i love mumbai
Mumbai is all khushi, no gham
22 Mar 2002, 0001 hrs IST , MATINEE MASALA / Dinesh Raheja , TIMES NEWS
i love mumbai city. probably because i have had a lovely childhood, an excellent education and a fabulous three-unit family. also, mumbai is the heart of the film industry. and i have always been a filmi bachcha and a big hindi film buff though i was reluctant to admit it in my green lawns (school) days. hindi films were looked down upon by my south mumbai friends. of course all that has changed now, hindi films are accepted all over mumbai. hanging garden and kamala nehru park are two places that i instantly associate with mumbai because they are linked to my childhood. i've lived in malabar hill for most of my life. i also have very pleasant memories of weekends at worli seaface. when i was 18, i practised driving my car at worli seaface. however, i must admit, i prefer to be chauffeur driven as i do quite a lot of my thinking in the car. i am a total mumbai boy because of the upbringing my parents gave me. my dad is a total mumbai man, whether it be a death, a birth, or a premiere he is the first to be there, volunteering to takeover the responsibilities. dad is a good man. if the premiere of kuch kuch hota hai was one of the best attended premieres, it's because of dad's goodwill. everyone, from amitabh and shah rukh to waheeda aunty and sadhana aunty, were present. sad but true, most premieres today are no longer the star-studded events they used to be. besides mumbai people, i can identify with the people of bangalore. i can't imagine myself in delhi. from all the cities in india, i feel mumbai is the most accessible, accepting and approachable. even a stranger would feel comfortable within five minutes of reaching this city. mumbai is spilling over with goodness. thankfully mumbai doesn't tolerate idlers. i can't bear people who are not charged. you have to work here and i firmly believe you owe it to god to make the most of this life. i don't think it is entirely true that mumbai is the only place where you can realise your dreams. but when it comes to the entertainment media, i feel mumbai rules. if you want to be a journalist or an actor then mumbai is the place to be. mumbai meets my social needs. if i were to consider moving out of this city, i would like to take all my mumbai friends along with me. the first filmi association i made was in my late teens with manish malhotra and dharmesh darshan. adi(tya) chopra, i always viewed as a family friend. now my close friends include shah rukh and gauri. i would describe shah rukh as a mumbai-delhi person. he loves mumbai and can't imagine living anywhere else now but as a host he fusses over you like a typical delhi person. you can tell both gauri and shah rukh are delhiwallahs from the way they greet you and see you off to the door. though i enjoyed my childhood in malabar hill, for the past five years i was dying to shift to bandra, since most of my friends live there. i have been living in bandra for more than a year now and i love every moment of it. my favourite haunt, the olive restaurant is a stone's throw away from my house. so is my office. my mother would have preferred the quiet of a sea-facing house but i love the city & its people, the noise. i don't even mind loudspeakers. i like people around me all the time, i would die of boredom if left alone on a beach. i am fine with the idea of the window of my house opening to another building, i like to know what's happening in the neighborhood. the only times i was unable to comprehend mumbai was when riots broke out a decade ago. i felt helpless about this unfortunate intrusion in our every day routine. my parents wouldn't let me out of their sight and though people met every evening in the club next to my house, we were in the grip of an uneasy calm. besides mumbai, i could probably live in new york. like mumbai it's alive and has people like me.
