Bambai — a city of dreams for all

A city where reel meets real, where there is more to life than the mundane and dreams are not just celluloid. It’s a place where people come from far and wide hoping to get bitten by the magic bug - opportunity.

In search of this, people from the remotest corners of the country and smallest villages make a beeline to the city hoping to sweep the magic off the streets.

Rising migrants

There has been an increasing upward trend of migrants in the city. During 1991-2000, there was a huge influx of migrants into the city. The 2001 Census shows that the number of migrants increased to 5.2 million from 3.7 million in the 1991 Census.

A large share of the migrant population was from Uttar Pradesh and the neighbouring States. There were also many from Gujarat and north-eastern parts of the country who came to Mumbai in search of business opportunities.

Although city-specific figures of Bangladeshi migrants are difficult to come by – these form the fourth largest group of migrants in India.

Also known as the business and Bollywood capital, Mumbai has many young men and women rushing to the city in search of ‘fame’.

They may be winners of fashion contests in their localities or small stage actors in regional plays, but their real talent lies in their persistence. It could be a daunting task for a new-comer to identify studios and meet the right people.

Late Bollywood legend Johnny Walker (born with the name Badruddin Qazi) worked as a bus conductor before entering the film industry. Walker - originally from Indore - used to hang around film studios in Mumbai hoping to become an actor some day. Film maker and actor Guru Dutt spotted him one day and gave him his debut film Baazi.

Following Walker’s path, Raju Patwari — an aspiring actor from Madhya Pradesh — came to Bombay in 2005 to become a part of the film industry. Hoping to get a break, he too hangs around studios and even bribes watchmen with tea.

Practicing the clichéd Bollywood dialogues and the famous Govinda moves, these aspiring actors hope that they will find their place in the city of dreams.

Other professionals

Mumbai, colloquially called ‘Bambai,’ also has people with unique professions to boast of flooding the city.

While some are the usual ice cream cart men, others with odd jobs like – “check your weight,” “roadside ear cleaners” and even “roadside dentists” are present in every by lane of the city.

“I have been checking people’s weight for over a decade now. With the increasing weight-conscious people, more people are coming check their weight on a daily basis. I used to earn Rs 30 a week, 10 years ago. Now I earn Rs 30 a day,” said Kalyan Moorti, who sits near the Azad Maidan in Mumbai.

Moorti said the weighing scale that he owns belonged to his grandfather, who had purchased it for only Rs 20.

Fondly called Chachaji, the 60-year-old roadside dentist, is one of the few dentists with a portable clinic.

Chachaji is seated on the street opposite the CST station, with a bag full of his dental instruments and a blue plastic sheet.

Not only does he extract teeth but also takes measurements of his patient’s gums and gets dentures made (for a mere sum of Rs 250). “I visit Chachaji regularly and have had no problems with the fillings or tooth replacements,’ said Sashi Gunderia.

As the sun goes down, these men with odd jobs pack up their wares and disappear.

No one knows where they go - they become a speck in the crowd of millions.

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