I am born and brought up in Mumbai. I have lived there for 18 long years of my life. I am currently studying at VIT University, The reason to mention this was that there are many students in my college from different states of India bringing along with them their cultural heritage. It is very exciting and heartwarming to listen to the stories of my friends who describe the way life is lead in their cities or towns. This answer from a student perspective would be an account of several such stories that I have heard from my friends staying all over India and would shed some light on certain aspects which keep Mumbai distinguished from other states of India.
1.Mumbai is 100% cosmopolitan
People from all states having different religions live together like a family in Mumbai. Ever since my childhood, I have had friends from different ethnic backgrounds speaking a variety of languages and some of them even taught me a few. In my group of best friends, there were Punjabis, Gujaratis, Bengalis, Tamilians, Rajasthani, South-Indians. Nobody will judge you on your caste or language. Caste-based politics happen in several parts of India, fortunately, Mumbai is an exception.
Story: My mother is working and sometimes she comes home at around 12 am late at night if she has to attend any office parties or family functions she wears her set of ornaments. Once upon a time, she met a person who was from north India who said “Women can move out wearing ornaments late at night in Mumbai but in North India, it is very unsafe for women to come out of their house after sunset”
It is No wonder why foreigners prefer to come to Mumbai
Interview with Lindsey – A British expat living in India
But the situation today is worsening because of the crimes that are happening against women these days which has lowered its rank in the women safest cities in India. But it still holds the title of being the safest city for solo women travelers in India.
Mumbai the safest city for solo women travellers in India: survey
3.Mumbai – A Gift to India
Mumbai is the financial capital of India contributing a spectacular 7 % to the GDP of India. Also housing largest financial institution and companies in the world. World’s top ten centers of commerce renowned for an extravagant global financial flow. In order to sustain this economic growth of around 70 Lakh, people travel daily to their offices through trains to make a mark in the world. Nobody knows the count of people who use Bus or private vehicles.
How many people take the Mumbai local trains every day?
There are many people who die every day because of overcrowded trains in Mumbai.
Deaths due to fall from overcrowded Mumbai local trains go up, reveals RTI
4. Stories of rags to riches
This city is an ocean of opportunities. There are numerous stories ranging from Bollywood actors to successful businessmen who are from Mumbai. It is a dream city.
That being said, Let me just shed some light on the way life is lead from a perspective of a middle-class family and the state the difference of a Mumbaikar from people of other states of India.
1. Property is highly inflated
Story: When I heard stories of my hostel friends talking about their houses which are like bungalows’ constituting a ground floor and first floor and staircase connecting both. The only such house I could imagine was that I had seen in Bollywood films.I thought that I was the poorest guy in my college, living in a flat which is even smaller than the ground floor balcony that their house has until I saw this.
In Thane for 2.7 crores, you will see a 3 BHK flat in a building 24 storeyed high. Add a crore more and you will get(an extra bedroom) 4 BHK, this is the current scenario.
With the same amount of working time and salary a person staying outside Mumbai can live a lavish life in a Big Bungalow, Whereas Mumbaikar regrets having to spend the major amount of his salary on home loans and getting happiness in purchasing a highly expensive home which is too underrated and too small of its worth. The truth is that a Generation has to sacrifice in buying a house in Mumbai. In my case that was my parents.
2.Mumbaikers like to serve themselves more than their country and this has to change.
Very little ambition is seen among the youth to join government offices, crack exams of UPSC, To become IAS, IFS, IES officers, or take up any other govt jobs
Mumbaikers are deeply passionate about earning money than any other thing in the world.
To add a few points:
In my 18 years of stay in Mumbai, I have never seen anybody preparing for UPSC exams, let alone cracking it. Nor was I ever told about it in school or colleges.I got to know about its prestige only from reading the newspaper and Civics lessons that I took in schools.
IAS salary increments on every position are very less about 2.5% to 3% even after the introduction of the 7th commission pay introduced in Jan 2016. The first salary is 50000 whilst the highest salary by Cabinet Secretary (fixed) is 250000 INR. In Corporates, you change two jobs and get paid twice as the previous one. The top position in the corporate sector gets paid 50 times more than the starting salary of an employee whereas the top rank in IAS only gets paid 5 (250000/50000) times the start.
But the immense amount of power and the respect that IAS officer gets is immeasurable.
Unfortunately, Mumbaikers are least interested in power and are more inclined towards money. Details on IAS salaries:
IAS Officer Salary- Facts, Figures & 7th Pay Commission
7th Pay Commission and the new IAS Officer Salary
Mumbaikers prefer doing business or working at higher positions in MNCs.Mumbai, a house for top schools in India, has its brilliant minds unfortunately working for the private sector than government jobs.
Another notable difference is presented by an example
Bonus plays the Big role
Let us say that an IAS officer is working very hard and he has a friend also an IAS who is not even working half as hard as him, but both get the same facilities same treatment, and dignity. So why should the former work hard?
In the corporate sector bonus paid is sometimes even higher than the salary and big fat stock options is enough to drive a person to become a workaholic.IAS is the best for strong patriots of the country but frequent political intervention affects the minds of these people and kills their enthusiasm.
3.Mumbaikers are mad about foreign countries
Most of the Mumbaikars are fascinated by foreign education and overseas jobs. I have so many friends who are going for MS in foreign universities. Reports of the year 2014 suggest that Mumbai spent the highest amount of money on education in the US.
Mumbai spends most on studies in US, Delhi at No. 3 – Times of India
Lastly, Mumbai, one of the most happening cities in India needs to find different partner cities which are alike it so that the workload undertaken by Mumbaikers is alleviated and we can have a Developed India.
Author: Neil Pradhan
Source: Quora