The Right Direction

The first thing I notice in Powai is that the skyscrapers are bleeding. From their thirty-storey summits, an unsightly mix of mould and mildew is slowly working its way to the ground, threatening to cover the buff-coloured exteriors in the same blackness that shrouds so many of Mumbai’s buildings. You can cut into the green hills to make room for apartment blocks, but I guess you can’t yet ward off the corrosive effects of the monsoon, not even if you name the buildings ‘Eternia’ and ‘Heritage’.

This is one of the city’s showcase neighbourhoods, a place where the pavements are tidier and the roads are more organised. I see a cow casually crossing the street – as though not quite able to decide whether to have a latte at Barista or Café Coffee Day – but the area doesn’t display any of the organic haphazardness that is arguably one of India’s most endearing characteristics. Here, the environment is staunchly man-made. There are plenty of tall trees around, but I never shake off the feeling that I’m a pawn dwarfed by the frightening scale of the edifices around me.

As I stroll from one international chain store to another, all my buttons are pushed at the same time and my head is filled with paradoxical questions about cultural imperialism, hypocrisy and the definition of progress. It’s too simplistic to reduce all the issues to platitudes like, ‘India shouldn’t lose its own identity,’ because even a relatively basic statement such as that is loaded with questionable assumptions. But I can’t help but wonder if things are moving in the right direction.

I decide to have a drink at Gloria Jean’s, “for old times’ sake,” I tell myself. But as soon as the words enter my head, I chuckle and realise that I’m as much a product of the corporate age as this Ballardian vision of the future. I get my nostalgia hit from an outlet of a company whose products I used to consume decades ago in Dubai, that temple of world consumerism.

I stick the straw into the plastic cup, and as the minty-chocolate taste fills my mouth, I recall shopping mall outings with friends. And above me, the clouds are darkening, threatening to pour more black blood onto the buildings.

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