari), Aparna (Appy), Ashwin (Dude), Chinmay (Chinu), Sahil (Lakdi), Nirav (Nero), Lakhara (Lukha Lakhu), Gowtham (Bro), Nihit (Tillu), Maggi (Heroine), Prajna (Chusa), Divya (Rani).

I do not know what good have I done to deserve such an awesome set of Friends for Life, people with whom I foresee myself spending the best moments of my life in future. Others may get added and subtracted, but not any of these as they are too precious to lose. There are spaces in time when you thank your stars....this is my chance and I thank mine. My stars are these people whom I shall bind together in a constellation always present in the sky of my life.

I am ecstatic would be an understatement as I have realized who are my Friends for Life......Hope each and every living person realizes who are theirs and treasures them!!!

The most important person in my life who does not know it

For starters, I would like to aver that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (henceforth referred to as GOD mostly) has today finally convinced me to start blogging, something that nothing else could. But, today am so much inundated with joy and happiness that I had to find a way to vent it out and lo behold I start blogging because mera "Dil Chahta Hai" and hence, the name of the blog. I would be writing about many other things as an when mera Dil Chahta Hai but the inspiration GOD deserves the first blog post. So here I go opening my innings with "The most important person in my life who does not know it"

I am today forced to think about those days as a child when I used to literally hate Cricket because whenever India was playing, Papa would be glued to the TV and not let me watch my favorite cartoons on Cartoon Network. I used to wish that somehow India loses early so that I get to see Mask and Captain Planet and Tom n Jerry. This was until when I was 7 years old in 1993 on that fateful night when everyone was talking about cricket. It was the Hero Cup semi final or something and I could just hear cricket wherever I went. It was on this wonderful night that I had a real glimpse of a tiny little 19 year old man who has today become one of the most important persons in my life. The last over that he bowled somehow amazed me and for the first time ever, made me watch cricket and forget all my cartoons. Then came the whirlwind 82 runs of 50 odd balls as an opener for the first time against New Zealand in 1994 and I was hooked on. Here was my Mask, Captain Planet, Tom, Jerry all rolled into one. He was Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - India's favorite son.

The tryst continued with the 1996 World Cup (by when I had become a cricket addict and even started playing cricket with my friends) when I went to watch my first ever cricket match at Wankhede stadium - the India v/s Australia match in which GOD made a brilliant 90 in a losing cause for India as usual. That was my first real heartbreak and that is when I realized for the first time that I am and Indian, one who feels bad when India loses. He was brilliant in fact magnanimous in that entire World Cup and would have brought India its second World Cup and this time at home if not for the other 10 fools in the team and the Indian cricket administration who screwed it completely at Eden Gardens in that heart breaking semi-final.

But GOD did not give up as HE took it a notch higher by single handedly crushing Australia and his nemesis Shane Warne in particular over a period of 6 months driving the best team in the world into submission and giving Warney nightmares. That Sharjah final in 1998 was the first time that cricket was the reason when I hugged Papa. And it was also the beginning of something that continues even today, getting better day by day.

His all round demolition of Australia in the first ICC Champions trophy when he made 141 and took 4 wickets too, his classy hundreds in Test matches all over the globe, the way in which he treated Akhtar & Co with contempt during the 2003 World Cup and many more such innings have no doubt given me pure joy, but for me his most memorable performances have been the one in which he came over the demise of his father to score a 140 in the 1999 World Cup, the one in which he came and took 3 wickets in no time to give India the impetus to win that now-so-famous Eden Gardens Test against Australia, , the one in which he scored a 241* at Sydney without playing a single cover drive because he was facing problems outside the off stump, the one in which he made a full length dive aged almost 37 against South Africa in the first one dayer just 2 days ago to stop a boundary.

Probably Lara, Dravid and Ponting are better Test batsmen, Donald Bradman is the greatest batsman ever, Sir Garfield Sobers is the best cricketer ever and I would even like to mention other great sports persons like Tiger Woods, Federer, Pele, Schumacher and many more who might have been better than Sachin at their sport. But, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar to me and to a better part of a billion people comprising of non-Indians too is GOD and no one else has even come close, leave alone beat him. He has single handedly carried the hopes of a billion people which no one else has. He has set standards of sportsmanship that none ever have. A classic example is the way he went into the dressing room of the Bangladesh Cricket team after the recently concluded Test series which India won 2-0 and congratulated them for being a great team and telling them that one day they will become a great test side. Another example is the way he congratulated the same team during World Cup 2007 even though they were the prime reason for India's early shock exit from the Cup. And there are numerous other examples which make him GOD.

Today was an example in masterclass, when he became the first to make a double hundred in ODI's carrying his bat through the innings and running all his runs himself as opposed to Saeed Anwar who had a runner running all his runs in that 194. And then when GOD turned up to field with the entire team after such an innings which would really have taken a heavy toll on him, I could see why HE is what HE is - GOD.

I have his photo as my desktop wallpaper for the past few days and he inspires me like no one else, not even GOD and hence, I will never forget the day February 16, 2008 when I met GOD at the IPL match and got a ball signed by him for holding on to one of Gilly's sixes. The only thing I repent about that day is that I did not tell HIM that he is amongst the most important people in my life.

Hail GOD!!!!

Let us all hope HE gets what he wants - a World Cup victory for India in 2011.