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About Bombay - and yes I really should learn the new name. I heard the author of this book on NPR the other day and read some enthusiastic reviews. I'm planning on looking for it at the library. Anybody from the area care to comment on whether it gives a realistic picture of India and the city?
 
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Originally posted by Stan James:
About Bombay - and yes I really should learn the new name. I heard the author of this book on NPR the other day and read some enthusiastic reviews. I'm planning on looking for it at the library. Anybody from the area care to comment on whether it gives a realistic picture of India and the city?


Hi,I was really shocked when I read the book.I was raised and brought up in Mumbai but was never aware about these things which never get published.
Book is worth purchasing.I bought it last month(Rs 535).As you must be knowing the author was born and brought up till age 14 in Bombay(Mumbai)after which he migrated to USA.After sometime he plans to come back and settle in 1996 but then returns back.During this transition time,he think city has changes quite a lot.
Author has really done substantial research on a city ,no other social worker,or NGO or any organization has done this type of work before.It definitely gives the realistic picture of a city.Author discusses certain sections of a society from which educated middle class keeps the distance.
First 2/3 chapters ,author discusses his problems,his struggle with adjusting in a city and the people surrounding him.
1) ShivSena workers(ShivSena statewide political party,workers always demand 'protection'money from merchants,businessmen etc):Author discusses about the life of one worker,his childhood,'injustice' done to him by society,joining the party,his expanding cable tv business,his relationships with housewives,his involvment in 1992-1993 riots.Some of the paragraphs you really can't read("...people of **** community must move out of this country.....We were walking on a road during riots.We saw man of **** community.We had enough gasoline to burn him.........He turned into fireball....We sat down and then prayed and slept peacefully...)
2)Mumbai police:Who manytimes ask for money to even lodge a complaint.Author discusses various 'techniques' of finding the truths from arrested people.(....He is wellknown in police cirlces for giving eletric shocks to private parts of people....).
3)Underworld:Story can not be complete without mentioning underworld,its dons,their 'employees'.Author discusses the life of one shooter working for 'D' company ,don of that syndicate moves from Dubai to Pakistan to India to Malasia with his harem etc .(......It was the first time.I fired 3 bullets straight into his head.He collapsed.I saw his brain coming out.I was relaxed.He was dead.I called Bhai(don) that work is done,went to hotel, had a dinner and went to pub to pickup a girl..)
4)Bar dancer:Author discusses the life of one 24 year old dancer,Monalisa whose aim is to act in Bollywood and finally she give up and stasrt working as a dancer.(........My mother wanted some rich man to break the seal[loose virginity]....One bollywood director was interested.....).Some bar dancers who dance with full clothes in bars earn more than strippers in New York!!
5)Jain businessman:Author discusses the story of one millionaire businessman and his family.He and his famility donates all their imcome/house to charity,abondons the normal life to become monk.
Other chapter includes life of one computer programmer living in slum .
These are all real things.Author has met these people.He even met don of one syndicate in Dubai.
In short,although filled with gory details, book is worth reading as its real.

[ December 09, 2004: Message edited by: Arjun Shastry ]
[ December 09, 2004: Message edited by: Arjun Shastry ]
 
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I read City of Joy years ago written by a French Author, Dominique Lapierre. It was a very moving story. A film starring Patrick Swayze was based on the book.

City of Joy was set in Calcutta. or Kolkatta, now ? or Calicut ?
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre wrote the best-selling Freedom at Midnight.

Vikram Seth(I bought A Suitable Boy years ago but haven't finished it yet), Salman Rushdie are probably truer depending on which circle you are looking to get some insight.
[ December 10, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]
 
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I haven't read the book, but I did hear the interview. Fascinating stuff. (I lingered an extra ten minutes in my car to hear the rest of the interview.) Like Stan, I'd be interested in getting some feedback from better-informed parties before reading the book.

About Bombay - and yes I really should learn the new name.

Well, it seems author Mehta would be perfectly happy if you didn't. I don't know how common this view is in India.

The full NPR interview can be found here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4204884
 
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Originally posted by Helen Thomas:
I City of Joy was set in Calcutta. or Kolkatta, now ? or Calicut ?
[ December 10, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]


Calcutta or Kolkata is different than Calicut(or Kozhikode) .
Distance between them is around 1400 miles or 2236 Kms.

 
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"... Kolkata (until recently mispronounced and misspeled as Calcutta by colonialists"

Bharati Mukherjee, "The way back" in "The Genius of language".
 
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More likely the name is Calcutta in one local language and Kolkatta (or whatever) in another...

I see no reason to use local names always for cities (or even countries). We don't say Moskwa (or Moskva) when referring to Moscow either...
 
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But now everybody pronounces Beijing as Beijing and not Peking!
 
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1) ShivSena workers(ShivSena statewide political party,workers always demand 'protection'money from merchants,businessmen etc):Author discusses about the life of one worker,his childhood,'injustice' done to him by society,joining the party,his expanding cable tv business,his relationships with housewives,his involvment in 1992-1993 riots.Some of the paragraphs you really can't read("...people of **** community must move out of this country.....We were walking on a road during riots.We saw man of **** community.We had enough gasoline to burn him.........He turned into fireball....We sat down and then prayed and slept peacefully...)



