MUMBAI MERI JAAN

Modern Love: Mumbai is an ode, where poetry often goes missing, to our most cosmopolitan metropolis

- Maithili Rao

AIl cities have stories to tell. They have to be prised out. Great cities create spaces for stories that are unique, non-conformist, and take you by surprise. Surprise that is not really subversive, but enriches and expands understanding in unexpected ways.

Anything can happen in Mumbai, the most cosmopolitan urban sprawl in the country that is often stereotyped as an uncaring city caught in a rat race, always in a frenetic rush to get things done, and chase dreams deemed unattainable, where love is supposedly transactional. In this concrete jungle, love is a fragile bud that withers before it blooms. So many clichés for a city that never sleeps, a city paved with broken dreams - it was time someone restored the balance, and saw humanity under the scurrying crush of crowds in which individuals are atomized. As I type this, my mind is humming the evergreen Gulzar classic Do deewaane shahar mein, raat ya dopahar mein, Aab o daana dhoondte hain, Ek aashiana dhoondte hain. And sigh, those innocent days of Gharonda seem so far back in time. So back to the cynical yet more intolerant days we now live in.