If Monday was about retrieving my license, Tuesday started getting the car towed to the mechanic. There are few things as scary as a car coming to a full stop while taking a turn at a busy intersection. Especially if there is a BEST bus coming from the other side. Thankfully, the BEST driver had superb control on the bus and nothing happened. But, my car would not start. Not on pushing. Not on a jump start. Dead. Dead as a dodo. A few helpful strangers helped me push the car to the side of the road. Called the Mechanic. Mechanic called the Tow guys. Something called the timing belt has gone. SR tried to explain the internal combustion engine and the role of the Timing Belt. I tried to look fascinated and as thought I understood.

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6 years ago – at about the same time we had the worst downpour in the history of Mumbai.  a non stop barrage of rain – Mumbai received almost a meter of rainfall on that one day. Combined with high tide – the result was chaos. We were shooting that day at film city. SK and I were getting back to the studio from a meeting in Parel.

I will quote from a blog post I wrote a few days later – there was no electricity and then no net connection on the days following 26/7

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.

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.

antosh – 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!

 

So all in all, I have had worse days on 26/7.

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Btw – while returning home by rick, the tyre blew … at almost the same point where the car engine died …

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The chapter on health in Poor Economics is fascinating – especially where the authors look at why the poorest of the poor do not adopt low or no cost remedies for ailments. For example, ORS to combat diarrhea, or the use of chlorine to purify water or even subsidised nets to prevent malaria. At one level it is the ‘feeling’ that low cost cannot be good. At another it is that public health services are usually not accessible – even if they are in the vicinity, they suffer from chronic absenteeism. it also looked at the poor going to quacks for treatment – many of them barely 12th pass.

I can so relate to this. Our office boy and runner Anil is 27-28. Married. Lives not too far away from the office. He use to fall ill regularly. Body ache. Stomach Ache. Fever. The works. As a result he began taking time off. or when he came to work he found it difficult to work because he was sick. We would often ask him to go home. We would tell him to go and see a doctor. SK lives in the same locality and had recommended a nearby GP but Anil wouldn’t listen. He had his own doctor – whom he trusted. One day we asked him to show us his medicines. Turned out that he had a lot of packets with various herbs in them. The guy was going to a local, unqualified quack – who was giving packets of god knows what. SK threw a fit – took Anil to his doctor. The doctor began treating him for malaria.

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26/7 – Kargil Day … the day Indian soldiers won back land that was occupied by Pakistani infiltrators. 527 Indian soldiers lost their lives.  Fighting the elements, fighting a sluggish system and fighting motivated infiltrators – the Indian Armed forces paid in blood to recapture lost territory.

the Indian Government and Intelligence system, as always, was napping. Of course there was a great post mortem -we should have known, we didn’t know, we will know the next time. This was also India’s first televised war.

But, that great post mortem did not help  527 families who did not have their loved ones coming back to them. I hope that the men in uniform are not asked to sacrifice again for political stupidity and naivety

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This is from yesterday – the battery on the camera is dead and is charging

vegetable seller – Matunga