I spent last weekend in that benevolent dictatorship called Singapore. Three ‘chaddi buddies’ have lived in the country of superhighways and shopping malls for some years now.

Shaikh Faiz, ex-Dongri resident, Ambar Swaroop, former Bandra Boy and Sunny Parekh, spoilt South Mumbaikar — all migrated in the ’90s. Ambar left when Narasimha Rao liberalised, the other two, post the Babri Masjid riots/bomb blasts.u00a0As our city burned, Shaikh had a valid point — “Bombay will never be the same again, our rose-tinted glasses have become blood-tainted. Let’s cremate cosmopolitanism.”