July 26, 2005: When the rains swallowed Bombay's suburbs

The city has witnessed its fair share of trauma over the last 20 years. Each event that took lives altered the psyche of its residents in some way or the other. But I think more than communal riots and bomb blasts, the rains of July 26, 2005 caused intense psychological damage to the city.

It was around 4 pm on that fateful that there was a cloud burst and the intensity of rainfall was beyond what most of us had seen here. I had the misfortune of being on holiday in the city. The heavy rain didn't stop for a few hours and the combination of nature's forces, which included a high tide, and human negligence (storm water drains clogged with garbage) turned places like Andheri and Santa Cruz into a poor man's Venice.

I was fortunate enough to be at home when the heavens opened but I watched with horror, how people were swept away by the flood waters. Some died after falling into manholes, some got electrocuted. Life in the suburbs came to a standstill. People stayed in railway stations overnight, some walked 12 kilometres through waist-deep water and yes, strangers turned into Good Samaritans.

There was no electricity for 30 hours and of course, the landlines were dead. You'll hardly find a person in the suburbs of Bombay, who won't have a 26/7 story. Of course, there were chants of "enough is enough." Irate citizens vowed to hold the government task. That never happened but the trauma of the floods persists. Now-a-days, the minute it starts raining heavily, suburban Bombayites panic. It's impossible to get an auto-rickshaw, buses are over-crowded and there is fear in the air.

6 years later, how would the city handle a similar situation? I think we'd be caught as unaware as we were in 2005.

Scared? Us?

It's been over a week since 3 blasts claimed 20 lives and injured more than 100 people. Life crawled back to normalcy within a couple of days. No, we aren't indifferent or apathetic to these gruesome incidents but neither are we scared.

Life in this city is more dangerous than anything the ISI or the Lakshar-E-Tayaba can do. On Sunday, a young movie-goer and her infant died because a tree fell on them in Nariman Point! A TREE!! Who do we blame, the ISI, the LeT, the RSS (Ask Digvijay Singh)?

Dying is easy in this city. It could be through a manhole in the monsoons, or by getting hit by a speeding auto rickshaw or bus or truck, while crossing the street. Many people die every year falling off trains. Others die of malaria, dengue and some just because of breathing in the polluted air.

So! Are we scared of the Lakshar-E-Tayaba or Indian Mujahideen or any other terrorist group? Not one bit!

Mumbai Blasts:- The Day After

The heavens opened out this morning almost in grief and most parts of the city were flooded. Since a lot of people had trouble getting home yesterday, many chose to take the day off. The local trains were empty and it was an eerie feeling to see an empty Andheri local at Charni Road at 6:30 pm.

I went to watch a movie in Central Plaza Cinema, in Charni Road and crossed the site of one of the deadly explosions. The place was surrounded by policemen because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the head of the ruling coalition Sonia Gandhi were expected at the spot. Street-side conversations revolved around yesterday's events but the shock of yesterday seemed to wear off.

There were 6 of us in the entire cinema hall for a 7 pm show. I think it was the rains more than anything that kept the people out. But there was definitely a palpable tension in the air in South Bombay.

How many innocent people will die before our intelligence agencies get their act together?

Terror strikes Mumbai again

17 people woke up in Bombay on July 13 without knowing that this was their last day on earth. They went about their daily routines, rushed to work and went through the motions like it was just another day. Only it wasn't! 17 famillies will never see a loved one again, 17 famillies shattered forever by an evil act. For these people, the pain is permanent, things will never be the same for them again.

I love going to Dadar's Plaza Cinema to watch "masala" Bollywood movies like Dabang. It's more about enjoying the crowd's reaction to the movie than the movie itself. I can't count the number of times I have walked outside Dadar station through that busy area. It just wasn't my time to go. That's the only way I can put it.

This city is so crowded that it is easy for hate-filled monsters to carry out their agenda. Those who do these kinds of things in the name of religion, do their religion a terrible disservice. Frankly, I would sum up these blasts as another intelligence failure. Improvised Explosive Devices were used and not every roadside fanatic has the ability to make these.

I am over the shock of yesterday, as everyone close to me is out of harm's way. I switched off the television after watching the initial reports as the electronic media has made a circus of the incident. They should not be allowed near the site, as crowds form and forensic evidence is destroyed.  I also didn't want to hear the oft-repeated 'Spirit of Mumbai' garbage. Life goes on as normal, because we don't have a choice. A vast majority of people live in this city because it is only here that they can make a decent livelihood. If people don't go about their normal routines after such incidents then they won't be able to feed their families and pay the bills.

