YEH HAI MUMBAI MERI JAAN - An Ode to the Spirit of Mumbai Sirajuddin Chougle Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan EDUCREATION PUBLISHING RZ 94, Sector - 6, Dwarka, New Delhi - 110075 Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh - 495001 Website: www.educreation.in __________________________________________________ © Copyright, 2020, Author All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer. ISBN: 978-93-90307-55-5 Price: Rs.120.00 The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the author and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation. Printed in India Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan An Ode to the Spirit of Mumbai By Sirajuddin Chougle EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011) www.educreation.in Acknowledgement Any book when it sees the light of the day the author is jubilant and rightly so. Getting the book published is a tedious task which involves not only the author but many others. Poetry as a genre in any language is not popular like prose; it has its own dedicated followers. This book was brewing on paper for quite some time, to put it straight almost four years. Lack of time was the main culprit. 2020 came, and it came with a bang; Covid’19. Lockdown rendered everyone behind the doors of their home. For me it came as a blessing, to unplug myself and complete the cup of tea that was brewing for so long. After completing the book, the first task was to get it edited for fine tuning. Prof Mujahid Khan Assistant Professor in my College, in the department of Arabic and Islamic Studies is also a Masters in English, was requested to do the honours. He accepted the same and ruminating over it ultimately delivered the task undertaken after facing untimely hiccups with his laptop and mobile. I am happy that he has done a thorough i job of the manuscript. I just like to say ‘thank you Mujahid’ for a wonderful job. The Almighty will reward you for the same, for it is out my reach to give back in return to you, for someone who is a Hafiz (Able to recite the Holy Quran from memory) only Allah can do justice to his calibre. For writing the Foreword of the book I solicited the help of Prof Shanti Polamuri, Head Department of English of my college and an old friend. The reason for entrusting the task to her was that she was familiar with my writing and easily approachable. It is for the readers to judge from her critical analysis the worth of this book. To her I can only promise that the friendship will last beyond this adventure, whatever the outcome. For the first time I thought about getting previews for the book, which I have not done for the previous two poetry books. Short listing the names with reasoning was a herculean task for me. At last I was able to zero in on four names. Prin. Suchitra Naik is a gem of a person among the list of my friends. Humble, honest and humane that’s how I can put. Ms. Apoorva Mulani a young and dynamic lady who follows the philosophy of Rumi in her practical life as an HR manager is fascinating and vibrant with a touch of flair. Mr. Manoj Varde a poet who writes in Marathi, employed as PR with BEST ii Undertaking Mumbai and interested in regional languages especially Urdu was the third on my final list. Lastly I roped in my long standing college friend, a banker by profession who dabbles in Urdu prose and has kept track of my writing for almost four decades. They were the first to get a peek into my book. I believe review writing to be a daunting task, but surprisingly they have executed it holistically. They have done a favour to me which cannot be reciprocated by a favour but allowing oneself to remain indebted for a lifetime, so shall I be. The support of my family members by allowing me space to be with myself and of my friends and colleagues for motivating me has been a strong pillar for accomplishing this book in the making for almost five years. Lastly I would like to thank the publisher for taking the risk of accepting to publish my book. Author iii Prelude The Mumbai of today is basically the result of reclamation of islands. The seven islands viz. Isle of Mumbai, Colaba, Old Woman’s Island (Little Colaba), Mahim, Mazgoan, Parel and Worli joined together comprise Mumbai. The song- ‘ai dil hai mushakil jeena yahaan, zara hat ke, zara bach ke, ye hai bambai meri jaan (’Oh my heart, life is an uphill struggle be alert, be street wise, this is Bombay my love), written by lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri in 1955 (sixty years back) for the Hindi movie C.I.D. is still the apt description about Bombay. My poems about Bombay are a tribute to the ‘city of dreams’, ‘the city that never sleeps’ with an ever bursting population of 22 millions. This city allows everyone to survive, right from a vagabond to the neo rich. It is said that the city does not sleep. It is true to the core. It works round the clock, any hour of the day or night. The day is hectic with all types of activities. You name it and it happens in Mumbai. As the day tires and evening turns into night and gather darkness there are number of iv activities that roll on. Some legitimate some illegitimate. With the nightfall, on the one hand the newspaper printing, the milk deliveries, the BPO’s, and so on are active; on the other hand prostitution, illicit liquor distillers, drug peddling, gambling and so on meet into the wee hours. I have explored the monuments of the city which exemplifies the uniqueness of the city and presents its history in brief. More than the monuments the soul of the city is seen on the streets of Mumbai. The mumbaikar is both ruthless and caretaking a rare combination. You can see an urchin been shrugged off by a passerby and immediately another hand, hands him a vada pav to satisfy his hunger. The beggars may be making a racket but the giving hand seldomly withhold itself. Self-respect is visible on the roads as the cart pushers make their way in the heat; the hawker trades his wares, the dabawalla racing to deliver, the courier man searching location, all cherish their labour and respect each other. When they are in street food lane religion, caste, creed, region, colour, language are forgotten, each one enjoying the treat on his plate. The city is cosmopolitan in character is vividly expressed through its places of worship. Be it a temple, a dargah, a church, a gurudwarah v or agyari you are one when together. The festivals bring each other in embrace forgetting enmity. The local trains on the western and central line are the harbinger of Mumbai lifeline. If the trains are running on time then Mumbai is alive and kicking. Any delay due to any reason immediately disrupts the set routine of the logistic way that people go about their task. During the monsoon this happen quite often due to heavy rain and subsequent water logging in some areas. Sometimes the trains come to a total halt and it is then the mumbaikar really realises that rains has come. It is a must that one gets stuck in the train at least once during the monsoon, it is only than Mumbai rain have their say. The people travelling in trains display the character of Mumbai. There are those who travel daily in a particular boogie and they have a group circle. Each other gel together as a family, celebrating festivals and happening in life together. The lives on the tracks are lively and bring out the true colour of Mumbai. Author vi Foreword If I were to generalize about the poems of this book “Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan” I would want to say something about the tone of this book. There is noticeably a common voice or approach. This is not a collection of vatic lyrics or dissociated rambles. The poems are often set at a middle distance, in a voice aware that it is speaking, pondering, puzzling, but alert as well to impulses that are unspoken or shocking. “It’s always autumn even in spring.”Bombay Elizabeth Bishop once recommended as the markers of a good poem: accuracy, spontaneity, and mystery. These are precisely the characteristics of the poems in this book. The passing thought or startling image that makes a thrilled reader stop and wonder. This is what good poems do. This is what Dr Sirajuddin’s poems do to you, in this collection “Bombay”, “Bazar”, “The Dabbawala’s”, “The Bandra Fair”, “Waiting Room", “Abandoned", “Vada Pav", “The Gateway", “Bandstand" and others. I could say the entire book leaves you with an array of vii wonderful images you cannot miss even one of them. He is a poet who has read, and who expect his readers also to have read. The poetry of the recent and distant past sometimes functions as scaffolding but is rarely the excuse for any poem of this collection. He uses his readings; but does not flaunt it. He likes history, lore, facts, the kinds of details that annex new territory for the imagination to explore.