Mumbai

Mumbai is no longer liveable.

I grew up in Mumbai, and though now in Bangalore, I  keep visiting Mumbai frequently. 

The city always lacked green spaces. People always had to commute long distances in conditions that are similar to prisoners being transported in cattle cars during World War 2.

Real Estate has always been expensive. People used to invest their life's savings and pledge fifteen years of future income to buy a pokey little flat in Dombivi ( a suburb fifty km away). Now, people invest their life's savings and pledge fifteen years of future income to buy a pokey little flat on the seventeenth floor of a highrise building that resembles an anthill in an anthill colony. 

People in Mumbai are earning more and more and spend more and more for getting basic necessities. Taxis cost 60 rupees a km. Paan ordered on Swiggy costs 75 rupees each. And so on. 

Traffic on the road does not move, period. 

Metros, monorails, underground trains, overground trains, and all kinds of "flyovers" and "flyunders" are being built for the ants to commute from one anthill to another bypassing the crowded roads clogged with more ants below. 

Whatever three storeyed buildings exist, are being demolished to build multistireyed buildings. On the same plot of land. Setback from the road is almost nil. Open area nil. Lung space nil. 

But why do you need all that? You can be born inside the ant hill, live inside, work inside, commute inside, reproduce inside, and die inside the anthill without ever seeing the sun or being out in the rain. 

The ants are happy living their busy busy lives. A former ant who is now living outside sees, and wonders, why would people want to live like this?