Mumbai or Bombay?

Rrrright, so this is my conundrum from the day I walked out of my door to cross foreign waters...."where am I from?"
nah nah...this is not that deeeep an existential a question. It is the regular "where r you from?" that everyone encounters countless times in life irrespective of where they might encounter it.

My struggle with this particular question was born when my city went from being officially Bombay to Mumbai. Mind you, the name itself did not jarr my sense of belonging to the city at all because over the years, Ive used both the names interchangeably. All my relatives outside the city called us as 'coming from Mumbai', from far back then I can remember! And I never questioned why there were two names. It just never crossed my mind!

Suddenly I found myself in front of gora's and firangi's who wanted to know where I was from. And just as suddenly the answer wasnt simple anymore. The problem was of being viewed according to the answer I gave. You see, a 'Bombay' evoked a very different response from a 'Mumbai'. Further complications in perception came when I faced a poser, who 'knew' India or worse the city itself. To begin with, a 'Bombay' somehow gave an impression that I was of a modern or liberal thinking kind. A 'Mumbai' came off as a right of center kind. This was on simple days.
On days when I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, 'Mumbai' elicited a "aah! so, one of those right wingers, eh? indigenious pride and bombay came from foreigners and all that, is it?" kind of a look in response. Equally likely, a 'Bombay' educed a "really? one of those stiff upper lip/upturned noses/hham ko hhindee nahyee samachta kind" look. Add a element of familiarity with India or the city to this latter equation and the response was a quick "from Mumbai! lovely" smack in the face!! It got a lot , and I mean a lot, worse when the response to 'Bombay' was a "mai mumbai may doh tin saal rahha tah" ....man! those were the ones which made you red in the face....I felt like the outsider!!
What do you do when you are one of those perpetual getting up on the wrong side of the bed kind then? Who think as hard as they may and be as careful as they can but will always say the wrong thing? Who make wincing part of their daily existence?