I know these blasts aren't the last we'll witness in this city. And I know that when my time is up, I'll go, whether it's on account of bomb blasts or something else.

Monsoon lilies in full bloom

This was the wonderful site I woke up to this monsoon morning.

I could count about 15 lilies in this plant and another 9 in the next one.

It's amazing how rain water can make these plants flower. There's obviously some property of rain water that is killed before it is treated and sent to homes in the city. That missing ingredient brings these beautiful pink flowers to my home every monsoon.

Italian Cinemas/Italian Histories at the University of Mumbai

I braved the monsoon fury to attend the first lecture and screening of the Italian Cinemas/Italian Histories at the University of Mumbai this morning. In fact, Kalina in Santa Cruz (East) felt more like Chittagong, Bangladesh than a suburb in India's financial capital, just off the airport! I digress. This post is about the course and not the monsoons.

Dr Alan O'Leary is in Chittagong, ahem Mumbai, for the next 8 weeks to conduct this wonderful course, which includes interactive presentations as well as a screening of a film every Friday. To be honest, I kind of expected the whole course to revolve around the most acclaimed Italian films of all time. Much to my surprise though, Dr O'Leary isn't just another rigid academician. Over the next few weeks, we will probably a more holistic look at Italian cinema and explore aspects that present the history and the psyche of the people and the country.

  



Italians don't have to bear the weight of Fascism, the way the Germans unfortunately carry the tag of being from the country that produced the Nazis. However, Mussolini's reign and World War 2 is a period that most Italians look with difficulty.

We watched Roberto Rossellini's classic, 'Roma Citta' Aperta. (Rome, Open City)' I won't play spoiler for those who want to watch the film but I have to say that I love the idealism of the film. Active resistance to evil is entrenched in Indian epics and Hindu philosophy and the film shows how the Italian resistance to Nazism made strange bed-fellows in the Communists and the Catholic Church. Of course, myth is a part of history and the contents of the film can be open to debate. Filmed in 1945, 'Roma Citta' Aperta' was made by those who survived the Second World War and made at a time when the emotions were still strong and fresh.



 Dr Alan O'Leary is Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds. He is an expert on Italian cinema and cultural studies. You can read more about Dr O'Leary here. http://holidaypictures.tumblr.com/.





For those of you in Mumbai, who want to attend the course, it's absolutely free. It will be held on Fridays at 10:00 am at the Phirozeshah Mehta Bhavan at the University of Mumbai's Kalina Campus. The campus is exactly half-way between the Kurla and Santa Cruz stations. And the course notes will be available on this blog. http://italiancinema-mumbai.tumblr.com/

Homosexuality could save India, Mr Health Minister!

Yesterday, India's health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said homosexuality is a "disease" and regretted that despite being "unnatural", it now afflicts a substantial number of people in India.

"The disease of 'Men having Sex with Men', which was found more in the developed world, has now unfortunately come to our country and there is a substantial number of such people in India", Azad was quoted as saying at a conference in Delhi.

I think the poor minister has got it completely wrong. India has a population of 1.2 billion and if current trends continue, we will peak at 1.7 billion in 2070. That would be too many people for too little land in India. What is India supposed to do with so much pressure on land and resources? Send people to the Andaman and Nicobar islands? Colonize Australia? Reach a deal with Messrs Putin and Medvedev to export people to Siberia?

There is a much simpler solution. Let us encourage homosexuality. Let's launch campaigns to encourage gay and lesbian reltionships. If more people turned gay, there would be less child-births and some well-off gay people may even want to adopt. I am not going to make any calculations and claim our population growth will slow down by x or y percent but seriously we have an easy solution here.

And of course, as a bonus, if sexually transmitted diseases spread, our population will fall further. Come on Mr Azad, let's encourage homosexuality!

Nirvana perhaps?

As I walked home from Andheri station, somehow this suburb looked and felt different. Yes, there was gutter filth on the roads, the honking was loud and aggressive, people were still throwing things on the road, it was crowded and the air quality wasn't something to write home about. But I didn't get bothered by any of those things. I just observed them and my own reaction to them and that was just about it.

I also started seeing the (gulp) beauty of Andheri. The fresh vegetables on the stalls of the vendors, the actual existence of greenery. The beautiful and diversely dressed people. Those faces had so many stories to tell.

What has happenned to me? Am I en route to Niravana? I hope so  :)

Adventures in Southeast Asia

I am dedicating a new blog to document my experiences in other parts of Asia. I will also blog about events in this vast and diverse continent.

I am calling it Ajay in Asia and you can see it here http://ajayinasia.blogspot.com/