I don’t think Mumbai will ever be the same again. I mean no one will ever dare to underestimate the power of her monsoons (I somehow like to think that cities & countries are females. They sound so cool). They say this is the heaviest rainfall in 100 years in Mumbai and I have sort of shrugged that claim altogether. Flooding in Mumbai is not uncommon and we all know that the amount of sewage waste this city produces in a day. I have said earlier that the lax administration has to be blamed for this present fate of Mumbai. For a start, mumbai needs to be ‘moisturized’ even further to make it look beautiful. Clearing the unauthorised slums is not the only solution but planting more greens all across the city is what is required. The administration needs to be given a lesson or two in lateral thinking (read De Bono’s 6 hats theory) to come out with innovative ideas about how to stop the flow of migrants into the city. Politicians and political parties need to look beyond their populist agendas and work together for a better Mumbai. Phew! I know this is easier said than done :(
I decided to stay indoors today and skipped office. I was not going to take any chances after my 2 day sojourn there. Not that the stay was boring but who wants to do the same thing twice :-) Instead I had a novel idea and somehow I had predicted this heavy downpour on Saturday itself. I managed to find an older version of Unreal Tournament lying somewhere in the house and installed it alongwith the updates and some Mod Packs. An older version meant that my PC will support it fully without any ego hassles. I play UT in 1280×1024 resolution!! Thanks to my ATI RADEON card :-) I have realised that games, no matter what the age, are timeless classics in their own way. :-|
Oh what would I have done without UT and the internet?…sigh!! ;-)
August 1st, 2005
Its supposed to be the heaviest rainfall for Mumbai in 100 years! The records can be set straight by looking at the devastation bought about by the rain gods. I spent 2 days eating, sleeping, playing games in the office and also shopped for clothes at
Westside like a touring guest. I also went and shopped for toiletries - face soap, shaving kits, toothbrushes & toothpaste. I don’t know how much I can justify the money that I spent on the purchases but I was ready to stay back for a few more days if the train services had not resumed to Borivli. I caught the 8:38 Borivli local which reached its destination at 10:30 but I had no complaints. It’s nothing short of a miracle that I reached home safe and sound.
Forget Shanghai or any other city that you may have wanted to stay. These rains proved to be a test to the government’s dreams of turning Mumbai into a world class place to live. The administration was caught napping. You might be tempted to defend the government but please don’t forget those hundreds who slept on the roads, away from their family because the transportation services went offline. This is something that Mumbai faces all the time and everytime it displays a human face of the tragedy which is people coming out of their houses and helping the needy. Even this time I heard stories of people distributing medicine and food packets absolutely free. This is the time to make a strong resolve of improving upon our defunct public services. Throw those outdated disaster management manuals if they ever existed and innovate newer methods so that the local populace is not subjected to third degree stresses by the forces of nature. Forget torential rains, have we braced ourselves for a tsunami or a Category 1 cyclone?
July 28th, 2005
It’s monsoon time again and what can be more frightening for mumbai city than that. 400 mm in just a day and the rumour is that there’s no respite from it for the next 24 hours too. It’s my prediction that there are atleast 2-3 days in the month of July when rains have total command over this city and it brings it to a complete standstill and it has come true almost all the time.
You might be wondering why I am writing this piece at 3:55 am on this damp wednesday morning. The answer is quite simple. I am in the office right now waiting for the right time to go home and drop dead on my bed. I am stranded because the rains once again successful in bringing the train services to a complete fullstop and as a result so many of colleagues are also spending the night here, away from their family. The signs were looking ominous since evening. People, who’d left the office early, fearing disruption of rail services, got stuck in the traffic for as long as 6 hours. Then the network in the office went bust and we couldn’t work at all so the best thing for us to do was watch a movie in the conference room :-) That was one time I felt the room was being used for all the right purposes and its occupants were not bored to death :-)
Continue Reading July 27th, 2005
The God who painted nature in its varied hues and moods is the greatest. He must’ve worked painfully hard to produce such flawless beauty which entices the human mind, even though he may not be physically present there. He then blesses us with rains & cleanses his creation to its original form and welcomes us to enjoy it. To my mind, this is definitely the season to be one amongst nature.
Every monsoon a group of nature lovers, make it a point to go into forests and see the environment for themselves. That they happen to be members of SurfUnion is a pleasant coincidence. In 2004, we explored the jungles of Yeeor near Thane with some difficulty. This time it was the turn of the beautiful forest of Karnala Bird Sanctuary and the Karnala Fort situated in the middle of the forest. The participants for this trek were RanTen, Myself, Aadesh (Kreativ), Elroy (Enygma), Hemant & Varun (Riddlerr). Amit Thakker was involved in helping us with the vehicle and food arrangements. He also provided an able nature walker Kaivalya Varma, who’s an accomplished climber, ,snake lover and an environmentalist himself. To prepare the group both mentally an physically, informative mails were sent to the participants by RanTen which outlined the rations that they needed to bring along with them. The trekkers also had to brace themselves for the heavy monsoons so dry clothes had to be carried along. All I can say here is that life is a pleasant adventure itself but it becomes even more jovial when you are in the company of the people who admire you.
Continue Reading July 25th, 2005
