Panic in Powai after crocodile kills a 32-year old man

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/2/201008272010082704232841215f6cb1b/Panic-in-Powai-after-croc-attack.html

I spent some wonderful moments in the IIT campus in the late-1990s and an old friend of mine told me on many occasions that the lake has crocodiles. I had no reason to not believe her but today's news is shocking. From being a peaceful, quite and romantic place, the Powai lake has been destroyed. There was a time when I would enjoy the sunset and twilight from outside the IIT guesthouse. There was a lurking fear of snakes, leopards or the mad cow but never once did I fear getting attacked by a croc.

The real problem is that the area around the once-idyllic lake is now a concrete jungle. The lake is covered by water-hyacinths thanks to the untreated sewage that gets dumped there everyday. There's a 5-star hotel, a promenade and a jogger's track. This basically leaves out the IIT campus as the only place that a croc can rest on and take in some sun. So yes, the area in front of the guest house is really dangerous. But I am sure that this man was fishing in the lake.

The Sanjay Gandhi National Park and the green belt around the Aarey Colony need to be protected from greedy builders and politicians, lest we see more deaths that take place as nature claims back what is rightly hers.

I live in Cuffe Parade so I'm better than you

I live in Cuffe Parade and you live in Bandra so I am better than you. I live in Versova and you live in Mira Road, so I'm better than you.

I am not paraphrasing 9-year old kids here. These are people in their late-teens, 20s and even 50s!

I've always heard of people living in the better developed southern part of the city having chips on their shoulders. Their areas are cleaner, more civilized, etc...They conveniently forget to mention that most of those areas were built by the British.

What I have noticed at university and language classes is precisely that this particular chip on the shoulder is something people from every part of the city seems to have. So South is better than north, Bandra is better than all the other suburbs and Juhu takes second place.

All I can say from this hogwash is that there are several people with massive insecurity-based issues. Give me a break Bombay! 60 percent of the people that live here are slum-dwellers. This city is extremely dirty because of 2 precise reasons... A large section of people litter and another large section are too apathetic to the situation and neither stop others from littering or force the municipal authorities to do their job.

Where have you gone Mahatma Gandhi?

Borrowing and adapting from Simon and Garfunkel, "Where have you gone Mahatma Gandhi? This nation needs to turn its lonely eyes to you."

Open Letter to the Rain-Gods

Dear Rain-God (s),

You may be amused at getting a letter from an infidel, kafir, non-believer in a superior being. You may think why this Voltaire-quoting, God-denying creature is getting in touch with you. The fact is that this kafir has no recourse but to try and get this message across to you since you are believed to control the weather.

First of all, let me thank you for blessing this hot, humid and dusty city with a healthy and above-average monsoon.  The lakes are over-flowing and the water supply is almost normal across the city. There is obviously less dust inside the house and my lilly plants are flowering generously. Average temperatures are around 25 degrees above zero. All this is attributable to you.

Having said all this, I request you to stop blessing this city with any further heavy rainfall. We want to walk on the streets without getting our clothes dirty. We want flights, buses and trains to run on time. We want the temperature to more or less stay the same though. So let's make a deal. Keep it cloudy till October-November and give us teasing drizzles so that the weather stays cool.  At the same time, tell the sun that it can have a monopoly over Bombay from December when cold winds from the Himalayas reach down here.

So please be a sport and give us nice weather. You'll make 20 million people happy.

Thanks

Ajay Kamalakaran

Astor Piazzolla

Wow! There are very few things in this world that can uplift my mood the way this man's music can. Astor Piazzolla was one of the greatest composers that ever lived. I fall into a trance when I listen to this music, which blends classical music and jazz into traditional tango. 

Sarkari Naukri

It's a no-brainer that the laziest human beings in the country all dream of 1 thing: A Sarkari Naukri or a government job. It pays well, thanks to the pay commissions set up by the government every 10 years. There is 100 percent job security and the work hours.. nothing can match them.

The lazy clerical duo at the university French department turns up at 11:00 am and "work" for 2 hours before a 1-hour lunch and then come back to "work" till 5 pm. Of course at 4:30, they will refuse to open a cupboard and take out a certificate!

If there was a law of natural justice such people would have to endure torture!

A barrage of public holidays

Today's Pateti, the Parsi New Year. Tuesday is Raksha Bandhan, the festival that celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters. We then have Ganesh Chaturthi, Eid and several other holidays to start off a season of festivities that lasts until the end of December.

Given my hectic schedule, I won't complain about the fact that the university will remain closed on all those days besides giving a month-long Diwali vacation. Seriously though, India needs to curb down on holidays. The sheer number is mind-boggling.

Ramzan photography

Do I or don't I? That's the big question.

Some areas in the city like Mohammed Ali Road and Bhendi Bazaar are predominantly Muslim and are very charming in their own right. Going there at the time that Muslims break their fast would be a wonderful experience considering the religious fervour associated with the holy month.

Taking photographs there may not be the best idea considering how conservative the people are. The last thing I want to do is inadvertently photograph a woman in a burkha and face the ire of the public. My SLR camera is a magnet for attention.

I'll have to think this through. Of course nothing stops me from visiting the area and enjoying the sheer vibrancy of the season.

UPDATED on August 4, 2011

Since google searches are  being directed to this page, I am posting a link of some of the pictures I took last year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/4959860078/in/set-72157623823412347

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/4959860088/in/set-72157623823412347/

Discrimination against men

Given the fact that women get groped in markets, public transport and in other crowded areas, I fully support the fact that there are ladies' compartments in local trains in Bombay. But every policy has to have limits. I was shocked this morning when I noticed that local buses now reserve almost the entire left side of the bus for women! This is ridiculous. For women who support this policy, I wonder whether they think that equality means extra privileges?

