Bombai yedi hai kya???

We cant get rid of the pot holes!!!

Finally, BMC admits that they have no clue how to sort out this issue. I ain't appreciating their incompetence, I am only resounding their for once honesty. No sooner did i give them the credit, that i hear of this new ingenious solution they come up with to help us!! What would we do without these blessed angels.

Since they are incapable of finding a solution to the pock-marked roads of the city, the mayor has announced a project whereby, they will install in all cellular phones an application. This app will indicate the exact loaction, depth and width of a pothole in 10 metres of the stretch of road ahead from where the cell is held!!!!

U read it correctly! So the plan is, that every ten metres, i can look into my cell and check for the next pothole and avoid it. Supah!!

Question: I am not allowed to talk or text while driving, so how do i look into the cell for the app?
Answer: You can stop and check.

Q: How do i do it, where one second stall and i get to hear - BC, MC, lady fu*** driver!!?
A: Pull over to the extreme left lane and then check.

Q: Every 10 mins i will go from right to left and jostle for space between buses and autos / cabs?
A: You are over exaggerating! It is a very viable idea.

Q: What is the expense?
A: Only 60 Crores. (which u and i will pay for!)

My verdict: Saala humko ch**** samjha hai kya???!!!
Whats yours????

Blasts dont scare people.

There is yet another piece of news - bomb blast in Delhi. Yes that is what bomb blasts have become. A piece of news.

I wonder what could probably be the intention of the people behind these blasts. To instill fear i suppose? If that be the purpose, then don't blasts at regular intervals back fire at the mischief makers? What am i saying....?

Lemme explain...

The first time that blasts happened (since i understood what blasts were), ie in 1993, i distinctly remember fear etched boldly in our minds. Mothers did not permit their children to go to school, wives beseeched thier husband to stay back home. Husbands didnt themselves want to step outside the protective cocoon of home. Offices were closed, shops were shut, schools were closed.

Over the years, blasts happened, people died, got injured, political drama unfolded..... the same saga.

Cut to June 2011 bomb blasts in Mumbai at Dadar, zaveri bazar etc... we were watching the television sets, we did check the internet, but we didn't leave from offices. The next day students went to school, we went back to work, life was normal except for those whose kith or kin were victims of the blast.

The fear is gone. It is replaced by sorrow,  a sense of helplessness, anger even, but most certainly not fear!! Have we become a society numb and incapable of emotional reaction? Will someone explain to these people that constant bombing is not helping them or me. May be they see reason? May be they realize the fool hardiness of these constant madness? Just may be......

Bombay, the step child???

Bombay is supposedly the financial and entertainment capital of our country.

I say supposedly financial capital because, today the business growth in places like Gujarat and Bihar is faster than that of Bombay. In fact Bombay has lost a lot of sources of income, textile, sugar, salt etc....  No new industries have come up in Bombay in the last decade gone by.

Entertainment is still Bombay's domain. But that is only so far as Bollywood is concerned. That is too narrow an interpretation of entertainment. Live concerts do not happen in Bombay because taxes kill the organizers. The heritage concerts like Banganga festival or the Bandra fort festival don't hold the same charm anymore. Venues which used to be the perfect ambiance for the concerts till a decade ago have meta-morphed into dumping heaps or cattle washing areas.

As if that was not enough, pubs, discs, and all other entertainment joints shut down at 1.30am. Even a public place like Chowpatty beach or marine drive have cops swarming every 15 mins after 1.30am. A quiet walk by the water body, to clear one's mind has become a luxury which i cant afford.

While this is true of Bombay, how come the taxes for live performances are 3 times lower in places like Bangalore? How is it that permissions are procured on a one window basis there and not here? How do the delhiites manage to have their joints kept open till the wee hours of the morning?? Why the step-child attitude to Bombay, when the citizens are the highest tax payers of the country??? Why....

ENUF IS ENUF: Is Ganpati the sacrificial goat up for slaughter after being fed?

ENUF IS ENUF: Is Ganpati the sacrificial goat up for slaughter after being fed?

Is Ganpati the sacrificial goat up for slaughter after being fed?

Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!

Some call him Vignaharata, some Ganu, others Sankat harata, many others call him Ashta vinayak. Call him by whichever name, there is no doubt that, he is easily the most liked and most revered God of the hindus!

It is that time of the year when fesitivites, sweets, wishes and smiles engulf the city. Ganu is brought to homes, societies, lanes, nukkads. He is adorned, decorated, bathed, cleaned, fed. Hymns are sung in his honour, prayers are chanted. Basically everything is done to appease him for a day, 3 days, 5, 7 or all 10 days.

Then what happens has often shocked me!! He is immersed in water???? I am sure there is some mythological, religious belief behind this practice. What i dont know. I would be glad to. But the point is, has anyone walked the beaches the next day?

You just might step over His hand or a leg or the stomach, a ear, his trunk or worst of all His face! Its like the potholes of the city. You avoid one, you end up falling in the other. Similarly, u try to avoid stepping on the arm, you might end up stepping on the face!! A stray is chewing on His trunk, carrying it around in its mouth as if it were a peice of a bone.

Has he been fed for all those days ONLY to be stepped on finally??? Is he the goat fed ONLY to be slaughtered???

The bigger the idol, the more difficult it is for the ocean to devour Him, and then He is spat back on shore to be stepped on by those very 'devotees' who paid their obeisance to him a few days back..... Sad.... aint it??