Mumbai: A city that moves you, at least once

Most of 24-year-old Shannon Sarote's family has given in to the call of suburbia. Many of her relatives, who grew up in Byculla, have moved from the friendly lanes of Ranibaug to the distant pleasures of Airoli. The main reason for the big switch was space constraints.

Shannon’s uncle, who used to work in Airoli, booked a house there a decade ago. It was purely an investment decision, which he took anticipating the possible developmental activities in Navi Mumbai. But her uncle moved there recently when he failed to find a decent apartment that he could afford elsewhere in the city.

Speaking about the pros of moving to suburbia, Sarote says that it’s the cheaper rates, more space, and the pay-offs from selling their small South Mumbai cubbyholes that tempt the present generation.

The move doesn’t come without its side effects, though. The commute to their workplaces, most of which are still concentrated in South and Central Mumbai, gets too hectic and consumes too much of their time. Besides adjusting to the erratic water and power supply, people also have to incorporate lifestyle changes.

Another drawback is the loss of community ties. This is especially true for people who were brought up in tightly-knit communities of the island city.

Apeksha Padukone was 19 when, two years ago, her family moved from their Tardeo house — where she had spent all her life — to Andheri’s Veera Desai road. The transition proved traumatic for her. “I was used to the city girl lifestyle I enjoyed in town, where everything was ten minutes away. I could cab it everywhere and there was hardly any traffic,” she said.

In Andheri, however, the sheer volume of road traffic made her turn to the local trains, which were overcrowded too. And the rickshaw rides were another nightmare. “It takes me hours to negotiate a 15-minute distance,” she says.

But two years down the line, she has made her adjustments. “Initially, the shift pushed me out of my comfort zone and limited my mobility. But I’m okay with it now.” And she is making the most of her new home and the various facilities of the housing complex.

Unlike in her earlier 1-BHK, she now has a room to herself, she has access to a gym, to a swimming pool, and an elevator (her earlier building didn’t have one) that has made life much easier for her grandmother.

Kamala Ganesh, head of the sociology department at Mumbai University, believes that the shift to the suburbs is also driven by sociological phenomena such as the breakdown of joint families: when joint families split up and property is divided, people need an alternative residence as a back-up, and they may not be able to afford a large place anywhere but in the suburbs.

Not all traffic is northward, however. Hemant Kampalia, a chartered accountant, moved from Malad to Parel last year to be closer to his workplace at Nariman Point. “I can’t tell you what a big difference it has made to my life,” he says. “I have more time with my family, I can organise my work better, and I’m less stressed.”

“People who move to the South do so for professional reasons,” says Ziaur Rahman Qureshi, a city broker. Those seeking an upgrade look for typical status markers: good construction and luxurious amenities, a swimming pool being the ultimate social statement.

While social status and shorter commute are factors that account for a move southward, this seems to be a minority. The bulk of the ‘movement’, despite all the wailing about the commute, is in one direction: north.