The Mumbai Midway

Having had a chance to spend years of childhood in the area that was, and instead is, predominantly middle class area of Mumbai, a great metropolis of the world, it was dwelling in my mind for quite a sometime that such useful observation, which I was exposed to, should not go waste without having put in the words, and presented to the world for feeling the life that is different, but not prominently accounted for as yet. The book has been clearly divided into two parts, the first part describing the surrounding in which the characters depicted in the second part stayed or are staying. The first part elucidates the various aspects of the way of life of people in Girgaon, where the middle class inhabitants of Mumbai have been staying intensely; this first part itself is a captivating work that presents the aspects of life there in a striking manner. The first part provides for the insight of the flow of life in which the characters in the second part had their life spent. Our family, comprising father- mother- my- my brothers, had an opportunity to stay in the area of Girgaon, and we the children of our parents passed the most part of our early days there, though our living accommodation was singularly different from the characteristically typical houses there. We could feel and enjoy the culture and surroundings of Girgaon, and for which we did not have to get entangled in life there on a day to day or say a minute to minute basis. The bird's eye view, for which I was subjected to, of life around gave an inclination to write, unknowingly and in the back of mind, the singular aspects of proximate atmosphere, and traits of the characters living therein. The people of Girgaon, who of course largely belonged to middle class of the society, was exhilarated by themselves, they never repented or sulked for having them deprived of luxury and financial happy place that the higher and richer class was enjoying; their subordinate position, in comparison to that of the privileged upper class of the society and their not so fortunate position, did not bother them in a large scale so as to frustrate their constant effort at rising higher in the life; they sought for elementary form of life without harbouring hatred toward their current situation, on the contrary they were found to be taking maximum pleasure and enjoyment out of their current situation, so much so that others were inclined to regard their that position as their complacency. Their positive attitudinal way toward their current situation and the atmosphere was their beliefs that made them agree to stand current position and aim for better. They lived in dingy rooms, with ever increasing family, celebrating each and every occasion with such a frenzy that the wealthy upper class people would come to such a pass that they would appear to envy them and, sometimes, sulk by the soul for having deprived of such condition that they could not enjoy the life that the middle class of Girgaon was enjoying. They, the middle class, were never majorly overtaken by the financial worries that they were consistently exposed to, and any such problems never stopped them from enjoying the moments of life to the fullest, but within the means and sources easily available to them. The wealth and resources did not present to the fortunate class the ways of merriment that were available to the middle class; the ways available to the wealthy upper class were better as far as ‘pomp and show’ was concerned, but the joy and the buzz generated was bland in comparison to the lively delectation availed by the middle class out of their not fancy but enthusiastic celebrations. The life of a middle class was easy, but certainly not dull, in contrast it was full of life; their problems of whatsoever nature also would affect their social life, because the concern shown by handy people, in such moments of problems, and over the course of several years of cohabitation, helped them to create, strengthen, and maintain the relations that were beyond the birth relations. And for a congenital condition of being like that they were not required to provide any additional efforts, for that condition used to take place effortlessly due to the near identical situation and congested cohabitation of them. The characters depicted in the second part are right but not singularly similar to any living or deceased person because the traits that comprise each of the characters are a blending of several symbolic traits discovered in various real characters that lived or are living, in this middle class pocket in Mumbai that is Girgaon. I, therefore, consider myself fortunate to have saved from making a defensive cliché statement that, any resemblance of the characters with any living or deceased person is purely coincidental. Any reader who stayed or is staying in Girgaon will not be inclined to claim that he never have met or heard of the individuals sketched in this work, even though his efforts of identifying them with any of the persons that he knew from the area of Girgaon will cause him only to estimate. Though the characters have been sketched in a slight humorous style, that was the requirement of the work for making it appealing, and there has been no intention of casting any aspersion on any character that anybody may try to conjecture. I will be glad to receive your reflections on the work, which you are suggested to send to my e-mail address.