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Mumbai Quotes

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Mumbai Quotes

“Mumbai is the shahar of dreams to which thousands flock every year. Its beauty and glory are both enchanting and enticing. It’s a city of fortunes, a city of poverty, a city of hope, a city of pain, a city of success, a city of loss, a city of stories, a city of games, a city of fate, a city of destiny, a city of love and a city of heartbreak. Changes occur in Mumbai minute by minute, mile by mile and inch by inch. Some dreams gain flight, while others burn in despair. Mumbai is a city that never sleeps. It is always abuzz. Its inhabitants are multilingual and of different faiths. Some come to Mumbai in search of their passion, while others come in search of an identity. The shahar’s glamor, fashion and film stars attract people from all over India. The ameer, the gareeb, all come to Mumbai to search for their niche with the umeed of making it big someday. Hence, the hustle and bustle of the city makes its inhabitants feel both unimportant and significant simultaneously.”

LoveDestinyFashionDespairHeartbreakMumbaiFilm StarsMultilingualFaithsCity Of Dreams
Book:Train to Mumbai
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“From the advertisement, his eyes moved up the skywalk, the zigzagging metal bridge that connected various locations in the neighborhood to the Banda train station. Behind the metal grid, men moved back and forth. Tommy Sir's eyes grew tired. He felt that up there, on that seemingly never-ending bridge, shadowy figures were moving toward obscure destinations, possibly only to return to their point of origin, like in an architectural sketch of infinity by M.C. Escher. Hell is a choice, made daily and by millions, and breathing slowly and watching this aerial cage, Tommy Sir saw Mumbai, minute by minute, unbecome and become hell.”

HellHuman ConditionModernityMumbaiUrban Life
Author:Aravind Adiga
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“Manhattan across the water, the glittering towers. I was working, but I didn't have anything like enough to do, and the bad times came in the evenings, when I came back to my room, sat on the couch and watched the world outside me going through on glass a lightbulb at a time.”

LonelinessNew YorkLonelyCityIndescribableMumbaiBig CityLonely City
Book:The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
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“The Source of all things, the luminescence, has more forms than heaven’s stars, sure. And one good thought is all it takes to make it shine. But a single mistake can burn down a forest in your heart, hiding all the stars, in all the skies. And while a mistake’s still burning, ruined love or lost faith can make you think you’re done, and you can’t go on. But it’s not true. It’s never true. No matter what you do, no matter where you’re lost, the luminescence never leaves you. Any good thing that dies inside can rise again, if you want it hard enough. The heart doesn’t know how to quit, because it doesn’t know how to lie. You lift your eyes from the page, fall into the smile of a perfect stranger, and the searching starts all over again. It’s not what it was. It’s always different. It’s always something else. But the new forest that grows back in a scarred heart is sometimes wilder and stronger than it was before the fire. And if you stay there, in that shine within yourself, that new place for the light, forgiving everything and never giving up, sooner or later you’ll always find yourself right back there where love and beauty made the world: at the beginning. The beginning. The beginning.”

LoveLifeNightStarsShantaramForestMumbaiLuminescence
Book:The Mountain Shadow
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“At her final dinner in Imperial Heights, she notices afresh all that a week has made familiar: the silk runner, the brass casseroles, and the many little bowls on her plate that Sita, already turning invisible, keeps refilling. The meal is elaborate. There is saag paneer because it is her favourite Indian dish; corn bake, should the curry get too spicy; what she now knows is dal, not soup; yogurt, rotis, pilaf rice and pickle. Her first night here, she asked what order to eat things in, and everyone laughed like it was the most charming thing to say. Tonight, she folds her roti into a roll, one bite for each spoonful of curry, and as the subject of her new rental in Santacruz leads to a discussion on the city's suburbs, she feels reassured that Nana is right, people are people; no matter where you go and how confusing or daunting or hilarious they seem, there is always room to be kindred.”