Dear Arjun,
Please don't put your opinions on any of the Indian parties because we never know the complete truth.I have lots of opinions and facts against the present coaltion [Cong-NCP) in Maharastra.So please let us not make this forum a poltical one.
-Bharath
 
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Originally posted by Arjun Shastry:
But now everybody pronounces Beijing as Beijing and not Peking!



I don't (usually)
 
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Hi,

I have been born and brought up in Mumbai. Recently working in UK.

I think Mumbai is just like any other metropolitian city! Though each metro has its own set of features, most of them are common.Though there are some features which sets the city apart from others.

I think one of the unique features of Mumbai is its working class and the enourmous(relative to indian economy on the whole) amount of money that this working class generates!

Well all across the world money is a very important driving factor but in Mumbai it is THE driving factor. It rules the lives and lifestyles of people living here, whether they want it or not!

I think the city started off pretty well when money had a say over power. That is when the British and the merchant society decided to use the money in expanding the city and its business, but as the stakes increased power took over the money and thats when politicians/dons started having their way..

Both the scenarios had their own advantages/disadvantages. The first scenario saw a systematic exploitation of the working class but it still had a charm to attract millions of more people with dreams in their eyes, a hope of succeeding againts all the odds. That was the time when intellectual merits counted. Whereas the second scenario brought in a total chaos, a kind of jungle law, where who ever has power(gun) or are friends with powerful people(politicians/dons), makes it to the top.

As for every other thing in life even this money-power struggle will have to reach a balance wherein powerful people will realize that they can only be powerful and rule people till the time people are themselves willing to be ruled. If Mumbai loses it charm as the city of dreams, it will be dead in a few years and then the power mafia will have no one else but the blame themselves for cutting off the high branch(charm of money) on which they are sitting with a saw(riots/gangwar/extortion)

I hope just like any other phase even this phase will pass away.. making the city more stronger and adding one more characteristic to its multi-facated profile.

Mehul.
 
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Originally posted by Bharath KrishnaMurthy:

Dear Arjun,
Please don't put your opinions on any of the Indian parties because we never know the complete truth.I have lots of opinions and facts against the present coaltion [Cong-NCP) in Maharastra.So please let us not make this forum a poltical one.
-Bharath


Dear Bharath,
Its not MY opinion.Author has clearly stated that in the book(Let me know if you want precise pages numbers and paragraphs where these kind of facts are stated).In fact ,there is a full chapter by name 'powertoni'(short form for power of attorney) ,term used by *** party worker(happy ).
and it IS truth.bcos author has met them,stayed with them.
Also this has nothing to do with Con-NCP aliance(although Cong was quite responsible for ShivSena's enormous growth).
[try to ask any journalist who is familier with politics,you will observe that these 'arch-rivals' are actually friends.)
 
Arjun Shastry
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Originally posted by Mehul Sanghvi:

If Mumbai loses it charm as the city of dreams, it will be dead in a few years and then the power mafia will have no one else but the blame themselves for cutting off the high branch(charm of money) on which they are sitting with a saw(riots/gangwar/extortion)
Mehul.


Actually it lost the charm years back.Many industries moved outside Mumbai,infact outside Maharashtra as its the costliest place to do the business but quality of life is not worth spending money.
1)50% of population stay in slums who do not have proper sanitation,water facility.
2)Daily between min 2 to maximum 6 people die in train accidents.(I have seen some of them and its really horrible to see them)
3)Extortion,now a days has been reduced to some extent but not completely.
4)Bollywood ,ocean of unaccounted money is given a free hand to operate at its will.
[ December 13, 2004: Message edited by: Arjun Shastry ]
 
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Actually it lost the charm years back.Many industries moved outside Mumbai,infact outside Maharashtra as its the costliest place to do the business but quality of life is not worth spending money.



Unwillingly but I totally agree. Thats the reason a lot of new business aspirants are looking towards Banglore, Hybad, Pune etc..

I hope that till the time overseas investors are attracted to these hubs these cities will keep growing, but the time that attention goes away, even these cities will start degenerating. I just hope that powerhouses at these cities do not make the same mistakes of driving the business out!
 
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Stan James:
About Bombay - and yes I really should learn the new name.


Jim Yingst:
Well, it seems author Mehta would be perfectly happy if you didn't. I don't know how common this view is in India.


For the rest of the country, they don't care.

To me personally and to most of us in the city, we are okay either way. Because we have been using multiple names freely and interchangebly since decades.
English = Bombay
Marathi/Gujarati = Mumbai
Hindi = Bambai
Hinglish/Bambaya = anything goes. Nobody cares.

The only people who care about it are the bunch of people who originally came up with the idea of changing the name. The rest of us just have to share the blame for it occasioanly. We have learnt to absorb the taunt-shocks, though

Stan James:
Anybody from the area care to comment on whether it gives a realistic picture of India and the city?


Jim Yingst:
Like Stan, I'd be interested in getting some feedback from better-informed parties before reading the book.


I haven't read it so I can't help there. And from what I know about you, I think you are all pretty well balanced people. So I don't need to say the following, but sorry, I couldn't resist-

"Every story has as many sides to it as there are characters involved in it. Which side gets more importance depends on who narrating it."

Enjoy the reading
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