Two blogs on the recent Mumbai deluge:
Cloudburst Mumbai - which is a site that shares experiences, views, news, analysis and stories.
Mumbai Help - a listing of everything that the Government’s Disaster Management team should be providing us!
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Over heard at a party yesterday:
whiney voice: but it is raining heavily!
bored response: what do you expect – it is monsoons.
The party was at Lavanya and Anand’s new place in Yari Road. Lots of people turned up. most had exciting rain stories to tell. Many had walked back through neck deep water. There was palpable relief at surving the whole thing. There was also complete gallows humour through the evening.
But, to give whiney voice its due – it was raining non stop. And heavily. This morning, as the rain subsided slightly – i left for home – Andheri (E). I was travelling back by rick, and the roads were water logged. Not as bad as Tuesday, but waterlogged all the same. Juhu – near Tian – had water that was getting a Honda City to bob up and down. When you see a vehicle weighing over a ton demonstrating Archimedes Law on a Sunday after the deluge, then there is something that says “oh no, not again”.
View from the rick windscreen – this morning 10 amish:)
I wouldn’t really go out today, unless i completely and absolutely had to. There is enough chaos on the streets without me adding to it.
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While administration and papers seem to be patting themselves on the back on ‘Mumbai limping back’ they haven’t said that it is at the pace and the steadiness of a mugged 90 year old who has been blind folded and has to find her way back home.
There is very little traffic on the roads. Most people I know are leaving their vehicles behind. That is assuming that the vehicles survived Tuesday’s downpour. Garbage is uncollected in most places. Trains, especially those on the Central Railway are still delayed – mom just came back from Andheri station after two trains to VT had been cancelled. And bus services are severely restricted. Most rickshaws seem on some form of life support system or the other. And many cars are non functional. Car pooling might be a good idea. just make sure that two people who can drive are in a vehicle.
While I can understand that the priority is to clear out the bodies – garbage is going to cause a health hazard sooner rather than later. It is already assualting the senses – it is only a matter of time before it starts assaulting our wellbeing.
A doggy resting on a pile of uncleared, sodden, garbage. It smells worse than it looks
One option, as citizens, is to log on to the excellent Praja site and send a complaint. I am sure that there is a helpline somewhere. But, it is most likely to be jammed. Residents in co-operative housing societies may consider pooling money to clear the garbage. It probably is going to be cheaper than extensive medical treatment.
If this sounds pessimistic, it is not. The human spirit can endure and bounce back. Systems and infrastructure take a wee bit longer.
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Tuesday, 26th July, began like most other Tuesdays in my life. Wake up by 6.30 a.m. get ready to get to Peddar Road – and teach. Tuesday I was focusing on the role of media in creating a “collective conciousness”.
Post the lectures (2 and a half hours), there was to be a meeting at Sahara One, at noon. Getting in from Sophia to Worli for the meeting, we crossed the BSP meeting in Mumbai, with heavy police bandobast.
The meeting got over at about 1.30. Shirish and Neena proceeded to Film City, where the crew was getting geared for Dial One aur Jeeto. Shishir and I went off for a bite to eat to Phoenix Mills. Keval, Jayant and brand new recruit Sriram (he joined on Monday) were at the office at Adarsh Nagar.
20 minutes later, after an unappetising – but quick – lunch at MacDonalds’ we moved towards Film City. This was around 2 p.m. The roads were fairly clear until Mahim. Bandra was a minor blip, but we cleared that fast and thought that we would make it Film City
Bandra – at around 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday
By the time we had reached Khar, the matter was slightly worse. It was raining non stop.
At Khar – some 15 minutes later
By the time we reached the domestic airport, rain was hammering down upon us. Visibility was non existent.
Near the Santacruz Airport
And then, it seemed to clear slightly, until we reached the Jaicoach Signal, and the flyover that leads to Aarey and Film city. The flyover was jammed as far as the eye could see. The rain was lashing down by now. Visibility detiriorated from non existent to worse than non existent.
The tail lights of the car ahead of us – through the windscreen
People had begun walking across the flyover, trying to get back into the city. Winds were heavy, the rain tireless, yet people persisted. It was almost like this homing instict which makes people take risks to get home to kith and kin.
Goregaon Flyover
Santosh – the driver – took one look out and predicted that – yeah jam kal clear hoga. So Shishir and I decide to trudge to Film City. We left everything except the bare essentials in the car with Santosh and began walking. One side of the highway – leading into the city was submerged in waist deep water. Indica’s and Omnis were floating past as though it was Bihar. The other side was jammed with vehicles. The walk was nerve racking. Water currents were high. And we were afraid of electrocution – we later realised that the power supply had been cut off. We walked almost 4 kilometers – we got a lift some distance, and a rick from Dindoshi to Film City. To our surprise, almost 70% of the crew had turned up. The rest were stranded. Mandira was stuck in Bandra. her vehicle couldn’t move. Finally, The channel called off the show for the day.
