India and Mumbai

“At the stroke of midnight hour
When the whole world sleeps
India will awake to LIFE and FREEDOM”
These are the lines from the speech of our first PM delivered at the Red Fort. Anyone who comes across these lines will surely think that India will progress in leaps and bounds. But the fact is though we tried our level best to come up like a jack in d box, we were never even able to come up as an air bubble in water. Everything I mention below has Bombay in it. But why am I writing here about Bombay when the title says something bout India also??? That’s because I feel that Bombay is the place where you can see the whole of India.
I have never been to any other metropolitan city in India so the facts that I am typing down is solely on the observation I have made in Bombay…oh!!! Its Mumbai now… :-(

Let me start with my daily routine. I wake up early in d morning and peep out of my window. All I can see is empty roads which are full of dust. The visibility is almost zero because of d smog. But still I find people out for morning walks. These people feel that running a few miles would help them a lot but the fact is that by walking on these roads you are killing yourself. But I don’t mind going out of my house that early because there is no traffic to trouble me. Then I go to my wash-basin to brush my teeth, only to find that there is not a single drop of water coming out the tap because of the recently implied water cut. Somehow I finish my chores and get ready to leave for my college only to find that some kid has urinated in my elevator. People don’t care for such petty things because they think that, “bus bees second ka to sawaal hai”.
Its about seven in the morning when I board a bus to d railway station only to find it jam-packed. Thank God that there is no traffic at that time. People in the bus claim that they have no spare time but they do have enough time to sort out the gutkha and then litter the streets. All are multi-tasking you see !!! The staircases of the railway station are d worst. They paint them every year with a silver paint but d very next dat it gets a new coat of d paan and gutkha stains. I finally reach the platform and wait for the train. All the trains that arrive are about 15mins late. We purchase a FC pass jus to run away from d crowd but this delay makes the FC compartment equally crowded. The time taken by any train to reach Mumbai Central from goregaon is about 45 mins(theoretical)…but it usually takes an hour to reach there. Coming out from MC all I can see is d station all littered n beggars on the bridge asking for alms. Then comes the taxi ride. The taxi drivers are never ready to take passengers if d destination is close by. If at all we get a taxi we need to have seat belts because the taxi driver doesn’t know what a signal is.(not only taxi drivers but also every other ppl on wheels).

I after I leave my college d same pattern continues but this time its worst because TROUBLE+TRAFFIC JAMS=NUISANCE. The local trains are so crowded that you cannot even imagine to board it. Let me tell you about the people in the train. In every train there is group who crack jokes, play cards , even sing and dance. People here can get along with strangers very well. They are even ready to distribute sweets in d compartment for any gud news or occation. The crowd in Mumbai constitutes from the poorest of the poorest to d richest in the world dats the reason Mumbai is called the city of dreams.
The middle-class are the best people for a stranger to get along because the poor don’t have any work n d rich hardly care about their work. Its very common to brush against people here. A middle class guy wont even know about you brush past him but d rich give back a pissed off look. Everyone here believe that d city is owned by them but none will do anything for its development. They even pick up quarrel wid you when u advice them not to litter the city. The common dialogue is “Tera baap ka road hai kya??”The only people Indians hate are themselves.

Now something about the festivals. Many festivals are celebrated here. One of the main reasons for soo many public holidays. Celebrating a festival n maintaining the culture is very important but that doesn’t mean that we should trouble others during our festivals. But sadly it happens here. Calling in local bands to play folk music right on the main road is very common. People here believe that the louder you play music the merrier it gets…..bullshit..!!! Your eardrum is almost destroyed even if u pass by these processions.

During Elections every party comes and begs for vote. There are systems like vote for a particular party for monetary benefits. Every politicians say that they’ll help a lot for d development of the city. They are all bullies. None of d politician has said that he will make d city cleaner n safer. Everyone is discussing about water and bigger issues. The issues which had to solved at grassroot level is stretched so far that it later becomes impossible to overcome them. Politicians are busy changing names of different places n promoting regionalism. They fight against people of different religion and create a bias among people. They get all the luxuries they want. Corrupt politicians is a common sight here. Infact every govt. employee is corrupted. It takes about six months for the police to file chargesheet. It takes years to solve an open and shut case. People like me are all sad about this because we are helpless. A wise human being can never survive among these people.
There many more things to type but I end it here. D positive side about Mumbai and India will be posted later.