Day 205-2011 : Belly Churners!

100 crores!  That is the amount the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has earmarked for filling up potholes on Mumbai roads this year.  It is now that time of the year...monsoon, when the first few showers seem to be washing away the roads.  And Mumbai roads become...belly churners!

Belly churners because that is exactly the effect that these roads have on those who have the misfortune of driving through them.  Apart from causing your heart to skip a beat or two these roads can give your innards a good workout too!  The roads begin to resemble like the surface of the moon, with craters of various sizes and shapes all over the place.  One feels the brunt of it, especially if you drive a low slung vehicle like I do.  People tell me the trick is not to look out for the potholes but to lookout for any good patches of road still intact and get the car to hop, skip and jump around them!  In spite of following that advise, the chassis of my car has numerous intimate moments with the potholes these days.  Such encounters tend to not only impact the car, but also are a bit heavy on my heart, if you know what I mean.

So, why do we have these belly churners every monsoon.  100 crores sounds to be a big enough amount to me to ensure that there are no potholes.  I think the answer lies somewhere else.  Somebody in the system is not doing their job / well enough.  The news items on potholes on the recently inaugurated Lalbaug and Barfiwala (Andheri) flyovers have done little for the image of the city's infrastructure.  But I am sure Mumbaikars wouldn't have been surprised by these developments.  Someone is certainly not doing their job well.  I am told that every new road built by a civic road contractor has a guarantee period.  I would be very interested in knowing how many times has BMC invoked this guarantee clause against the contractors.

There is also talk of a powerful cartel of civic road contractors, lobbying to keep the situation as it is, so that they can exploit it for their vested interests.  Potholes then become pots of gold for these people.  For example the carboncor technology is proven to be a long-lasting solution for Mumbai roads.  However this cartel has lobbied and ensured that the use of this technology remains optional for road contractors who take up the job of filling these potholes.  Most of them use bitumen which gets washed away with the first spell of rains, thus giving the opportunity to these contractors for repeatedly fill these potholes and keep submitting fat bills for doing so.  This, in spite of a Bombay High Court order and a recommendation by a Statutory Technical Advisory Committee to use the carboncor technology.

The suffering for the common man only increases.  Mumbai traffic, rains and the resultant potholes can (and does, on a daily basis) cause mayhem on the roads.  A colleague of mine had to drive for 3 hours to get to work from Andheri (W) to Andheri (E)!  I hope someone sane in the civic administration does something about this.  The best solution is to privatise and make service providers directly accountable for the quality of the roads.  But that is a long way away.....till then I guess I will just have to bear with running into one pothole to the other, every time I drive.

The other 'belly churner' was the movie that I watched this week, Delhi Belly.  In more ways than one.  But a more detailed review of that in the next post maybe.

Till then...take care!

Day 170 - Bengaluru Beckons

This past week was spent preparing for the Bengaluru visit and then travelling to the city of gardens.  The purpose of the visit to Bengaluru was to attend a cousin's (Shivakumar) wedding.

It was great fun because we went as a group to Bengaluru after assembling in Mumbai as the base.  My parents, brother and sister-in-law arrived just before we departed to Bengaluru on Saturday.  We were also joined by other cousins and their families.  The flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru was pretty much uneventful, except for the pranks of both my little ones at the airport. When we arrived in Bengaluru, the weather was heavenly.  It was cool and pleasant unlike Mumbai's humidity. It was also raining sporadically.  The drive to the city from the airport was full of greenery.  Incidentally, I met Adwait at the Bengaluru airport and he looked fresh and sporty.  Looks like he is enjoying his time at JPMC.

Now, Bengaluru is a city where I have spent close to 2 years of my life.  It is also special, as Priya doesn't forget to remind me, because we started our married life in this city.  Hence, there are a lot of memories attached to the city.  The fact, however, is that , this city has undergone a massive change in the six years since we left Bengaluru for Chennai.  Some of the roads and places are completely unrecognisable.

All the infrastructure projects have been completed.  Grade separators are functional at Dairy Circle, Silk Board and Jayadeva Hospital!  These were just starting to be built when I last saw these places.  Malls have sprung up everywhere.  New residential complexes which did not exist before have suddenly surfaced.  Bengaluru, being a city of bungalows, looks strange with these new age skyscrapers.