Getting back was even more nerve racking. Rain was pouring down. The roads were even more jammed, and there was no light. But, hundreds of people were trudging back. Most in extremely good humour. The support system from unknown people in Mumbai was quite amazing. This is the incredible spirit of the city that cannot be broken by bombs, flood or ineptitude.
We finally stumbled back to Shishir’s place at Goregaon. I left early next morning to trudge back to Andheri. The world looked freshly washed. And except for all the abandoned vehicles, you would never have guessed the previous evening was so bad. I later learnt that we had survived 1 meter of rainfall in a given day!
The crew and all friends were accounted for. Most had a hellish 72 hours, but all seem to be in good cheer. Others weren’t so lucky.
Yesterday, we were the only production house shooting in Mumbai. MSEB power supply was not yet up and running, so there was no air conditioning on the floor – we have close to 100 kW of lights and without AC the place feels like a foundry.We had generators for the lights and equipment. 90% of the crew turned up. Mandira – driven by her husband Raj – braved the traffic to get from Bandra to Film City. It took her over 4 hours. And the show went on.
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Chin 0 Arab Hamara, Hindustan Hamara
Rehene ko Ghar Nahin Hai, Sara Jahan Hamara
The people who build Mumbai – taking a break from the monsoon, under the flyover enroute to film city.
The lines translated read:
China and Arabia are ours, India is ours
We don’t have a place to stay, the whole world is ours.
read more about this song here.
Lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi, Sung by Mukesh – picturised on Raj Kapoor. The film Phir Subah Hogi.
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… if the idea of doggy stylists, and cat psychologists touch a chord with you, then this is a story guaranteed to make you gooey eyed and say “tho’ thweet’. The world’s first government sponsored retirement home for chimps.
This past spring, in a secluded patch of forest in northwest Louisiana’s Caddo Parish, a singularly bizarre bit of evolution unfolded. There, amid the sun-dappled pines and flitting birds, a pair of 40-something chimpanzees named Rita and Teresa — lifetime research subjects who were originally taken from Africa for use in NASA’s space program — became American pioneers of a whole other sort: the first beneficiaries of an inspired piece of retirement legislation passed by the United States government. Under the watchful eyes of animal behaviorists, veterinarians, enrichment specialists and daily caretakers, Rita and Teresa checked in on the afternoon of April 4 at the recently opened Chimp Haven, the first federally financed, taxpayer-supported retirement home for chimpanzees.
The rest of the article is here.
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This from Gizmodo, just what i need after a non stop fortnight of high pressured work:)
The legend reads:
Sphere: Related ContentUpon slipping inside the clamshell-chic device, users will find a variety of functions at their fingertips including everything from “Body Shampoo & Shower,†and “Sound Therapy,†to the decidedly Japanese “Seaweed Pack.â€
… says the Chief of the British Police, on his men shooting dead an unarmed Brazilian, in London.
I was talking to Bonti on mail in the UK, and basically asking her on how she and her family were after the bombings. She was fine, having missed the bombings by about 10 minutes, but she wrote to me, and i quote:
The mood in London is a combination of sympathy and a real desire to catch the b@stards and make them pay…My concern is that anyone with brown skin could now be in danger if they live in neighbourhoods with ignorant people, but the divide in the asian community between muslims and non-muslims is becoming more apparent. And what a lot of people forget is that Islam is colourblind and muslim population is made up of brown, black, white, and yellow….
It is being seen as a Muslim Problem in the west. And Bonti is right, Muslim is seen as brown. And brown is targetted. How does it matter if a Spaniard or a Brazilian or a Hopi Indian is also brown? Or that Cat Stevens is white? or a Mohommad Ali Black?
It is a receipe for paranoid times ahead.
The one thing that stands out is the British System, which owns up and apologises for an error. Hats off to them.
Quite unlike either the US or us, where bluster often whitewishes a cock up!
The Mumbai Mirror has replaced the ToI as my favourite Loo read. From this mornings’ Mumbai Mirror online (front page), the link reads – Ask the Sexpert :
* I have never had extramarital sex. Recently, I started flirting with our housemaid. We were about have sex (with her consent) but held back for the fear of contracting STD or AIDS. I had not penetrated into her vagina but just touched it with my penis. Is there a chance that I might contract a disease? She claims to not have had any extramarital affair either.
The answer from the (s)expert:
Sex with any unknown partner is unsafe. It is advisable to stick to one partner.
ROTFL. Is there a society for the protection of Housemaids? and a society for the protection from journalists who make up this kind of shit!
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…. reads the headline.
The story reads:
I’ve nothing to say about an association that ended for me a long time ago,” says Aishwarya Rai
“I cannot comment on any of the content in the tape or the ensuing debate and discussion. The matter has been taken over by the law. Let the legal system take its course”
Speaks up usually doesn’t mean “no comment” or its equivalent.! What all journalists have to do to fill space!
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