When Bombay became Mumbai.....

"E dil hain mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke..zara bachke.. yeh hain bombay meri jaan"... the melodious song from CID summarizing the life and times of good old Bombay...

In 1994 the world saw demise of a wonderful city named Bombay and the era of Mumbai had arrived... well both mean the same... coz the local name for bombay was mumbai... infact mumbai is close to heart than the anglicized 'bombay' ... but the event of rechristening bombay was a black day in history of India as it was proved successfully that people are so gullible that anyone can play the regionalism card and take the focus off many a shortcomings present in the society... many cities followed suit...and thus came the advent of Chennai , Kolkata, dont even get me started on Karnataka's very own Bengalooru which is a crap idea to say the least .

I have called it a demise of Bombay because after this, successive governments have failed the mega-city time after time and when cornered for slack performance, they have re-named one more important junction / station /centre /fly-over after Chhatrapati Shivaji and got away scott free on bad performance blame... Who is to blame for this ? We as the citizens of Bombay never stopped the khadi-clad citizens from thugging us in name of regionalism... Infact we are not only gullible but also lazy..we want to sublet our resources to laborers from outside and enjoy the income generated by their hard work.. and when these laborers claim their rightful share of the city we beat them up in name of regionalism...

How can you set claim on the city which you have never loved... just the fact that you were born in bombay does not give you the right to rape the city... The next time you take up arms against outsider taking away a job/resource from you, take a moment to think what have you given to this city which has given you innumerable opportunities to make a living and succeed in life.


-- An outside admirer of Bombay

PS: I have used the word Bombay mostly because I liked it when Mumbai was Bombay and everyone was welcome... I hope someday mumbai becomes bombay again..