I have nothing but fond memories of living in Mumbai for two years earlier this decade, and then on and off for two months last year while writing a screenplay. My spouse loved Mumbai (it was also that we had moved to the megapolis after a four-year stint in Chennai, which didn't suit her) even though she's been a Delhi girl since 1983. When we returned to "New" Gurgaon, now a suburb of Delhi, it was a culture shock. Here, people think that if you're not aggressive then you're "submissive" – and this is not poor English but an actual mindset that sees no shades of grey between the extremes. Even cars on the wide roads and innumerable underpasses here will ruin your peace of mind.

When Mumbaikars dump on Delhi it's unsurprising. An elderly hispter author once in a column said Delhi was a bad idea, and this has been a constant complaint from the state capitals against the Centre – no matter what period of Indian history you look at. There's the Amazon Prime serial 'Made in Heaven', that my former Mumbai-based colleague Deepanjana incisively said was a Mumbaikar's idea of Delhi; when my spouse and I chatted about the serial with our very-Punju neighbours, I was surprised at how impressed they were with how "right" it depicted Delhi weddings. A popular Mumbai-based economics writer, whom I once interviewed for a job, will once in a blue moon tweet about non-economic matters, to say nasty things about Delhi women. (I wonder why. The things that irritate him apply as much to affluent Mumbaikars.) The irony of all this is that Delhi people have no opinion on Mumbaikars besides A-list celebrities.