Tale of Two Cities/Venita Coelho

Listen up, because today I am going to really tell you a tale of two cities. The big divide in Bombay is not between rich and poor, caste and creed. It is between those who have made it and those who haven’t. Success is a dividing line that cuts the city cleanly in half. Those who have made it suddenly find themselves in a world where everything is a freebie. Free holidays in Goa just so you’ll mention the new resort to friends. Free tickets to the most happening events in town. Invitations to the most exclusive dos to freeload. Designers who send you their outfits in the hope that you’ll wear them in public. Make a regular five inches in the papers and baby you’re in gravy. Punjabi owners of small boutiques will pay you Rs two lakh to cut ribbons. You’ll get another four to host dealer conferences for switchgear. Invitations will sometimes arrive stuffed with cash, just to ensure you make it to the event. You’ll be paid to dance at the weddings of rich diamond merchants. Every product launch in town willhave you on their guest list and you will be showered with mementoes costing lakhs. It’s a fine life. Some socialite writers actually make a very fine living off the free things in life.

But so many more struggler stories seem to have no end. The struggling actor whose wife miscarried because all they could afford to eat, day in and day out, was boiled rice. The assistant director who is now working as a garage boy just to keep a roof over his head. All that lies before them is more and more struggle. Hard days moving to harder days. It makes you wonder what keeps them going. I found the answer one day watching a peak hour local, jampacked with people. At least these strugglers belong to an industry that allows them to dream. Tomorrow a director could discover them. Day after the phone might just ring. It’s happened before. The real struggler stories are to be found on the peak hour trains. These have no happy ending. What can a clerk look forward to? What dream could come true for a labourer? What earth shattering news could a phone call bring a small time secretary? And yet every morning they get up and climb on the 7:10 from Andheri. On the weekends they watch Hindi films where there isalways a happy ever after. They are forever on the other side of the big divide.

— Venita Coelho is a television scriptwriter.