Is Mumbai global?

The famous juice shop at Haji Ali has a sign that advertises the fact that credit cards are accepted. Your milkman has a mobile.

The bhaji walla outside the station you use sells broccoli and baby corn. And you buy your toothpaste from a supermarket. But does that make you global?

The spell check on your computer tells you global is synonymous with universal, international, world wide; fine so far, that’s pretty much the accepted meanings of the word.

But then it goes on to list ‘comprehensive’ ‘total’ and ‘inclusive’ too. Is Mumbai that? And what about ‘overall’ and ‘large scale’? Does Mumbai make the cut?

Let’s begin with one area where Mumbai certainly scores: its dining out facilities. From restaurants serving sushi to soufflés, we have it all and then some more.

There are regional cuisines, international fare and local delights too, suiting every budget, every need, every hour. What’s more, where we have a definite superiority over global cities like New York and London is in Mumbai’s exceptional variety of street food.

In New York with its ubiquitous hot dog vendors, and London with its fish n chips, street food inevitably means fast food. Not so in Mumbai, where a simple pani puri is a rich and many layered sensory experience: sweet, spicy, crispy, cold and zesty.

But where Mumbai does not quite make the cut is in its night life. Sure there are a host of clubs and lounges that the young and restless can patronise.

But where are the all night, all rocking, tapas bars and cafes as in Madrid, or the entertainment quotient of New York where you take in a good play, then go on to a bar for a drink and then somewhere else for dinner and end the evening in the wee hours of the morning at a coffee and cakes joint?

Where is the variety of Tokyo’s all night districts containing game parlours, restaurants, bars, and clubs where it’s perfectly safe to while away the night? Mumbai has a long way to go in its night life offering before it can call itself a global city.

Ditto for its leisure and recreation offerings. Where’s the zoo, as in Singapore where even locals spend an entire day packing in a family picnic because it is such a pleasant experience?

Where are the leisurely boat cruises around the harbour as in Hong Kong or New York? Where are the parks as in London where the middle classes take off to spend an entire Sunday reading the papers, and sunbathing?

Sure, a thin slice of Mumbai makes off to Alibag and Marve where it has weekend getaway homes, but what about the rest of Mumbai, where can it go on weekends but to Chowpatty and Juhu beach and fight for a little lung space for itself?

Other areas like housing too make its inclusion in global cities shaky. With more than half its population living in precarious structures, with faulty construction, bad plumbing and no thought given to public spaces, Mumbai certainly does not compete in the housing department, no matter that every day new gated community developments with fancy price tags are being announced by the builder lobby. They will remain tokens until the rest of the bulk of the city catches up with its real estate boom.

But then, there are areas where Mumbai scores over other cities. Its public transport for instance, though outdated and substandard, is a daily miracle, transporting as it does such vast numbers efficiently and, more or less, expediently under the circumstances.

Its medical facilities though it lacks a public health system, are by and large viable, and there are enough caring, committed doctors available to service most needs though the same cannot be said for its hospitals.

Mumbai’s media and communication is exceptional and on par with the best in the world. The latest international books and magazines are available, movies release here the day they do worldwide, and we’re connected via broadband to anywhere in the world.

So what does all this make us — global or local? Does the fact that our international airport is not up to scratch; that the world’s big brands are only now making their presence felt in our shops mean we don’t make the grade?

What about the fact that we have a vibrant cultural scene in the city, that services come cheap and are generally exceptional and that our standard of living is generally more comfortable than our counterparts in other big cities?

Global, local — or somewhere in the middle and getting there? Tough one to answer, because we are like this only!