Independence Day

It's ironic that there are people out there who are bitter that independence day happened to fall on a Sunday. That's exactly what has become of the day the country attained independence from the British. So many generations have passed since India was a crown colony that no one values the sacrifices made by thousands of freedom fighters.

The freedom fighters gave up a great part of their youth for the cause so that India would become a country with the very freedoms that we enjoy today. Would I or any middle-class young Indian sacrifice the next 20 or 30 years to bring about freedom from corruption, freedom from the evils of the caste system, freedom from intolerance and freedom from the political class that is exploiting this country in a worse manner than the British ever did? The answer is a big no. I am too selfish and concerned about my own comforts to ever think about a greater cause.

Happy Independence Day! Jai Hind!

Dealing with beggars

We've all heard stories about how beggars are trained in the "art" and they just get a commission on the money they earn, while their "pimp" (used for lack of a better word) gets most of the money. I am pretty sure that most of this is true. Which is why particular streets and signals are demarcated for some sets of beggars.

Once in a while though, even the most hardened end up witnessing a scene that they just can't ignore. In a first class compartment of a local train, I saw a blind, old beggar. The man was coughing so badly that I suspect he had tuberculosis. He must have been well past 70 and this is what his life came down to. I never ever give money to beggars, especially young children, but here I just couldn't bare the thought of not giving some change.

My father once told me of a blind beggar who he gave money to in 1964. The man came to the same bank where my father was working and deposited his earnings. He had 60,000 rupees in his account. This was at a time when a bank officer earned 600 rupees a month! I somehow don't think the sick old man I saw on the train was that lucky.

Energy Express

I was quite disappointed when I found out that my French teacher at university was just substituting for someone else for a month. I enjoyed the lessons taken by the substitute. She had a calm demeanor and was very kind and encouraging. But boy was I in for a shock when the official teacher back.

A hurricane of energy called Jyotsna just flew in from Italy. She's young and a final year Masters student of French, who spent a month in Italy on a scholarship. 'Jo' absolutely set the classroom on fire with her energy and passion. "Anglais est interdite" English is banned in class. 

I sure am looking forward to these firebrand French sessions.

Judge Not

On day one of my French class at university, I had the misfortune of sitting with someone who took being annoying to altogether new level. Mademoiselle X spoke little French, understood even less and on top of that had a major attitude problem. If that wasn't bad enough, she smelt like a skunk. I have, since, made it a point to avoid this person at all costs.

But as the weeks have passed, I have made it a point to NOT have any negative feelings for this girl. He who finds faults in others is insecure himself... I am just paraphrasing something I read somewhere. Someone else complained to me about Mademoiselle X today. They said she was this annoying even in the previous academic year and one day, the whole class ganged up on her and made her cry! I thought that was cruel and told the narrator of this story that we don't have to love her but we can at least be respectful to a certain extent.  The narrator shocked me by telling me that X has a drunk for a father who often beats her. So there it is, X is a very troubled person.. nothing else. I sincerely hope that she has a reason to be smile and be happy.

Out of Africa

Out of Africa is a memoir of Karen Blixen's love for East Africa and its people. Her imaginative and descriptive prose bring East Africa in the waning days of colonialism to life. 

Filled with poetry and tributes to her close friends like the legendary hunter Denys Fynch Hatton, the book is treasure trove of stories. Blixen, who wrote the book under her pseudonym Isak Dinisen, broke many social taboos that were the order of the day in colonial times. 
Her vivid descriptions of the equatorial sky at night, the Rift Valley and the city of Mombasa are absolutely unforgettable. 

Though Blixen has been criticised for comparing people to animals and allegedly glorifying colonialism, Out of Africa stands out as a masterly work of literature, written by Denmark's greatest writer after Hans Christian Andersen

For Raj, even malaria is due to migrants - Hindustan Times

For Raj, even malaria is due to migrants - Hindustan Times

Raj Thackeray is being criticized for his latest remarks. I don't really see eye to eye with just about anything the man says or does. His party's usage of extra constitutional methods to impinge on things like freedom of speech is completely abominable.

But for one second, think about these remarks. If a foreign country said, some Indian immigrants brought the plague or some other disease, would we be so up in arms? There was a case not too long ago when a central Asian nation said a polio strain was traced in the country from Uttar Pradesh, India. Several countries went bananas last year to prevent the outbreak of the so-called Swine Flu. China even stopped all Mexicans at its airports and quarantined them.

The need of the hour is better hygiene and health practices. If only Raj Thackeray's MNS would focus on such issues with real aggression, we'd have a cleaner and healthier India. But I am asking too much.

Water woes

It can be really frustrating to see the city getting flooded everyday and at the same time deal with a water shortage. The municipal authorities will review the water situation on August 15 and then decide whether or not to continue with the cuts.

We've had the best rainfall in 5 years. With two more months to go, the city has already received what's considered a full monsoon quota. So where's the problem? The water hasn't filled two of the lakes that supply water! It's 2010 and the city is not in a position to collect rainwater! There's a complete lack of vision and planning and no middle class resident of this city gives a hoot. So the criminals dominate the municipal corporation and sell drinking water to the 'tanker mafia,' who in turn supply to the slums for a fortune.

We are talking about the largest city of the second fastest growing major economy in the world. Future Superpower my a$$!