Shanghai - with its swish - has somehow taken root in our middle-class subconscious as being the apex of modernity - at least on the Asian side of the world.
I for one beg to differ.
While there is so much that needs to be done. The sprawling metropolitan swathe of concrete that is the Mumbai Metropolitan Region has a long way to go before it measures up to the magnetic pull it has to those who keep thronging the city in search of the promised better future.
But there is one huge area where we trump Shanghai hands down.
It is in the precious gift of freedom.
Over the last week our house church has been organising a public meeting where we wanted to tell people about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We chose the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter and approached a local school for permission to hold it at their hall. They agreed. We then made some invitations and some inserts which we wanted to put into newspapers to tell people about the meeting.
We did not tell the police. We don't have too. We have the freedom of association, the freedom of expression and the freedom of religion as part of our constitutional rights. These were hard fought liberties which we so often do not cherish.
Most of us approached the secretaries of the co0p housing societies we live in to put up small posters on the notice-boards about our meeting. When I met the worthies in our building they had a small issue to take up with me. "We have been wanting to tell you something for some time" they told me. "Why do you not contribute when we come to collect money for the festivals we organise. It hurts us when you do not. At least contribute Rs. 100. Do not be apart from us." they said.
I have the freedom to give - or not to give. I explained why we don't contribute. I didn't expect them to put up our small posters. But they did.
When we had the meeting, we saw people exercise their rights to come - or not to come. No one from our building came. The choice to sit at home and watch the IPL cricket match which was on is entirely theirs. The 60 odd folks who did come to our meeting (many of whom were our own church members) came entirely on their own volition.
This is hardly the case in China.
Today, on Easter Sunday, there were a flurry of arrests in Beijing. The crime committed? Members of a large 'unregistered' church were trying to meet in a public place. They had been denied permission to meet in their own meeting place - and so some of them tried to meet to worship in a park.
As I have said - and will say again - we have much to repair in our country. But one thing is clear - we do have the freedom to say what we want to change - and the opportunity to do so. We can move (almost) anywhere in the country without permits. We can take up (most) jobs based more or less on our merits (though connections often help). We can vote and hunger-strike and take out processions. We can attend a clearly religious meeting. Or we can sequester ourselves away watching the IPL cricket matches - or the latest bufoonery laced with aspirational ads that our free country offers by way of televised entertainment. But that freedom is itself such a blessing.
Shanghai dreams can wait for me. Give me Bharat any day. Now lets get to work and make it live up to our shared potential.
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