Culture Shock
This is my 5th week in Mumbai and now I guess I can make some observations about the city and its culture or rather the lack of it. Surprising as it may seem, the city lacks any culture of its own. There is not distinct culture specific to this city. I am not sure what the likes of Raj Thakeray imply when they say that North Indians are destroying the culture of the city. Delhi has a distinct culture of its own. It is a typical punju (read punjabi) culture in west and north Delhi. Old Delhi has its own culture still preserved while the city decayed for 50 years before it started re-building, courtesy Commonwealth Games.
Even the cosmopolitan Bangalore has a culture of its own. It is called a mixed culture, a pot-pourri. You can feel and sense various cultures co-existing in the city, Tams, mallus, Punjabis (omni-present cumyoontee), gults, biharis etc. The all have their own distinct flavor which can be felt and observed and enjoyed.
Mumbai is a strange city. There is no Marathi culture here, no gujju culture, no parsi culture, and above all no punju culture too!! Or is it that gujjus, parsis and marathis have a culture, but limited to their home. As they step out, so do they leave their culture behind and lose their identity to affiliate to another group, The Professionals. Yes! This is the culture of the city I thought was devoid of any culture. The professionalism, no non-sense attitude of the people here is fascinating, particularly when you are a punju.
Though, I would have loved to see a more deeply embedded culture of the city in its people, more than mere professionalism which anyways all of us need to inculcate, though whether we subscribe to it or not is a different story altogether.
Labels: Culture, Mumbai, Punju
2 Comments:
you have made yourself eligible for being included in the MNS hitlist with this post :D
I have a different view on this topic. i am not aware of the marathi or parsi cultures but i thought that mumbai does have a distinct culture of its own. There are certain traits that would set a mumbaikar apart like the bindaas attitude, the ability to adjust 20 where only 4 would fit :) (or is that more of need than culture?)
i would agree with you when you talk abt the professionalism part though. have seen that in mumbai more than delhi at least. maybe thats also part of the culture ?
Om
Ability to adjust, more of an Indian attitude than Mumbai specific. What do you think? u dnt see prefessional attitude in delhi coz punjus can't b professional... they like gupshup :D
~MS
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