CultureFictionIdentityFoodTravelIndiaBombayMumbai
Book:Quarterlife
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“As they left the pier and walked into the park, Chahda looked around appreciatively. "Nice place, this. Capital of New Caledonia. Big island, has 8,548 square mile, also has 53,245 peoples. Eleven thousand in Noumea. That is what says the Worrold Alm-in-ack." Rick and Scotty laughed. It was like old times to hear Chahda quoting from The World Almanac. A Bombay beggar boy, he had educated himself with only the Almanac for his textbook, and he had laboriously memorized everything in it.”

IndiaBombayMumbaiRags To Riches1949Self EducatedAlmanacs
Book:The Phantom Shark
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“This city was our common ground, I want to tell Kaiz. Not simply its soil, nor its salt or tides, not lines on any map, nor buildings and streets. Something else entirely. An image, a dream, an idea that beguiled both of us: a magical place with chaos in its code, where our stories collided briefly. That romance with the city he carries with him wherever he goes. What it means to me, though, goes beyond what we had in common, it can’t be packed up and transported tidily. Mumbai for me is two people who moved from small coastal towns to this metropolis by the sea and made it their home. My home. And that is how the city is different for the two of us: for him both Mumbai and home were abstractions. Abstractions are at once more fragile and more hardy than reality.”

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Book:Milk Teeth
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“Bombay, you will be told, is the only city India has, in the sense that the word city is understood in the West. Other Indian metropolises like Calcutta, Madras and Delhi are like oversized villages. It is true that Bombay has many more high-rise buildings than any other Indian city: when you approach it by the sea it looks like a miniature New York. It has other things to justify its city status: it is congested, it has traffic jams at all hours of the day, it is highly polluted and many parts of it stink.”

CitiesIndiaIndian AuthorsCity LifeBombayMetropolisMumbaiKhushwant Singh
Book:Truth, Love & A Little Malice
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“The city continued on its way. Boys tried to sell me drumsticks, girls played hopscotch, the Bihari badly worker carried his gathri of ironed clothes to the homes from which they had come, and the buses honked at suicidal cyclists. At one level this was vaguely confusing. Surely, something should acknowledge how much things had changed? At another level, it was oddly comforting.”

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Book:Em and the Big Hoom
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“She removed the shining black disk from its sleeve, holding it by the edges. After she placed it on the turntable and set the arm into motion, she adjusted the volume on the amplifier, flooding the room with sound. She closed her eyes and began to sway to the music. She could almost feel Clive’s arms guiding her, as he had done so many times over the course of their lives together. (from Independence Day)”

IndiaBombayMumbaiGoan Culture
Book:Bombay Bhel
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“Sanjay Kanaka Ramachandra, 'The Satellite', baada ya kutoka Korea ya Kaskazini na Salina Cruz kwa ajili ya kozi maalumu ya ugaidi na kwa ajili ya Kiapo cha Swastika kwa mpangilio huo, alirudi Mumbai kusimamia shughuli za Kolonia Santita za bara la Asia na Australia – kwa uaminifu wa Sheria ya Kitalifa ya Kolonia Santita. Ramachandra, anayeitwa 'The Satellite' kwa sababu ya jina lake la mwisho, alipewa pia jukumu la kuyachunga Makao Makuu ya Kanda ya Asia-Australia ya Tume ya Dunia; na kupeleka taarifa yoyote ya kijasusi (inayohusiana na WODEC-Rangoon) Mexico City kwa ajili ya maamuzi ya Mkurugenzi wa Usalama wa Kolonia Santita Gortari Manuel. Mojawapo ya operesheni kubwa alizowahi kuzifanya Ramachandra kwa niaba ya Kolonia Santita ni kuingiza nchini India mzigo wa tani 350 za majani ya koka, ijapokuwa tani 37 zilikamatwa na mamlaka za kuzuia madawa ya kulevya za India na za Tume ya Dunia, na kusambaza kilo 560 za kokeini safi (isiyokuwa na doa) katika nchi zote za Asia na Australia ndani ya siku 14.”

