The Epic Battle: Delhi versus Bombay

Ah, the classic question, Delhi vs Mumbai.  Where would I feel at home?

Delhi is crass, show-offish, conservative, extreme.  It’s “Page 3!”  Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay and what I will continue to refer to it as (since I am 1.5 GI!), is a city that is very accepting, liberal, down-to-earth, practical yet always on-the-go.  In Delhi, people are always in your business.  In Bombay, you could go months without seeing a close relative living not all that far away.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/Delhi_Crass_or_class/articleshow/3152840.cms

Where do I want to live?  As I have known for the last five years, Delhi is not the city that naturally jives with me.  Yet, I am here.  Why?  My mother’s closest sister is here and she likes being with them.  That is why.  She says she will move in one breath and then in another she says she loves it here.

Delhi is the same as Southern California (Los Angeles, Orange County, etc), which, be sure, is very different than Northern California.  It has the LA Hollywood affect.  Who are you with?  Name-dropping.  What car do you drive?  Is it the latest?  What branded clothes are you wearing?  Genuine or a knock-off?  Where do you live?  Address-consciousness.  It’s an obsession with the superficial.  It’s hung up with “status”.  It’s also just not me!

Bombay is like the Bay Area (ie, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland, etc).  Boston is very similar to these cities also.  They are chilled out, down-to-earth.  It’s “do what you want when you want, I won’t get in your way, I have plenty to do myself”.  It’s about the intellectual, it’s about the business.  It’s about caring from a distance.  It’s having fun but in an unpretentious way.  It’s about the “real” or so it seems.  It’s also all very much me or so I think.

Having said all that, let me also say that I do like the “city life” that all these locations have to offer.  I want to live within a reasonable driving distance of it and would miss it if I wasn’t able to enjoy it.  Just like everyone else, there is a part of me that likes getting out.  The issue is not that.  The issue is the way all this is packaged and delivered.  Most cities offer much the same kinds of activities.  But each also has it’s own culture, it’s own environment, it’s own way of delivering these amenities.  And that makes all the difference.  It’s in the vibes of the city, of the people!

I can probably live in Delhi or LA if I really had to.  I also know I would always feel a little out of sync, out of place, and unbalanced if I did.  The culture of the cities would grind on me like a mosquito hovering around you.  Slightly bothersome always.  Very irritating sometimes.  But it’s also something I can (try to) brush aside.  Really, can I?