Hello Delhi, bye bye Mumbai
As rivalries go, this one’s as old as the cliches. One’s the New York of India; the other’s the Washington. If Mumbai is the commercial capital obsessed with every blimp of the Sensex, Delhi is its political centre, endlessly dissecting every nuance of who said what and to whom. In Mumbai, those who count for something are the old money guys, the new money guys, the any money guys.
The tale of the two cities – the hip, cool, professional, glamourous one that glitters like a jewel by the Bay and the stodgy, socially rigid, bureaucratic, sleepy one that is land bound on four sides – has long been the matter of debate. Except now.
When you talk of glamour, are you likely to think of Mumbai with its gone-to-seed buildings and pocketsize restaurants or Delhi with its new steel and chrome lounges?
When you talk of multinationals setting up shop in India, are they scouting around the ‘commercial capital’ for office space or the satellite townships, Gurgaon and Noida, of Delhi?
And when you talk of alternative lifestyles in swank suburbs with their own independent colonies (complete with high tech security and 24-hour power-back up), are you looking at the outskirts of Mumbai or the boundaries of Delhi?
If you still think Delhi is an overgrown village, you need to wake up and take a long, hard look. The capital is rocking like never before. Here are 10 reasons – some new, some old – why Delhi scores over Mumbai:
Nightlife
Not so long ago, Delhi was a city that went to bed at 10 p.m. Mumbai boasted that it, in fact, never slept.
In recent years, Delhi seems to be making up for lost time. The last season alone saw over 40 new restaurants. Significantly, the most happening places – Olive, Nanking and just this past week, China Garden – have been opened not by Delhi-bred restaurateurs but Mumbai entrepreneurs, A D Singh, Baba Ling and Nelson Wang.
“I saw Delhi as a great opportunity,” says Olive’s AD Singh. In the two months since he’s been here, business is booming. “People do come out to eat on weekdays too,” he says.
The boom began some three years ago with Vipin Luthra’s Geoffreys (another Mumbai chain) at Ansal Plaza and Sunny Sarid’s Café Sound of Music in Gurgaon. Even the sarkari Ashok Hotel, as part of its disinvestment plans, decided to allow private entrepreneurs to bid for its deader-than-yesterday’s-dog restaurants.
Mumbai had outplayed itself. Real estate prices had peaked, competition was killing and the only other market that had both the space and the customers was Delhi. Other Mumbai establishments soon to come to Delhi: Athena and Café Mocha.
Work culture
In the mid-Nineties when the reforms movement was beginning to kick in and multinationals began to see the sense of moving to India, the destination they chose was Delhi. Back then, Mumbai realty prices had peaked (office space at Nariman Point, the city’s financial downtown, was close to Rs 30,000 a square foot). The commercial capital just wasn’t an attractive option: Commuting time was tortuous, there was a shortage of such basics like schools and parks and quality of life in general was dismal.
Today, such corporates as LG Samsung, Ericsson, Nestle, Coke, Pepsi, GE, Oracle, ABB and American Express are headquartered in Delhi – or at least its satellite towns, Gurgaon and Noida.
But what of the capital’s notorious babu culture? Well, the sad truth is that much of it remains. The good news, however, is that the MNCs have brought with them a certain degree of professionalism. “A lot of the new industries in infotech, consulting and business process outsourcing are working on the Mumbai metier,” says Dilip Cherian, consulting partner, Perfect Relations.
Satellite towns
In the late Eighties/early Nineties when property prices and congestion combined to make South Delhi less livable, new townships sprang up on the outskirts in Noida and Gurgaon. Gurgaon was brought into Delhi’s radar for the first time in 1976 with the setting up of Sanjay Gandhi’s Maruti factory. In the last 10 years, however, it’s become a magnet for young professionals, seeking an alternative lifestyle.
Some of the residential complexes are so plush that, once you get past the secured gates, you’d be forgiven for thinking you are in Singapore. Laburnum, the jewel in Gurgaon’s crown, has its own swimming pool, gym, clubhouse, children’s activity centre – and a choice of living quarters ranging from penthouses to stand-alone villas. And outside the imposing gated residences of Noida and Gurgaon, there’s a cornucopia of malls, multiplexes, restaurants, bowling alleys and international quality golf courses.
At last count, there were, in Gurgaon alone, four malls – with another eight slated to open. For the first time ever in India, the town will also see specialty malls: one for gold and precious gems, another for cars and yet another for electronics.
Try finding that in Mumbai.
Public spaces
This one’s a no-contest. Way back when people talked of the capital as a hick town, its citizens would sniffily point to its open public spaces. The critics would be silenced.
Things have only got better. Not content with just the Lodhi Gardens, the city takes its parks seriously, adding a new one every now and then. The latest to join the ranks is the Garden of Five Senses, inaugurated only last year, south of Saket.
