It's 10 AM. I'm walking down the road, setting off for the day. An auto-rickshaw zooms past. A few paces ahead, it slows down. The khaki-clad driver peeps out of the moving rickshaw, and gives me a look, eyebrows raised. I can see that there already is a passenger sitting inside with a pair of long iron rods clutched between his legs. I nod at the driver. The brakes are applied. I reach the auto-rickshaw and climb inside. The vehicle is accelerated again. And a journey commences.
And, all of this happens within a few seconds. No words exchanged. Nothing said.
This is a convenient arrangement in a busy usual morning scene on a Mumbai street; a shared auto-rickshaw ride to the local station - a good money and time-saving settlement. The prowling eyes of the rickshaw driver recognize a person walking on the street as one who goes to the station around that time every day. A person in hurry recognizes a rickshaw which ferries passengers ‘sharing’ to the station. A moment’s glance is exchanged, and the deal is struck.
That’s predominantly how Mumbai communicates. Through little, meaningful gestures. The traditional modes of interpersonal conversation have been done away with in this city where no one has an extra second to waste. Who really needs words and long conversations, when you can ask for what you want just by a simple movement in the neck? Under the loud din of multifarious noises all around, this silent, gestural language is what the working, the running Mumbai talks in.
The numerous air-kisses blown from all directions on Mumbai roads is a clear example. No, these aren’t love-signals being sent out to sweethearts. This instead, is the most common way in which a Mumbaikar calls out to someone. A sound produced by sucking in air through pouted lips, loud enough to be heard and recognized as a call-signal by a person across the street, is a special technique now mastered by everyone on Mumbai roads.
As against the legendary ‘Oye’ from Delhi, this signaling through pouted lips in Mumbai wastes no words, requires no use of the vocal chords and astonishingly, is recognized by just the person being called out to. Only, it might once in a while, invite wrath of some lady who is new to the city streets and unaware of the simple mannerisms of the Mumbaikars.
A slight tap on the knee while sitting in a local train tells you that you’re required to squeeze in even further than you already are, so as to accommodate an extra fifth person on the seat meant for three. In this particular case, even the customary glance is done away with. One could be busy reading, or listening to music on headphones, or even fast asleep, but the slight tap near the knee is sure to garner the reflex reaction of squeezing in further, without caring to even look who touched you.
In any of the numerous cafés or restaurants across the city, just a forefinger raised from a table is enough to convey to the waiter that chai is wanted on the table. The number of cups required and the specifications of the chai; full or cutting, kadak or paani-kum or sulemaani chai; are also communicated only through the raised hand coordinated with a signaling from the brows. The men at the table don’t bother breaking from their conversation to order the tea.
This then, is another of the magical facets of this wondrous city. A city so metropolitan, full of people from innumerable diverse regions and ethnicities, and yet, a city where everyone understands without much effort, what everyone else wants to communicate.
How does this become possible? How do a people so diverse and so disjointed, connect so well that no words are required for the exchange of messages?
Probably, the common thread which runs across the city; the unending rush, the commitment to work, the race to grab opportunities, an order in everything, and a mutual understanding of each other’s struggles for survival brings all these varied people to one plane, where communication becomes so easy and basic that just a glance, a twitch of a few facial muscles, a simple touch or a sound, or some basic hand gestures are language enough to keep the city running.
