Mumbai is Mumbai and will forever be Mumbai

I haven’t written a blog post since a long time now, however, the hullabaloo over the word “Bombay” and initiation of the age old debate of “Bombay Versus Mumbai” has prompted me to write this post. I do not favor a political party nor do I stand in favor of High court’s decisions. It is simply a Mumbaikar in me that takes this stand!

So let’s go back in history…….

How the word Bombay come into being? Some godforsaken Britisher came down to the coastal city, relished a sumptuous meal of “Bombil”, well-known duck fish and he liked this cuisine so much that he decided to name this province after it. Much too fishy, in my opinion!

Moving on….

There has been series of vague, disturbing, sarcastic posts, comments, blogs by many celebrities mocking at my city and more so, on my people! They gaily hail themselves as liberal minded intellectuals who love to call this city Bombay and not Mumbai because Bombay stands for sophistication and Mumbai sounds way to Ghatti.

Sir/ Ma’am or whoever the fuck you are, this city has  90% of Ghattis leaving in it who still are absolutely clueless who the fuck you are and what the fuck do you do. Well, they totally know who is Govinda or who is Amitabh Bachchan. But those of you who are regular at NCPA, Prithvis, PVRs, Palladium etc have no clue what true Mumbai is, and neither do the other 90%, I earlier spoke about, know who you are!  You, who come from some foreign land, perhaps because no one gave a fuck about you there, dare to speak of my city with highbrow sarcasm? What are you?

For you this city may not be Mumbai but for every middleclass householder who wakes up in the wee hours and travels in jam packed Mumbai local, this city is Mumbai. And this city is Mumbai not for the elites who know not what travelling in trains is or what BEST buses are. You may  You may have shot some of your film sequences there but travel each day in this local to get a better taste of what Mumbai is. And I don’t mean Bombay.

While the rest of the world supports you in your pseudo-intellectual debate of how cool Bombay is, I and many others, differ. For we know that the sophistication and elitism hasn’t yet reached the gaons and nukkads of Mumbai which perhaps you have never visited. You, who wince at the thought of Dharavi and think esteemed to perform at plush places, do not have an ounce of knowledge that true Mumbai rests in such places where you have never been to! You, who get applauded by those insipid fans for being so funny with your posts, forget that it is the common man of Mumbai who buys your film tickets every Friday. And if you haven’t yet calculated, most revenue gets generated by the single screens that are still functional in this city. It is in their whistles and their claps that true Mumbai filmy spirit is and it is because of their money that you THRIVE in this city. You SURVIVE on our money!

Respect that…

To add more to this, have you heard of the dabbawalas? They are the “ghattis” of Mumbai who make sure to provide you with your lunch every day on the same time. They carry the burden on their head in the scorching heat while you are busy typing out and tallying a 100 crore deal in your air-conditioned offices. He is the man of MUMBAI and BOMBAY means NOTHING to him!

Mumbai isn’t a catchphrase minted by a political party. This word is a spirit which has been around giving life to the lifeless, boneless like you even before Britishers christened this island city. Madras can be changed to Chennai and Bangalore can be Bengaluru but call Bombay as Mumbai and these pseudo-intellectuals who call us Ghattis give us their Gyaan on how sophisticated Bombay sounds. To hell with your cold blooded sophistication, Mumbai is Mumbai and will forever be Mumbai!

Bombay reeks of your shameless classiness while Mumbai represents us! You are not Mumbai and Mumbai can never be you. You are Bombay which means nothing to us…. Mumbai is its common man, Mumbai is every middleclass family on whom you depend for your income. Mumbai is the one who makes you and you are nothing without it!


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