Truth, Love & A Little Malice by Khushwant Singh

Author:Khushwant Singh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9789351181354
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2003-02-09T23:00:00+00:00

11 Bombay, The Illustrated Weekly of India (1969–79) and the Aftermath

BOMBAY, YOU WILL be told, is the only city India has, in the sense that the word city is understood in the West. Other Indian metropolises like Calcutta, Madras and Delhi are like oversized villages. It is true that Bombay has many more high-rise buildings than any other Indian city: when you approach it by sea it looks like a miniature New York. It has other things to justify its city status: it is congested, it has traffic jams at all hours of the day, it is highly polluted and many parts of it stink. Arthur Koestler compared his arrival at Santa Cruz airport to having a baby’s soiled diaper flung in his face. Bombay discharges the sewage of its ten million or more inhabitants into the sea so close to the shore that a good bit of it is carried back to the land with incoming tides: used condoms can be picked up in the shallows. The stench of human shit prevails over some parts of the seafront. Since it has very few public conveniences, its bazaars smell of stale urine. Twice a year, early in spring and autumn, fish along the coast die in their millions and the acrid smell of rotting fish is overpowering. Bombay has no parks or gardens worth speaking of: only a few small parklets where people go round and round narrow paths like animals in cages. Usually the only place where one can take a walk of sorts is Marine Drive, running from the Chowpatty sands to Nariman Point. This has a dual highway crowded with speeding cars and buses on one side, and massive cement-concrete tripods along the sea walk to prevent it from making further inroads. The tripods are placed at convenient angles which make it easy for the citizens to rest their feet, let down their trousers or pull up their dhotis to defecate. Nevertheless Bombaywallas throng to Marine Drive in their thousands morning and evening to jostle their way through masses of humanity. Old people sit on benches placed en route to take in the sea air and gossip. Marine Drive is Bombay’s pride and its joy. After sunset, as the street lights are switched on, they gape at it in amazement and call it a Queen’s diamond necklace.

However, there are some points in favour of Bombay. It has a heterogeneous mix of races, religions and linguistic groups. They mind their own business and do not bother with their neighbours, nor are they unduly concerned if they are happily married, divorced, having affairs or living in sin. People of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds get on reasonably well. Till 1982 Bombay did not have many communal riots, but it would be wrong to conclude that the different communities have affection for each other. Every community thinks it is better than the others and behind their backs uses derogatory expressions to describe them. Parsees regard themselves as a cut above everyone else.

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