Meter Down !

Here are some of my fav songs on Mumbai from the movies , though I can’t place the movie with the song :

Aye Dil , Hai Mushkil jeena yahaan ,
Zara hatke Thoda bachke , yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan
Kahin motor , kahin carein , kahin busein , kahin manzil ,
Milta hai yahaan sabh kuch , bus milta nahin dil

I like the reality check !

Yeh Bombay sheher hai ,
Haseenon ka sheher
Yahan kissi pal bhi ho sakta hai
Koi na Koi
Haadsa ,
Haadsaa .
-from the movie Haadsaa , indicates the city's open canvas for action and opportunity.

Bombay se aaya mera dost , dost ko salaam karo
Raat ko khaao piyo , Din mein aaram karoo !

There’s an anachronism in the above line , though it celebrates the friendship . Unlike say Bangalore or Delhi where you are likely to say that you stay in Bangalore or Delhi without being a typical Bangalorean or Delhiite , a Bombay guy says he is a Bombay guy . Cosmopolitanaism in Bombay is atypical .e.g. your money skills , survival skills and opportunity capitalization skills convert you to a Bombay guy unlike in the other two cities where you can never convert to become a quintessential typical rude , arrogant and post-9pm social circuiter Delhiite or a meek , unadverturous localite typical Bangalorean . You never belong to those places , but to Bombay , you could belong . Bombay …..even against your wishes and even while you are pretty unaware of it , takes you in its fold and cosmoses you !
So the daily grind of action , the 35km daily commute , the continual adjustments that one does to quality of life in Mumbai , there can never be a ‘Din mein aaram karo ‘ kind of Mumbai guy ! for this is one city that truly never sleeps .
But I like the zing of a welcome for a Bombaiyah guy in the song here .


Eh Hai , Eh Hai Bombay nagariya tu dekh babuaah !


And amongst the newer ones ,

Na biwi na bacha , Na baap bada na bhaiyya
The whole thing is that ke bhaiyya sabse bada rupaiyyah ! ‘

-the beautifully choreographed song on cool Abhishek Bachchan from Bluffmaster .This was the get-rich-quick formula that saw the younger B’s wealth-creating opportunites only to be conned into a bigger game .


‘Kissi ka chhuta , Kissi ki daulat ,
Kissi ka lost , to kissi aur ka found ,
Yahaan pe Jindagi me har kushi
Rupaiaah hai ya dollar ya pound !
Meter down , down , down , down , meter down .
-from the great John Abraham movie Taxi no 9211 .
This was an outstanding movie with this brilliant sound track that pitted the fantastically rich billionaire against the existing-struggling-selfpitying taxi driver and chronicled their parallel lives in the city with each claiming Mumbai to be his .

Finally , there’s Rudyard Kipling’s ode to Mumbai
“The Seven Seas ”

Surely in toil or fray ,
Under an alien sky ,
Comfort it is to say ,
Of no mean city am I !


And here’s my poetic take capitalist Mumbai :

This space on which you stand
Is worth a thirty thousand grand
The time which you take with me to talk
Kills some other opportunity that knocks !

So said this steel merchant in Fort
Many years ago to me , and him ; here I quote
He, in that one line ,taught me more about life
Than Toil , Sweat , Study or Strife !

For he had put a price
Without being polite and nice
On opportunity , effort and time
And thus defined this city of mine .