I would not have written this piece but for this cute little bushy tailed sweetie who comes everyday to visit us. Mom has been feeding her for sometime and I have got used to her presence now. I am talking about a squirrel who has become like a family member now. Her favourite area is the pot where we have a flowering plant standing tall amongst the other lot.
mumbai
We, the People
It can’t get any auspicious than this. After 4 days of no internet, I got it back, right on our Independence Day. The problem apparently lay in some cables which might have got snapped due to the ‘Big Splash’. The cable guys at Hathway worked today to repair the cables and set my internet working again :-) Thanks a ton to them.
I had the opportunity to watch Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades on STAR Gold. Coming soon after the tremendous success of ‘Lagaan’, it must have been difficult process in making a film which would live upto the expectations of the people and Ashutosh has not disappointed. Swades is about Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan) a Project Manager on Global Precipitation Measurement at NASA. He comes to India to see his nanny in a small village in Uttar Pradesh called Charanpur where he meets his love life Gita (Gayatri Joshi making her debut on the silver screen). The story unfolds when on a trip to a neighbouring village, he sees how people are living under abject poverty and decides to do something about it. He helps in breaking the shackles of age old traditions of caste and creed which are so prevalent in rural India even today. By contructing a small hydel electric project in the village, the protaganist gives the villagers a reason to cheer. Finally his motherland beckons him to come back and the rest is history.
The highlights of the movie are just too many. The narrative itself is very simple and well tackled. The cinematography is excellent and gives one the feeling of being in a rural setting. AR Rahman & Javed Akhtar do it again after Lagaan. The Ramlila song is the highlight for me since it’s written by a non-Hindu and I am too proud about this fact.
Lastly I hope we have a Mohan Bhargava hidden somewhere inside us who can create a revolution and bring happiness to everyone’s hearts. I know that we have become too cynical about the way things have been happening about us but cynicism will only pull us back into that quicksand called hopelessness.
India, down and out?
Preceding the floods that drowned Mumbai, the favorite topic of discussion for me is the inane urban planning of this city. The politicians and the people have robbed this wonderful city of dreams of its beauty. Since I have been to Hong Kong (and Avinash happens to stay there) I can vouch for the fact that I haven’t seen a city as beautiful. The most towering influence as soon as you land in Hong Kong (HK) is the Chap Lap Kok International Airport and the superb Airport Express trains. It’s like getting off one plane and moving into another. Then comes the 3 private companies who run the excellent bus services and the 2 rail transport companies (KCR and MTR) running the overground as well as the underground rail services. The waterfront is also used for transportation from one island to the main land and so on. Every person carries a smart card which acts like a ticket on any transportation that you take. Simply said, Mumbai needs such services desperately and I am afraid that it’s already too late to even start thinking about it. We have the money and the expertise and the men who can do this job efficiently. All we need are some politicians with foresight and willpower.
Mumbai ‘Moisturized’
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 :(
Stranded!!
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?