Mumbaikars

While the mumbaikars have the knack of coming through difficult situations they also several bad traits. One of them is keeping the city unclean. There are several slogans/proverbs likes of Cleanliness is next to godliness; Clean Mumbai, Green Mumbai which absolutely make no sense to mumbaikars.

Slogan of Mumbai should be as under:
"We mumbaikars take it upon us to make sure that all corners in all public places are dirtied red by spitting gutkha, it is our responsibility to throw waste papers, gutkha wrappers and biscuit wrappers out of running trains, taxis, cars and buses. It is imperative that we open the door of our air conditioned car at all traffic signals to spit gutkha on the road"

Mumbaikars, look at what's happening to our city, we have dirtied all public places by plastic litter and dirt. Now that the rains have begun, we cannot miss the stench that this 'Kachra' is creating. We would not be able to survive like this! one day the 'kachra' is going to come into our houses and offices and choke us to our deaths; and righty so, unless we change the way we treat public places and our city in general. Couple of years back this kachra caused immense flooding in the city.

New Local trains were launched in Mumbai recently, nicely coloured in while and light purple; we made it a point to change the colour near the doors and under the windows to red within a weeks time (by spitting gutkha).

This is not done!!!Do we also do this at home???

We mumbaikars should stand up for the cleanliness of the city including the public places.
From today I have decided to boo any person spitting at public places or throwing dirt or answering natures calls on walls. I would also try to direct them to the nearest dustbin/loo.
Urge all to join me in this drive and keep our home, i.e. the city, clean.

P.s. Gutkha is a chewable mixture mainly containing tobacco, which has to be chewed and then spit as it is not potable...Kachra in local language means waste.

heavy rains in Mumbai

Heavy rains have hit Mumbai, quite sooner than expected...Accompanied by gusty wind blowing at 20-25 kms per hour. Something which mumbaikars have experienced rarely and possibly never on the 3rd day of the monsoons. Year by year the climate is getting harsher...winters have got colder, summers are hotter and monsoons are more fierce...
Worry is a repeat of what happened on 26th July 2005 when the city experienced the highest downpour in 100 years. While the municipal corporation claims to be 100% ready for the monsoons, the roads and the drains do not indicate the same. There are huge pot holes on roads...water clogging on the roads due to level differences and clogged drains. Time will tell how the municipal corporation would fare in this years monsoon exam...
People of Mumbai have the knack of getting ahead of the most difficult of situations in a very short span of time. 2005 it was the flooding on 26th July, on 28th July lives were back on track...Thats what I like the most about this city and hence would love to stay here all my life inspite of the potholes, clogged drains, heavy traffic, pollution, population etc...
Hats off to Mumbai and the spirit of mumbaikars...
Also this an excellent time to sit in a lounge chair reading a book with kanda bhaji (Onion pakoda) and adrak wali chai (tea flavoured with ginger)...Hope I would be able to enjoy that today...