Hey Mumbai… whatsup? Howz you? Kya haal hai? Sab thik thak? Maja ma? Kem cho? Just checking up on you. For a while now, you’ve been my muse, the ultimate kaleidoscopic city. You’ve combined “old school” wonderfully with “new age”. You help us conjure up nostalgia with so much ease — because of your cosmopolitan nature, you’ve simultaneously been able to handle the crass, with the class. You’ve been mass, but also minority, you’ve been chivalrous and curmudgeonly, you’ve been ill tempered, but like a cantankerous old man, the smoke passes quickly. Because of your benevolent nature, you’ve been party to the friendly and varied “hey boss, hey bhidu, hey bhaisaheb, hey Bawaji, hey Bhai, hey Bhau, hey Dada, hey Kaka, hey Mama, oi uncle…” — all these terms of greetings have all been heard on your streets and in your gullies, in your bylanes, in your high rises and hutments, in your shanties and your skyscrapers. You’ve been multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-coloured, multi-cuisine. By and large, you’ve been friendly.

But, off late, I’m sensing deep seated anger, the ability you once had to let things slide, take a deep breath, turn the other cheek. “Jaane do yaar”, “accha chalo chalo”, “chod na yaar”, “yeh hai Bambai meri jaan” were  all encompassing. And I’m now suddenly asking, have we lost that personality, is it fading away. I always thought that all 18 million of us had sort of got used to the mad Mumbai we all knew, the chaos was in our DNA, but now, dear metropolis, you’re bubbling under, ready to pick a fight at the drop of a hat.