Stand on Bandra Platform for a while, a train full of boisterous crowd starts it serpentine move towards you. You stand perplexed wondering how come this people gather themselves everyday for this imminent ordeal. Your thoughts are getting stirred with chaotic descent of the people out of train. Now, all you want to do is get yourself off the platform but then you gaze towards the brighter side of the train. Of course, the ladies with their comparable ease can't be overlooked. These fairer creations are quite legendary in hypothetical sense of words. They have knitted a lining for themselves on a fabric called Mumbai.
No big deal if words are scrambling up but today, women are seeing the brighter side of liberty and choice. They don't seem to stumble upon some stupid orthodoxy. Some have even crossed the gender divide and are happily creating niches, belying bias. Education has definitely played a gigantic role here. Without understanding, girls wouldn't have dreamt of being someone, let alone, fight for their right to dream. Life is still difficult on the darker slums where electricity is a luxury. Mumbai is approaching its threshold level of human inhabitation and the cost of aspirations is heavily on due. Amid this, if one stands on a stranded platform, and look around to find a unique subtlety of homogeneity, then that one is surely breathing!
Bandra, for some, beams a blend of colonial essence, metropolitan charm, Christian heritage and modernity. But one of the biggest contributors to this melting pot is the ladies of this town. They were always different, no doubt why British navy cadets found them enticing. These blue-eyed boys' entire holiday used to be spent on approaching and propositioning or plain sight-seeing. Some even went on to never miss the damsels back home! This has nothing to assert that Bandra is a Greek city or aught but it has something else to unfold. This town has always created something new or kept something old as it is. If the stones and walls are worth studying then the women of this town are worth admiring for their gusto uprightness and bubbly zest. They always had this unique way of displaying nonchalance at the most testing time. To an outsider, they always seemed unattached to the ethos of general perception of Indian women who generally show raw emotions with easiest guile. Apparently, some yonder ago, some of these ladies were perceived as imitators of 'memsahibs'! But then, every nuance of admiration was persecuted and slowly we saw Mumbai assimilate every chapter into a grand opus.
These women alighting from trains are teachers, lawyers, designers, secretaries and some housemakers cum officer-goers. The face they carry may not bear the actual flawless grace of colonial era but then this city of ours can wipe any line out and draw any line in, yet their audacity to be so enchanting can't be overlooked. And if peered closer, then you may not miss that smirk which tells how proud they are, to be a part of this happening town and would give up anywhere to stay in here. Moreover, we can easily get the family branch of a matriarchal society quite easily due to the families' reluctance to shift somewhere else.
These women do gossip like anyone else, they too feel the pain of traveling and they too cry in front of TV soaps yet they are different, kind of edgy when it comes to civility. They are the answer to Mumbai's call for absolute metropolis. We will be numb minded enough to ask the 'others' to put up a similar demeanor. That won't happen and even if it does, it would be nothing short of failed trial. Some may find this argument haughty but any other girl or lady, if comes out and try her best, whatever, she'll surely stand corrected. No wonder, why all the people think that even an office going lady might be rich at banks!
As realty booms here, so are the working women's purse and they surely know where to head for a good buy. Be it an estate or a simple garment, they'll do it with utmost refinement. Money doesn't raise a question of choice and they do get the best stuff, be it in a designer showroom or on Band Stand. They don't need their boyfriends or hubbies to accompany them, but then which girl wants to be disturbed. They are no fool with money and that shows in their investment in stocks and how they are actively covering market stats. Life is great, though earned to be that great but if holiday is a perk then Bandra 'naris' know how to harvest it and no way, are they going to spend it watching stupid TV shows or DVDs. Time is to head for relaxing spas and more reinvigorating Botox clubs!
Some may argue that all kitties are the same when it comes to luxury, unrestricted but Bandra ladies have a unique way to do it and they won't be sharing it on a cheap chat.
Now-a-days, the newer crops of small girls who are the genuine torch-bearers of their legendary task of novelty are mixing up with lost identities. That's inter-globalization, if that could be the term. They are quite aware of road side Romeos and they may not know how Bandra got to be the centre stage of exhibitive beauty and grace. These teens are metro in outlook and don't incline to any particular school of thoughts. Anyways, they are not having any cadets looking around the town, aboard on the naval bus. Some things are always appreciative in history and can't be re-distilled in presence but many can still concur to the fact that Bandra is what Bandra was.
Contributed by: Shakti Shetty, Sanpada, Navi Mumbai, India.
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