I also like the city because of its meticulous cleanliness.  Generally, I have found the southern cities to be more cleaner compared to the north.  It would, of course, be a joke to even compare Mumbai with Bengaluru or Chennai on this aspect.  The other thing that I liked about Bengaluru, and which is completely absent in Mumbai, is the attention to details in the construction of roadways.  You see sign-boards at each junction / traffic signal, clearly telling you the directions to various places.  The roads, dividers, etc. are properly painted / adorned with reflective material.  You see attention to detail everywhere.

On the flip side, like in all other cities in India, the traffic has exploded.  The number of private cars on the roads must have increased 5 folds in the last 6 years!  And given Bengaluru's narrow roads, this causes endless traffic jams.  Again, not as bad as Mumbai, but still a lot worse than it was 6 years ago.  The other pathetic aspect of the city, and for that matter any other city in the south, is the complete absence of a service culture.  You go to any shop, restaurant, hotels, cinema halls, etc. etc. and the people there will treat you like dirt and as if they are doing you a favour by allowing you to be there.  Drives me nuts all the time, as I myself work in the service industry and expect better standards.

The trip, otherwise, was very enjoyable.  I met up with some relatives after a long time, and some for the first time!  By the time we started for Mumbai on the Wednesday, rains had hit Mumbai too. Various rumours about air traffic being diverted from Mumbai due to bad weather were floating around.  However, we landed in Mumbai with only a 30 minute delay to normal weather.

I am at home for one more week and thus, look forward to the rains in Mumbai. 

Take care.

Day 140 - A Heartless City

Remember the famous Johny Walker song of yesteryears!?

....Kahin building, kahin traame, kahin motor, kahin mill

Milta hai yahan sab kuchh, ik milta nahin dil

Insaan ka nahin, kahin naam-o-nishaan

Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay (Mumbai) meri jaan

Aye dil hai.....

How apt!  And this was written so many years ago!  Off late, I have been thinking that Mumbai has changed and the change has only been for the worse.  Mumbai no longer has that old world charm.  Neither does it have a heart anymore.  I say this having seen Mumbai for the last six months, and after a gap of about seven years.  The biggest change that I do see in Mumbai is in the people.  Even seven years ago, I thought the population of Mumbai was a very happy community, opening their arms wide to welcome outsiders, being very accomodating and helpful to others even when living by the barest minimum.  There was a sense of camaraderie in the entire population.

Unfortunately, it is no longer the case.  Some might say, 'This is not news.  Johny Walker already told us so years ago'!  But to me, this is definitely significant, because it has come as a rude shock to me that this is no longer the old Mumbai, that I knew. 

I have been observing how people in Mumbai react in different circumstances over the past few months.  And the biggest thing that strikes me is that 'I' and 'Me' are the most important beings for the people of Mumbai these days.  In the streets, it is a mad rush, with the single objective of being the first and the fastest.  Forget lane discipline, everyone tries to squeeze into the smallest of space available on the roads, often resorting to 'elbowing out' the others.  Nobody stops for anybody else.  Patience is not a word which is very popular on the streets in Mumbai.

Elsewhere, people come to blows at the slightest of provocations, or even the lack of it.  And these behavioural traits seem to be consistent across all types of people and all sections of the society.  It is amazing that the tolerance levels of an entire city has collectively diminished.  Friends no longer just meet.  It takes months to plan a meeting with good friends!  The spirit of Mumbai is often lauded.  I am very sorry to say, there is no such thing in the social fabric of Mumbai today.

How and why has this happened?  It could be a combination of many factors.  First and foremost, the population growth and the inability of the city's infrastructure to cope with it.  This puts so much pressure on an individual to just get by his / her day to day activities, resulting in him / her being on the edge, always.  Second, and probably a offshoot of the population growth, is the competition.  And couple that with limited opportunities.  Naturally, 'I', 'Me' and 'Myself' becomes the most important being.  Third, the world has become a small place, resulting in making us more cruel and heartless.  As we interact more with the western world, the 'Self' keeps becoming the most important thing.  Even if just to copy the westerners.  Everything is wanted instantly.  Everything is needed instantly.  There is no time to wait.

Last, but by no means the least, is the repeated assaults on Mumbai's psyche by riots and terrorist attacks.  These have resulted in a general sense of mistrust that people have for each other.  Everyone is looked at with suspicion.

People in Mumbai live on the edge, perenially.  I think this city and its metamorphosis is a great case study for sociologists.  But I do crave for the Mumbai of the past, which had an old world charm around it.

Take care.

