I just watched an excellent film with the same name.
METRO charters a new path because it tells interesting multiple stories that run concurrently. Also, the characters are, in some way, linked with each other. It showcases various slices of life of regular folk in this big city that gives us all so much. It caresses human emotions like greed, lust, sex, ambition, struggle and love amongst people who are running the rat race in Mumbai. I quite liked the film.
But, here is the thing; I was born and brought up in this city and I love it for all that it is worth. Sure, it has the minuses but then what city hasn’t? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being biased. I’ve lived in New York and yes, I love it perhaps a tad more than I love my own city, but I would never live there or let my kids grow up and call my friends by their first names; call me old fashioned, but its just something that I’ve got used to. To be honest, I will always feel like a second class citizen in America and I don’t blame the Americans – we are after all, the outsiders.
Coming back to Mumbai, a lot of characters I’ve met and known in my personal life are not from here; much like the characters in the film. Now that I introspect, I realize that I don’t really identify with any of them. None of those feature on my friends list.
This may sound a tad haughty and perhaps even unsettling but I really haven’t met a single “outsider” that I’ve managed to get along with, not saying that there aren’t any, just not one that I’ve found.
They call Mumbai the city of dreams and often people just pack bag and baggage and head here hoping to build a high rise dream. Also after SRK came here and achieved superstardom, I’ve noticed that every second tinsel town struggler claims to be from Delhi; doesn’t matter if they can’t spot it from a map in their tiny homes in small town Bihar or not.
They when they fail, they come up with silly excuses. Its not a magic city people – know your limits.
I don’t referee based on location and I have nothing against Biharis or outsiders who settle down here; what enrages me is the fact that they crib that the reason people like “me” make it is because we are from here, have lots of contacts, money and plenty of advantages.
I disagree.
The reason “we” make it is because we arm ourselves with a good education, excellent communication skills that we combine with honest hard work. Also we don't use the SC/ST excuses at the drop of a hat, complete with Bihari twangs from “Delly” thrown in for good measure.
Perhaps I will never understand what it means to be an outsider; maybe it’s just an immature superiority complex – but life in “any” metro depends on how you see it, what you make of it and how you live it.
As Sharman Joshi says in the film, “Yeh Race Hain, Koi Morning Walk Nahin…”
6 comments:
I can understand this is turning out to be a rather controversial post and on (sa?)tans urging I am posting my thoughts on this.
Firstly I think he does rant a little bit in the end which weakens the point he was trying to make and makes him look like an angry out of control self obsessed snob....but of course he is not :).....
Ranting aside I think the issues he was trying to raise were:
1) being from out of state
2) being totally crappy and useless
3) hiding your crapiness and uselessness under the guise of being from out of state
being from out of state has nothing to do with being crappy but its the third point that he was really trying to make...
so there it is.....let the flame wars begin.....
Hey Saurabh, u and me will continue to be perceived as the educated elitist snobs..
i think its to do with the 90-10 problem. 10 % of the educated elite like us want change and progress. We believe in consumerism, we believe in change but most people don't. They like the rigid old ways and thats the uphill task that we face.
However, convincing the other 90% that what we are saying or doing is not some conspiracy to take their money or whatever it is that they hold dear is the hardest part.
These people are initially skeptical of what they dont know or understand and trouble is that most people don't want to spend the time to understand or at times simply don't have the intellectual acumen.
They just know how to say Cappuccino in an American accent.
You gotta tone it down man. Again you are mixing two tangentially related issues (i.e. they are kinda related but not really!) 90-10s got nothing to do with your earlier post. But I guess its brings out this generic problem...u can order a Cappuccino in an American accent but how many of us actually bother to find out how its actually made ?
hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappuccino
And please don't refer to the majority population as "These people..." thats exactly what makes you look like a elitist snob....oh well I guess you like that label don't you ?
It amazes me how a simple Bollywood flick can inspire you to conceive such an article, but well; it's you we're talking about here :)
By "such an article", I primarily mean opinionated. Yes, the article is simply a piece of your head slapped at the screen, which is very debatable coz I doubt m(any) people will agree with everything you've mentioned. I don’t! It’s quite a mix of words.
Frankly - it doesn’t sound like u 'have nothing against Biharis or outsiders who settle down here' from the blog at least, coz a few lines later you accuse them all unfairly. You cannot write a piece like this defending jus one side b'coz there are two sides to everything, and u focusing on just one - my Libran instinct's coming into play - isn’t fair at all.
You mention that people like you make it big coz of the degrees u hold, and all the work that goes into it, but u GENERALISE the point about the failed 'outsiders' blaming you'll for their shortcomings, and that’s what irks. Though there exist issues like "star kids v/s newcomers" (stating that the former take it all) that are valid complaints in a few cases (read: Tusshar Kapoor, Viveik Oberoi), I’ll guess you do know that some people who've made it Really big have little or no formal education.
A good writer writes without voicing his own opinions out loud n clear. It's always both the sides of the coin; but here you're making it a personal vendetta against out of towner's...
In a nutshell, I kinda agree about the 'hiding your crappiness and uselessness under the guise of being from out of state' part, (the SC/ST quota is overused at times, certainly) but there is no need to be so biased about it, that'd just be mean.
I can't quite grasp how discussing a mildly-above-average, oft-repeated-formula film led to you penning down your feelings about "those people." Even the film isn't specifically about those born and raised in a metro vs the FOTB (fresh off the boat) immigrants. In fact, if you care to look at the history of Bombay, New York and most any thriving cosmopolitan community, you'll probably notice that they have become so primarily because they have allowed the 'melting pot' concept - people from all over the world have come in and attempted to make a life for themselves leaving behind the limitations and mindsets of the place they come from. And obviously, that has been a successful idea because Bombay, NY, etc do in fact end up paying some of the highest income taxes in their countries. So do you blame "them" for atleast trying? You went to NY and complained about being treated like a 'second class citizen' and then returned to India. I guess you treating "those people from Bihar" the same way is primarily to achieve the same results. I understand parochialism, but really... must you also be xenophobic?
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