Arto's Blog - Latest Comments on Mumbai, city of contrasts

call me katha in response to: Mumbai, city of contrasts

Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:14:07 +0000

HEllo my name is Katha Pungijaniba.I’m from new delhi and i would love to visit mumbai someday.It seems to be such an interesting an beautiful city.I want to go there with my 5 sisters and 4 brothers. do you want to be my next brother? thank you bye

Amchi Mumbai in response to: Mumbai, city of contrasts

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:30:38 +0000

Hey Arto, I am quiet impressed with your reply. Now people who read your blog(s) would get a clearer picture of what you mean. I agree that both the good and the bad points should be included - awareness is imporant; but its only apt to paint the good in good and bad in bad, otherwise it causes ignorance in the minds of the readers. All the Best Amchi Mumbai (Vanmeet)

ajt in response to: Mumbai, city of contrasts

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:53:27 +0000

Hey Amchi, Thank you for your comment and I’m glad to hear that you liked the picture! I’d like to still answer and hopefully make it more clear what I meant. I wasn’t trying to paint a gloomy picture when writing about the security guards - just telling what I observed. As you said it wasn’t dramatic: there were not people throwing rocks at the building and I wasn’t harassed by the guards in any way. However, it was a difference to my home country (Finland) so it caught my attention. We might have someone observing an area during the night but no full time guards at apartment buildings or universities. I see the need for having guards at the door as one sign of the divide between rich and poor, which was also otherwise quite visible in Mumbai. You’re right that the purchasing power of 1500 Rs in India is quite different to that in Europe. It was perhaps a mistake to throw in the number without explaining that. Also, 1500 Rs was the monthly price of the maid service for one flat. One maid can take care of several flats so she probably earns a bit more than that. However, what I wanted to say was that it cost less to hire a maid to do cleaning, laundry and dishes than to buy machines. It was a big contrast to Finland, where almost everything is being automatized by more and more sophisticated machines and the number of personnel is minimized. In our culture in general it’s not very common to have servants. I’m not saying that our way is better, but it certainly is a big difference. To get a more complete view of my experiences I’d like to suggest reading some more of my articles about India. Almost everywhere I was welcomed with amazing hospitality and had a wonderful time. Still, I don’t want to write only about the rosy bits but also about the things I didn’t enjoy as much. My blog is of course subjective and others will see some of the things in a different light - but I try to be honest in how I experienced it. Regards, Arto

Amchi Mumbai in response to: Mumbai, city of contrasts

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:56:08 +0000

Hey Arto, First of all thanks for the pic, loved it! Also loved the fact that you enjoyed parts of Mumbai. What I however don’t get is that whenever people come to India is it fashionable for you guys to make everything so dramatic and gloomy? For instance, you were telling about how land from slums is taken away by large builders - the slums are illegal - are nowadays made into highrise buildings. But then you had to add a gloomy flavour to this by saying and I quote “Security guards sit at the gates watching that outsiders don’t come in". Honestly what do you mean by this? Was there a mob of people throwing rocks at the building - NO! Then why the dramatasism. Lets talking about your univerity and maybe then you will understand where I am coming from. Does your university not have security? Is your security there to shun outsiders - NO! Your univesity security is there so that people who live on campus and day scholars have someone to depend upon incase of an emergency. Another mistake most foreigners make is that you compare evenly the exchange rate to the purchasing power of the rupee in India. For example, you said that the maid gets Rs. 1,500 which at the time was about 30 Euros. Now that is misleading because it does not give a true picture. 30 Euros in France have a much less purchasing power than Rs.1500 have in India. When you converted your Euros to Rs. you must have found that things are mostly inexpensive in comparison to what you would’ve paid for in whichever country you call home (I am guessing France). I am not trying to be offensive but most Indians who would have read your blog would have thought this to themselves and probably must have never said anything to you. The reason being is our culture, where guests are equalled to God. So even if we don’t like anything we let it go. But when you are writing about a country you visited its proper etiquette to paint a rosy picture of it, especially a country like India. You gave the true picture for all the bad things, but you painted all the good things also in the same colour. I could go on, but I think by now you catch my drift. Next time you are in Mumbai, maybe you should see the parts you skipped. Regards, AMCHI MUMBAI