Being A Mumbai Girl…

It has been 3 years since I last posted here. A very long hibernation, I must say! Though I did write sometimes in these years, the content was mainly  classified as “for my eyes only”

Well, major homesickness has brought me back to writing and pouring my heart out about my love for Mumbai.

It has been more than 6 years now since I have moved out of Mumbai. While living in Hyderabad, surviving all by yourself was a novelty for me. It was all so exciting! So, no major missing or homesickness  there.

Living in Pune, I barely missed it. That was mainly because I was practically back in Mumbai almost every single weekend!

Now that I have moved to Bangalore, I miss Mumbai a lot! Not because Bangalore is not a good city. In fact, it is quite similar to Mumbai with a bonus of an amazing weather. A cosmopolitan city with a display of local culture and heritage and horrendous traffic – just like Mumbai! But as they say – “Home is where the heart is”; Mumbai will always be my home!

I miss Mumbai because I can’t travel home every weekend anymore. I must confess though that in these last five months, I have managed to travel at least once every month – Thank you extended weekends and the ample festivities of India! May you continue to give folks like me opportunities and privileges of visiting home more often.

Living away from home for so long, I thought I should share my experience of “Being a Mumbai girl in the outside world”. Yes, it is a world within itself – this city!

Being from Mumbai has it’s share of advantages and disadvantages.

Let me begin with the disadvantages –

There is a major stereotyping that happens when you tell someone that you are from Mumbai.

Exhibit A:

Me – I’m from Mumbai.

X – *With a wicked grin* Ohh Naaiiccee!! So all nights party-shaarty then?

Me – Umm..Nope!

X – Come on! What are you saying? You Mumbai girls are all party animals.

I walk away with a stupid grin on my face trying my best to avoid giving this person “the look”.

Yeah right! That’s what we do. We are all zombies. We party all night! We don’t sleep. We go to work early next morning. And then, we party again – 24 x 7 x 365.

In these last 6 years, I have found out from the folks who may have visited the city once, twice or never that Mumbai girls :

• are party animals
• love to get sloshed
• are aggressive
• have loads of attitude and air about themselves.
• only love wearing western outfits from Zara, Forever 21 and the likes.
• find Indian outfits too “LS” (Low society)
• are “filmy”
• read only Bombay Times, follow only filmstars on Twitter, Instagram, et. al.
• cannot live outside Mumbai (this one is not just for the girls but all Mumbaikars in general)

I am really curious to find out what all personality traits am I going to gain in the coming years as a Mumbai girl.

I mean, what if I don’t like to party all night? What if I am not an aggressive but a calm person? What if I am or want to be good mix of “trad”and “rad”? (Traditional and Radical –  for the ones unfamiliar with the “Yo” lingo)

Do this make me any less of a Mumbaikar?

I agree that some people do have a few of these traits, but it is not limited to just Mumbai girls please. And stereotyping all Mumbai girls as these “high-handed divas” is quite annoying to be honest!!

While these things make you wonder how much further worse can you be pictured or portrayed, being from Mumbai has some huge advantages as well –

People around the world know about Mumbai (well, most of them). Say, you are travelling outside India, someone asks you what part of India do you belong to and you say Mumbai/Bombay and they go – Äaah! Mumbai! I know Mumbai!

It feels nice to know that people – who think you belong to an over-populated poor country, who are surprised at your fluency in English, who think India is all about Bollywood and Bollywood dance is just the “Jai Ho” step from Slumdog Millionaire – know about Mumbai and it being a full-fledged city in India and you don’t have to explain to them where exactly is it.

Off topic – Must say kudos to Bollywood here! They have indeed led the way to make India more visible on the world map. Of course, not taking away credit from all the other personalities who have made the country proud!

Let me share an experience here:

When I visited Berlin in 2014, I met a lot of people from around the world. On introducing myself from Mumbai, India, one lady (she wasn’t really into General Knowledge I suppose) said – “Oww Mumbai. I know Mumbai. Shahrukh Khan is from Mumbai. It’s the capital right?”  (FYI, SRK has a huge fan base in Europe)

Oops! Sorry, Dear Delhi! But from what I gather, the only place other than Mumbai that most of the people I met outside knew was Goa! This was 2 years ago. I am sure that they know that you are the capital by now. You’ve been in the news quite frequently in these recent years.

Another advantage – As a Mumbaikar, you learn to live amongst a diverse population, adjust your lifestyles with each other and are aware of and celebrate all different festivals. This helps when you have to live outside independently.

This also helps when someone very curiously asks you – “You are a Maharashtrian, right? Then, how come you are celebrating this festival?” Every time I am asked this, I get into a patriotic mode and reply with that Chak De! feel – “I am an Indian  first. I celebrate all festivals”. Ok. Ok. I admit! I am filmy!

You know, when people say that once you live in Mumbai, you can’t live anywhere else.Not true, my friends! Sure, you miss the city, the fast-paced life, the vibrant energy that the city possesses. But I have lived outside for so many years now. I have friends who are from Mumbai but live away; some even out of the country. And I am sure they all love Mumbai as much as I do while living away from it.

Call it Bombay or call it Mumbai, love it or hate it – This city definitely leaves a mark on you! 🙂

Sunset view captured from Marine Drive 🙂