Day 110 - (Un)Common Sense

It has been an interesting week.  I did find a way out of the maze of priorities that I found myself at the turn of the last week.  Help came in the form of Sukumar Subramaniam! 

However, the more interesting happenings for me this week have been outside the ambit of my life.  The IPL and its workings are being unravelled as an outcome of the Tharoor - Modi war!  And what a cesspool it is!  The brand is taking a beating.  I am absolutely certain now that some of these matches (if not most) are actually staged and fixed.  Alas, cricket is no longer a gentleman's game.  The other interesting stand-off has been between two regulatory bodies in the country.  SEBI and IRDA are at loggerheads on who should be regulating the ULIPs.  Assume there is more to it than just jurisdictional insecurity.  Ego is at play; otherwise this one would not have been fought so publicly.  Poor Pranabda has a task at hand now.

We celebrated Priyanksh's birthday on Friday with friends and family.  After the cake cutting, along with the dinner, some very dangerous rides were on the menu at Hakone!  Some of our heads are still spinning.

Drove to Pune on Saturday, to meet the in-laws, and especially my father-in-law who is recovering from a cataract operation.  And it was while driving through the dark tunnels on the Mumbai - Pune Expressway that I decided I was going to write about traffic in Mumbai and the infrastructure thats supports it.

Traffic in Mumbai is insane.  I remember telling a few foreigners about the difference in traffic between Mumbai and Chennai.  Mumbai has more vehicles on the road but the flow of traffic is more organised than Chennai.  I would now like to retract that statement, which was based on my stay in Mumbai during the early few years of this decade.  Mumbai traffic is insane.

Everyone drives very aggressively; like there is no tomorrow.  Everyone wants to be ahead of the other vehicles.  There is no lane discipline, especially on the wider roads of the Eastern and the Western Expressways.  Sometimes, the distance between the vehicles while overtaking etc. actually scares me.  The margin for error is very less.  A millimetre here and there can cause an accident.

Add to this the infrastructure that supports road transport in the city.  There is no doubt that India as a country builds infrastructure on a lag basis, when there is a demand for it.  There is no proactive planning involved.  However, the issue that bugs me is the way the infrastructure is built.  There is no common sense used.  Everything is bare minimum.  There is no thought given to illumination levels, signages, reflectors, etc.  Suddenly, out of nowhere a divider comes into being; there is no reflective paint on it and hence so very difficult to recognise it at night.  Moreso because the illumination levels of our street lights are not only inadequate but pathetic.  Add to that the penchant for drivers to use the high beam (part of the reason to be using it is obviously the inadequacy of the street lights), with no element of common sense in it.  When driving at night in Mumbai, you are practically driving blind, atleast in most of the places.  Lack of adequate signages, and more importantly, inappropriate placement of signages can easily confuse a commuter into taking a wrong exit / missing an exit.  I definitely think people in Chennai who built these have a little more common sense.  It is definitely not due to their liking of the colour yellow that most dividers, reflectors, etc. are well painted in that colour!  :-))  Not sure what can be done to make the authorities smoothen these rough edges when they build roadways.  Hopefully common sense will dawn and prevail some day!

If you are driving in Mumbai, please take it easy.  Life is precious.  Drive safe.

Take care.

Day 24 - Nostalgia Unlimited

Last week was a difficult week in terms of my health.  This week was not as bad as the last one, but I am not yet 100%.  The throat is very still very sore, though most of the congestion seems to have gone.  What's more, the children seem to be catching the symptoms as soon as they leave me or Priya.  I have to admit that Mumbai has taken a toll on our bodies.  Priyanksh was especially suffering a lot on Friday and Saturday.

A quiet week at work; nothing worth mentioning. 

On the personal front, this week could be called the week of nostalgia, apart from ill-health.  Actually, it has been a continuing theme since we arrived in Mumbai.  After meeting Gopal last week, this week it was Rohit Khanna who was in town from Ahmedabad.  And guess what, he was in town to attend the 'second' wedding of Shirali Patel, a class mate in school as well.  Told my wife that I had a crush on Shirali when in school, which I am sure many of us, boys had!  However, couldn;t meet up with Rohit due to our conflicting schedules.

Friday evening was the high point of the nostalgia week!  Practically the whole gang from SHCIL met at Pritam at Dadar, except Vijay Lavate, who is still in Chennai.  Had a great time meeting up with Alok, Sailesh, Pankaj, Ritesh, Prabhat, Parag, Sujay and Wali!  Wali looks very different these days, with all the grey hair. 

