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.