Brave new world, same old grouses

I seem to have upset many DNA readers (all right, four, and apparently 90% of the ‘Mumbai Club’ on Facebook, who think I am rubbish. Clearly, I cannot now apply for membership). This is because 1) I write about Mumbai, 2) I do not belong to Mumbai, and 3) is it surprising then that my career is going nowhere? These people do not appear to belong to Mumbai — places as diverse as Pune and Indore. Many also think this column is a blog; this annoys them further.

I can only take issue with one of these objections. I am a Mumbaikar. I have spent most of my life in Mumbai and cannot call any other place home. And since this column is written for the city pages of the Mumbai edition of this newspaper, I can’t write about any other city.

The online community is fascinating in its diversity, the scale of its operation, and its obsession with pettiness. It is a fine characteristic of human nature that it can find itself in a brave new world and spend every moment stuck in the nitty-gritty. Yet, that is what makes us what we are. The last general election and assembly election saw all of Mumbai get very exercised about the state of the roads, the lack of water, and traffic. The first two are the domain of the BMC and cannot be fixed by either your MP or MLA. (Mumbai traffic I think not even the Almighty can fix). So an election that should have been about larger issues like terrorism, climate, and the economy was focused on civic issues.

Mumbai’s imminent collapse is bothering us subconsciously in ways we can’t fathom. So we focus on that to the exclusion of all else, including a fearsome terrorist strike. You cannot blame us. The police are fighting one another. Kasab says it wasn’t him. Every road has been dug up. People have died on the sea link. And I don’t care what the Copenhagen summit decides, Mumbai hasn’t even started its pretend winter yet. When I say it’s hot, it’s not a compliment.