IndiaTerrorismAustraliaAsiaNorth KoreaNarcoticsMumbaiMexico CityCourseKolonia SantitaOperationTume Ya DuniaMadawa Ya KulevyaSalina CruzGortari ManuelSetilaitiAsia AustraliaKiapo Cha SwastikaKorea Ya KaskaziniOperesheniSheria Ya Kitalifa14 Days350 Metric Tons37 Metric Tons560 KilosCoca LeavesKilo 560Kokeini Safi Isiyokuwa Na DoaKoziMajani Ya KokaPure CocaineSanjay Kanaka RamachandraSiku 14Tani 350Tani 37The SatelliteThe Swastika OathUgaidiWodec Rangoon
Author:Enock Maregesi
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“When memory is a veil of exposure through which the fullness of tides is visible, I can still sometimes smell the radiance of flowers. I argued with friends that Mumbai does have seasons—if one bothers to watch closely. Now I trace the months on a calendar like a distant call, the sound of a train whistle or fog that engulfs before the onset of rain to participate in a collective mourning.”

RainSeasonsIndiaTrainFogCityMumbaiMetropolitanCreative Nonfiction
Author:Sneha Subramanian Kanta
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“When memory is a veil of exposure through which the fullness of tides is visible, I can still sometimes smell the radiance of flowers. I have argued with friends that Mumbai does have seasons—if one bothers to watch closely. Now I trace the months on a calendar like a distant call, the sound of a train whistle or fog that engulfs before the onset of rain to participate in a collective mourning.”

SeasonsFogCityMumbaiMetropolitanCreative Nonfiction
Author:Sneha Subramanian Kanta
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“Mumbai is the sweet, sweaty smell of hope, which is the opposite of hate; and it's the sour, stifled smell of greed, which is the opposite of love. It's the smell of Gods, demons, empires, and civilizations in resurrection and decay. Its the blue skin-smell of the sea, no matter where you are in the island city, and the blood metal smell of machines. It smells of the stir and sleep and the waste of sixty million animals, more than half of them humans and rats. It smells of heartbreak, and the struggle to live, and of the crucial failures and love that produces courage. It smells of ten thousand restaurants, five thousand temples, shrines, churches and mosques, and of hunderd bazaar devoted exclusively to perfume, spices, incense, and freshly cut flowers. That smell, above all things - is that what welcomes me and tells me that I have come home. Then there were people. Assamese, Jats, and Punjabis; people from Rajasthan, Bengal, and Tamil Nadu; from Pushkar, Cochin, and Konark; warrior caste, Brahmin, and untouchable; Hindi, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsee, Animist; fair skin and dark, green eyes and golden brown and black; every different face and form of that extravagant variety, that incoparable beauty, India.”

LoveBeautifulHateHopeSleepSweetHumanAwakeColourSweatCityShantaramEmpireMumbaiSmell Sea
Book:Shantaram
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“I was spending a lot of time in Mumbai after I met my husband, who is Indian, and while parts of the city were prospering like crazy, I couldn't quite make out how the new wealth had changed the prospects of the majority of city residents who lived in slums. So after a few years I stopped wondering and started reporting.”

YearsWealthCitiesWonderCrazyChangedMetsHusbandMajoritySpendingIndianMy HusbandProspectsResidentsMake OutSlumsMumbaiProspering
Author:Katherine Boo
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“In every conversation I've had - with housewives in Mumbai, with middle-class people, upper-class, in the slums - everyone says there is an underlying consciousness of karma. That people believe in karma - that what you're putting out is going to come back. If I do something to you, the energy of it is going to come back to me in the future.”

PeopleIfsBelieveEnergyConsciousnessClassMiddleConversationKarmaMiddle ClassHousewifeSlumsUpper ClassMumbaiCome Back To Me
Author:Deepak Chopra
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“Many state governments have launched innovative steps such as Ladli Laxmi scheme of Madhya Pradesh, PDS reform scheme of Chattisgarh, computerization of land records in Karnataka, free computers to students passing 10th standard exams, pollution control efforts in Himachal, power sector reforms in Rajasthan and Mumbai - Pune Expressway in Maharashta. These excellent innovative schemes are examples of good governance.”

StatesGovernmentEffortStepsRecordsLandExampleStudentsComputerStandardsIndiaPassingPassingsReformExcellentPollutionSchemesGovernanceInnovativeExamState GovernmentMumbaiGood GovernancePollution ControlPune
Author:Narendra Modi
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