Perhaps it hasn't created as much buzz as news of slugging politicians, mendacious bureaucrats, raging terrorists or self-serving businessmen, but the fact that Mumbai figured as the second-most honest amongst 16 international cities in a recent Reader's Digest survey has been a source of great interest to me.
This is because no matter where I go, what I experience and how enamoured I am of the wonders of travel, I always find myself returning to the one city that is home to my soul - Mumbai.
Why is this so? What is this connection? Why do I keep returning, in spite of all my attempts (albeit half hearted and impractical) of settling in Goa, Coonoor, Pune, San Francisco, New York, The Hague and wherever else life happens to take me? (I'm one of those with an overdeveloped settler's instinct, wishing to settle instantly wherever I find myself on holiday)
Let me tell you about the survey first: In attempt to establish honesty and integrity, the good people at Reeder's Digest picked 16 cities across the globe (New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Moscow, Mumbai, Prague, Rio De Janeiro, Warsaw and Zurich.) in which they dropped wallets containing the equivalent of $50.
These also contained personal photographs, details and important documents. Then, they sat back and waited to see how many were returned. Helsinki came out tops with 11 of the 12 wallets returned. Mumbai, where the money was much more, (especially given the current rupee crisis) and the people far poorer, proved to be the second-most honest city, returning nine of the 12 "lost" wallets.
(I am happy to report that New York City, my other great soul connection along with Budapest, came next in the ethical stakes, with eight of the 12 wallets restored, and interestingly London- that great supposed bastion of civility returned - returned only 5!)
But back to Mumbai where I have lived for over four decades and where I currently reside.
What I love about it most are its people. Sophisticated, (in the real sense of the word) no matter which entry point of the economic ladder they belong to - worldly, street smart, urbane, enterprising, and always ready to jump in and help, despite every thing else that goes on in their lives.
A recently-divorced woman tells me of how her gruff local neighbourhood grocer affords her credit each month until her cavalier husband coughs up money. The grocer does this wordlessly and without song and dance; a Bollywood music maestro stops his car late at night and helps an accident victim to hospital, and then follows up the next day to check if all is okay. Residents of a posh south Mumbai locality gather their considerable weight and lodge a police complaint when a ragpicker's child goes missing. In times of communal strife, employees of a hair salon open the doors of their homes to their colleagues from other communities, to shield them from the madness.
Yes, all this sounds maudlin and wildly sentimental to cynics. Yes, those who glorify the "spirit of Mumbai" have come under much criticism, especially since so much is reported to be going wrong in Mumbai. But I for one know, as do most of us who live here, that there is a community spirit, a feeling of belonging and a battle between good and evil that Mumbaikars fight daily. Mercifully, they win that battle mostly, often at great cost to themselves.
That is what the world has now learnt. And that is why I say Salaam Mumbai.
Malavika Sangghvi is a Mumbai-based writer malavikasangghvi@hotmail.com