Saturday was doctor's day for the kids, as Priyanksh's condition was becoming worse.  Did some shopping in the evening.  Needless to say I was on the edge all the time as Priya goes berserk everytime she sees a mall.

Sunday was Push's birthday.  Four of us went to Amba Bhuvan to wish her.  Went to Sion to meet Aparna, Priya's cousin, and her parents on our way back.  Driving on a Sunday in Mumbai is bliss! 

Had invited Ritesh and Ruby for dinner.  I was feeling very bad as I forced them to come even though Ruby had a very bad cold and a sore throat.  She could hardly speak!  The dinner and the conversation was good.  We might do a group outing together with a few other families in the near future.  But in the meantime, hope she gets well soon.

Take care.

Day 17 - Or Maybe Not!

One of the things that I said I would focus this year was on my health. The week started with me hitting the gym. However, by Wednesday, I was down with flu-like symptoms. Now, would normally not be flustered by such an occurrence. But, given that there has been a positive H1N1 case in the neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago, we were a bit nervous. Medication was started. Have still not fully recovered, but it is not as bad as on Wednesday and Thursday. Blame it on the fickle weather, which has dogged Mumbai for the last few weeks. Chills, ills & pills.

But flu wasn't going to stop me from participating in my sons' first Sports Day meet! Had fun at the meet on Saturday. Suryanksh won a gold medal and I won a silver! I won it in the parents' race; if anybody is wondering if I have now started competing with kids! Priyanksh should have won a silver as well, but was disqualified on technical grounds (he dropped the banana!) :-)) Father and sons celebrated the rich haul of medals with a pizza party, of which the mother was also a beneficiary!

This was also a week where I met two long lost friends. Amol Parte (a colleague at a previous organisations whom I had helped in the early days of his career) and Gopal Rohra (classmate at school). Was happy to see Amol making good progress in this life. Has paid off all his debts, got his sister and brother educated and is now focused on completing his graduation. Gopal has done well in the last four years as well. However, his challenges due to not having full vision in his eyes continue. But he now looks like a veteran in dealing with these challenges.

Looking forward to a more healthier next week...

Take care.

The Wonder Years!

Another year has gone by. And with it, the first decade of the the 21st century has gone by!

2009 has been an eventful year, to say the least. And this decade has probably been the most important ten years of my life. I call them the 'The Wonder Years!' because a lot of important and wonderful events in my personal as well as professional life have happened in this decade. Some of them are:

1) A fast paced 10 years at work working in diverse organisations with a diverse set of people. Huge amounts of learning with great fun! Some 20 hour days actually felt like 20 minutes.

2) I travelled abroad for the first time in my life during the past decade. It is another matter that I hate it a lot now! Especially the longer duration ones.

3) Got married to my childhood sweetheart / crush!

4) Became a father; not once, but twice! Two brats at home; tough to manage, but worth it all! In any case, managing them is a breeze compared to managing my lovely wife...;-p! (I hope this tongue in cheek comment doesn't land me in (or my cheek!) in trouble.)

5) Have been fortunate to have lived in a diverse set of cities; Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

6) Bought my first house in Chennai!

7) Bought my first (and now second as well) car!

8) Have worked with some very inspiring colleagues and seniors; who have played a key role in shaping my attitudes and behaviours. (Yes, it is not my fault. It is all their fault!;-p)

Thinking about the decade not only gives me a great sense of satisfaction but also spurs me on to challenge myself to make the most of the next 10 years!

Coming back to the year gone by: An eventful year. A year which began in uncertain times due to the financial crisis around the world. A year when I was awarded a deferred bonus; still not sure why, though! A year in which I decided to move back to Mumbai, closer to my parents and my in-laws. A year when I uprooted myself and my family from our cozy existence in Chennai to put up anchor in the hustle and bustle of the city of Mumbai. Painful, but worth it.

So, what is in store for the new year, 2010!? Who knows? The motto is to give everything my best shot and go with the flow. Because the golden rule applies: One can control only one's own thought and actions! I did promise though, in my last blog, that I would be thinking about my resolutions. After scratching my brains to come up with challenging and achievable resolutions, I could come up with only the below:

1) Spend more time with the family. More quality time.

2) Lifestyle changes to become more disciplined about my health. Weed out some of the undesirable habits in make room for some healthier ones!

I am determined to take care of myself and my family. Please take care of yourself.