Mumbai vs. Hong Kong: A commuter's perspective

Whenever people talk about these two cities emotions fly high at extreme ends -- they either love it or hate it -- and there is nothing in between. Here’s what they have in common and what they don’t.  

Colonial vibe

Both are blessed with beautiful shorelines that turned them into attractive trading ports during the British rule. The British left Mumbai in 1947 and exactly 50 years later departed from Hong Kong, but traces of British rule live on through roads and buildings that we now whitewash with the term "heritage." Such as Hong Kong’s second highest mountain (Victoria Peak) and a central train terminus in Mumbai that was renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), but we still call VT (Victoria Terminus). And would you blame us? I don’t know who Mr Pedder was but he seems to be an important character as both cities named major thoroughfares after him. 

Indomitable spirit

A never-say-attitude and bouncing back after setbacks -- I saw this when Mumbai bounced back after the serial bomb blasts in 2006 and I lived through the SARS crisis in Hong Kong and witnessed the city coming back on track in no time.

Wealth worship

To a large extent both cities believe that money can buy all important things and for everything else there is Mastercard. Money matters in both places so much that diverse people searching for fortune are attracted to it almost instinctively. Folks feel that property is the best place to park your money but if you want to make it earn even more then Hangseng and Sensex are good playgrounds. Outsiders are usually shocked to hear about our housing situation, but I feel sorry for them. They fail to appreciate our humble, simplistic outlook -- small is beautiful. We don’t have the luxury of inviting people in, so we seldom do and instead drop bucks in every eatery from Causeway Bay to Colaba Causeway and from Tsim Sha Tsui to Bandra.

Food, food, food

Good food is appreciated and valued highly, irrespective of its price, region, nationality, setting or type. You can get a high energy, basic meal for a few coins -- vada pav in Mumbai (Worli or Kirti College or Mithibai are my favorites) or fish balls and dim sums in Hong Kong (Temple Street or Hau Fook Street or Causeway Bay). Eating at Colaba’s Taj hotel with views of the Arabian Sea or enjoying the service at Hong Kong’s Pennisula is the other end of the spectrum. Takeaway food is so common among upwardly mobile individuals, that cooking at home is sure to become a rare art form in the years to come. 

Time and travel

If you ask someone in an office elevator how they are, you’re most likely to get "Verrrrrrrry bussyyyyyyy" as your instant response. Being on time doesn’t earn you brownie points (how can anyone be idle enough to actually show up on time?) and riding public transport is thankfully not linked to status the way it might be in New Delhi. In fact public transport is the most preferred and most common place for catching up on much-needed sleep. And funnily, for all downtown people, ignorance is bliss. They travel overseas trips more frequently than to the suburbs. I challenge you to convince someone from Conduit Road to visit Tsuen Wan or someone from Nepeansea Road to visit Mulund. Some townies actually think these suburbs are in different states or in the case of Hong Kong, different countries.

And yet…

In Hong Kong car horns are tested almost once a year on smooth roads, while in Mumbai we believe in checking the horn volume almost every minute, while maneuvering ourselves on the traces of road between different potholes. The British embedded cricket in Mumbai’s maidans but it failed to catch on in Hong Kong. Most people in Mumbai conduct business in English (and take objection to all things vernacular when it comes to work) while most people in Hong Kong stick to Cantonese for their dealings. Mumbai gets some extra holidays by means of ‘bandhs’ and ‘man made floods’ while Hong Kong depends solely on typhoons to squeeze an extra day off in the year. Bombay was over the moon when the much awaited and long delayed Bandra-Worli sea link was inaugurated but people in Hong Kong didn’t even notice that a massive new bridge (Stonecutters) had opened.

Hong Kongers think Mumbai is a twin city of Bombay and refuse to understand what the issue is. We apparently all speak Indian, eat naan bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner and vegetarian food must mean meat with some extra vegetables. As far as the average Hong Kong resident is concerned Mumbai is teeming with intelligent IT employees who all work for Infosys. And everywhere you turn it looks like the set of “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Mumbaikers assume Hong Kong and Singapore are neighbors, even if they’re over 2,000 kilometers apart, that we speak Chinese instead of Cantonese or Mandarin and that our food is red and spicy and fried rice and noodles is integral to our every meal. Indians think nobody is poor in Hong Kong. And if you tell them Hong Kong has more area covered by mountains than skyscrapers, they ask you if you think they’re dumb!