With due apologies to Charles Dickens, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times. The floods, the waterlogging and water-borne diseases and the crumbling infrastructure notwithstanding, the monsoons bring out the magic of Mumbai like no other season. It is almost as if the city dies a bit every year to discover the legendary spirit all over again. While we all have our monsoon stories and a thousand reasons to love the city some more during the season, here are five we picked for you.
Mumbaikars just love to get wet.
Where else would you find people crowding the promenade and the beaches just to get drenched when half the city is already flooded? Yes, even ignoring the BMC’s pleas to stay at home and stay safe and dry. In fact, when every news channel is running scaremongering tickers about “high tides”, you are likely to run into hoards of men and women and children lined up along Bandra, Worli, Marine Drive, to just gape at the sea which seems pretty much on steroids during this time of the year. And if the Worli and Bandra sea faces are not fun enough, there is always the weekend driveout where Dalal street gents channel their inner urchin and aunties their inner Liril girl under every possible seasonal waterfall and trickle along the luscious Western Ghats.
The rains are a great social leveller.
You may own a fleet of luxury sedans, but when it rains, you are in the same boat as that local train regular. Quite literally. The rains don’t spare no one – from the Ambanis to Bachchans to the Doshis, Daves, Haralkars, Palekars, Mandes, Pandeys, Sens or Singhs. Every Mumbaikar worth his vada pav will tell you how there is always that one day when he/she has had to slip into his shorts and wade through the water, or wait it out in a cab on the highway, next to a star who may have just missed his flight.
It’s always party time.
If you think offices and class rooms are running empty, you better check the neighbourhood coffee shop or café. The bustling hangouts are the perfect places to watch the crashing waves across the road or rain pounding against the windows, over chai, coffee and conversations. In the evenings, the party shifts to the pubs, where you will not feel out of place in your pyjamas and flip flops. The wetter it gets outside, the hotter are things in here.
It rains fashion.
The monsoons are to Mumbai what the winters are to Delhi. So if the Def Col diva flaunts her thigh high boots and cashmere capes, the Bandra babe has her hot pants and pop-coloured Wellies. Oh and did we mention the neon rain coats and kitschy umbrellas? Just because it is raining and the gutters are almost over-flowing, you cannot step out in your boring capris and unexciting parasols. Everything for the young Mumbaiker during the monsoons makes a statement. Yes, especially the cross between garden umbrellas and your grandfather’s walking stick that is decked up in the season’s latest colours and prints.
It brings out the best in people.
Yes, those stories about strangers offering a ride, a bottle of water or quick snack to someone who’s been stranded in traffic, been negotiating potholed and flooded streets or plain stuck in the rain- are incredibly true and oh-so-inspiring. The city that stops for nothing, even to mourn those killed by terrorists, pauses, reaches out with a helping hand. Maybe because everyone has their own monsoon story that evokes empathy for fellow foot solders. You know, sort of a camaraderie born of shared experiences.
Image courtesy: BCCL
More On >> Balancing Act