Public spaces don’t mean just parks and walking trails. Delhi’s tree-lined boulevards have become postcard staples. In recent years with the advent of the Consuming Class, the city’s shopping enclaves in exclusive nooks like the Santushti Complex or Carma are designed not just to empty out your wallet but also take your breath away.
Schools that have opened in the last few years (Vasant Valley, Sanskriti, G D Goenka) have sprawling campuses that make alternative approaches to education viable. And of course, there’s Delhi’s old North Campus – the Oxbridge of India.
Finally, although Mumbai has its share of historical buildings, most of these date back no further than the Raj. If you’re taking a tour of Mumbai, your friendly taxi driver is more likely to point out Amitabh Bachchan’s house as a ‘historic monument.’
Delhi, on the other hand, is littered with monuments. There are Raj buildings of course – from Rashtrapati Bhavan to Parliament House – but its historical monuments go back deeper. Just drive around the city and it’s impossible to miss, or not be moved by the medieval ruins at Hauz Khas or what’s left of Siri, Delhi’s second city which lies between the Sirifort Auditorium and Shahpur Jat. And of course, there’s the Red Fort, Qutb Minar and so on.
Personal bonding
Because doing dhanda is a good thing in Mumbai, because commuting from home in the suburbs to work downtown is so excruciatingly long, because people live in little isolated pockets where neighbours don’t recognise each other, because this is a city with a large migrant population that’s left family behind, Mumbai is less conducive to personal friendships. Yes, people meet and they go out and have a couple of beers but this socialising tends to be more professional (bankers meeting after work at Leopold before heading home).
In Delhi, family bonding and the observation of traditions are sacrosanct. Festivals from Karva Chauth to Id are celebrated with deadly earnestness.
“In Delhi, social circles tend to be rigid and formal and it’s hard for an outsider to break in,” says columnist and socialite Nina Pillai. “But once you make friends you make friends for life.”
The seasons
You’ve heard the old joke: Mumbai has three seasons, hot, hotter and hottest. Delhi’s another matter. People here take their seasons very seriously. There’s a clearly defined summer (no one who’s felt the May loo wind will ever forget it) and a clearly defined winter.
The seasons dictate what you wear (cotton or silk), eat (mangoes or gajak), drink (nimbu pani or kaanji) and smell (mogra flowers or wood-fired angeethis).
Culture
On any given night, expect to be spoiled for choices in terms of dance, music, theatre, film, art, book launches. And the best part? Much of it is free. Delhi has traditionally been the centre for performing arts, with the National School of Drama and the Akademis. Moroever, the embassies based out of New Delhi bring in a number of high quality cultural events. Many international cultural associations from the British Council to the Alliance Francaise have headquarters in Delhi and are very much part of the city’s cultural life.
Some of the best gallery spaces are also found here: At last count there were some 30 art galleries in Delhi with designer Rohit Gandhi opening a new one only last week. And with every major publishing house based in Delhi, you can count on mega book launches from Vikram Seth to Lord Meghnad Desai from taking place here.
“Mumbai has Bollywood,” says art consultant and curator Pooja Sood. “But it is so overpowering that culture has to take second place.”
Mix of people
The tribes of Delhi are a varied lot – from NGOs to expats, to the embassy crowd, professional networkers to bleached blonde industrialist wives. There’s the glamour, page 3 crowd of assorted fashionistas from designers to models. The city’s political class seems to have thrown its old-style austerity out of the window and thinks nothing of throwing huge bashes in five-star hotels. And the city has its share of corporate yuppies working 16-hour days.
Mumbai’s tribes are easier to categorise. There’s the Bollywood gang and the TV soap brigade. And there are professionals, including the ad guys, the bankers and stock guys and the big business guys.
Political awareness
Your average Delhi citizen is a canny political creature. Get two people together and chances are the conversation will inevitably come around to affairs of the state: Will Priyanka and Rahul take the plunge? Is India really shining?
Mumbaikars pride themselves for being ‘above’ these concerns. While there is a degree of civic consciousness, politics, other than state-level politics and that too on the fringes, tends to be far removed from the average citizen’s radar.
Getting out and away
In Mumbai, when you need a breather you head for such destinations as Mahabaleshwar or Lonavala or Matheran: B class hill stations at best.
Delhi’s holiday destinations are nearly limitless. Within just four hours drive from the capital you could be in Jaipur or Agra or Sariska. Within two hours you can be in the bird sanctuary of Bharatpur.
“Delhi is the central hub for the whole of North India,” says Manish Ahluwalia of Global E Travel Solutions. If hills are your thing, head for Chail or Kasauli. If you’re looking for adventure, there are any number of river rafting camps near Rishikesh. And if you’re keen to photograph a tiger, head for Corbett or take the night train to Ranthambore.
After all, what’s the point of living in a big city if you can’t get away?