RIP Umesh Shinde

A friend, Harish Jain, expressed this on FB:

It hurts to wake up and read a news that says a newly wed guy died because of pothole on the road. Life has really gone cheaper than the cost of filling these holes. BMC - Please make a list of all the holes and put a price for filling each one of them. I can assure you that people will come out and pay you for that also other than the taxes. RIP Umesh Shinde.

And I had this to say:

I have been riding slowly. I have been driving slowly. For the co-traveller, typically it's boring but then I start showing my slow-motion pothole dodging skills and it all becomes thoroughly entertaining. And I feel so elegant to myself. 

My description is absurd but it's the truth, at least in my context. But when incidents like these happen, I wonder how absurd it would be to rise in unison against a pothole-indifferent government.

Per Capita Nautanki Space

When I visit this lovely garden, morning or evening, I find a lot of people doing crazy things (no sexual innuendoes here) in the name of exercising. Perhaps when they see me running endlessly in circles for hours or doing some kind of stretching, they might amuse themselves thinking I am such a crazy guy.

Which brings me to this point. The landscape of this garden is quite wonderful. It offers relatively free and solitudinal and less-publicly-observable spaces to visitors. Guess it's this nature of the garden that prompts people to do crazy things and stay happy and feel healthy.

One of the casualties of modern town-planning is the Per Capita Nautanki Space (PCNS). If somehow that's given more conscious attention in planning, we might do a world of good to people's health.

50% Indians defecate in the open!

For this one reason alone, political parties should be voted out. Or perhaps, for this one reason alone, the 'right to reject' should be invoked.

And India's megapolis and financial capital, Mumbai, would put a lot of cities to shame when it comes to defecation in the open.

I am also sadly wondering, amidst everything - railway budget and this and that - this kind of information just goes unnoticed and untalked about.

Congratulations India!

If local trains are Mumbai's lifeline...

there should be more of them, right? Many many more of them, I suppose. Instead, what do we find?

The attempt to build wide wide roads. And then when wide wide roads get choked, build bridges. And then when wide wide roads and bridges together get choked?

Yesterday, for a change, I decided to travel by the local trains. I calculated that the space that a car which might typically carry 2 guys on an average occupies train-space which can carry nothing less than 12 people and, that too, very comfortably. And yet, what does the government do? Nothing. So around 20-25 odd people squeeze in that space which a car carrying 2 typically occupies. Rationally and economically, it boggles me.

It's incredible, how a thing so so so darn obvious isn't adopted and people in general are treated like fish. Those travelling in cars are no better. Ask them. Travelling isn't fun for them either. The roads are cramped. Just cramped. But one thing is, they don't get to bear the inhumanity of travelling by locals. They have some space in which they can sprawl!

Adopting cars as a way of life isn't just a problem on the roads. Buildings - residential and commercial both - require parking spaces. It is not so difficult to imagine what could be the alternative uses of such spaces. Children can play, adults can work out and in general the city can be much more open and visually beautiful. Commuting wouldn't take as much time. And if there are more bicycles, surely there are likely to be fitter bodies all around.

Don't give me economics and mathematics. Nope, this doesn't cut. To my mind, economics is only extending the cash-flow cycle. What's received in huge salaries is only going into maintaining bigger cars and bigger health checks and remedies, and bigger expenses to keep ourselves entertained since space-driven and fitness driven entertainment options are dying.

On actions

Products fill space. Actions fill time.

Like there are categories of products (TV, mobile phones, shoes, chairs, etc.), there are categories of action. Breathing, Sleeping, Fishing, Running, Sitting, Watching TV, Playing Cricket and so on.

There are some actions which don't require space. Like Watching TV. Others require quite a bit of space. Like Breathing Clean Air now requires holiday destinations.

Noise Pollution on Diwali? Give me a break!

It's Diwali. And am in Mumbai. And am checking some greetings conveyed on Facebook.

As observed in the last few years, this year also I find quite a few people conveying 'stay away from crackers, stay away from noise pollution'. I find it surprising.

Surprising because we, who are living in cities, endure the loud droning noise almost every single hour of our waking life. I bet if anyone can call that music or euphony. I bet if this isn't noise pollution of the highest order. But we have hardly cared about making our day to day life free of such noxious sounds.

And here, on a beautiful festival like Diwali, an integral part of which is firing and bursting crackers, we make a hue and cry about noise pollution! Tokenism at play.

Yeah, I know the common refrain: when we bear it everyday why bear it on a holiday. Such is the pathos of life that a festival turns into a mere holiday and, at best, simply a respite from the mundanity and drone of everyday life.

Better to set things right for our day-to-day life or just curb the joy of noise on a festival like this? 

On platforms of execution

If 'execution' demands a platform, what is that platform made of? People, their attitude, their thinking abilities, their education, their knowledge, their ambitions, etc.

Looked at in that context, Mumbai is a terrific platform. Seen broadly, you'll find similarities in attitudes, in education levels, in willingness to do stuff, in ambitions, etc. Just to give an example, there are countless MBAs from top b-schools in Mumbai. Just this very fact ensures that there is a certain level of thinking - which is needed for good work - already in place. It isn't a surprise that so much work happens there.

Bhilwara is another platform. One where there are such large inconsistencies in education levels, in ambitions, in attitudes, in thinking abilities, etc. How can a team ever work well to execute anything of substance?

So then the challenge of working in such a place is twofold. First, manage to create a platform. Then worry about execution.

Visible Filth, cleaning it all up across the country, every street must be beautiful

Earlier Mumbai, now Bhilwara. A'bad is fairly clean compared to these two towns. But guess A'bad (and few other cities as well) is an exception in this country.

Visible filth depresses me.

When I travel by train, most often I alight with rather discomforting feelings. The sights around are saddening.

I want to do something to remove the VISIBLE FILTH. I have some ideas but I wanna know from everyone, who reads this, what should/can be done. There are some agencies who are already working towards this. There are government agencies whose regular work involves removing VISIBLE FILTH. But I don't think either group has been massively effective. By 'massively' I mean at a nation-wide level. Forget nation-wide, don't think any agency has been effective even at a local street level. So I want to do something.

Any suggestions?

Comments section is open. Alternatively write to me at sidsoni at gmail.com.

If you think, your friends might also have something to say, please share this link with them. My gratitude in advance.

From isolation to isolation to isolation; draw the wind shields down

While at office, listen to no one but the boss. Such anxiety to complete stuff that I tend to do nothing but only that I've been ordered to.

So flustered at the end of the day, that while driving back, invariably the wind shields are pulled up and the music switched on so I can 'entertain' myself. The whole day is divided into parts which do nothing but move me from one 'isolation' to another.

While keeping the window shields down does help us stay away from certain elements, entertain ourselves and so on, it is an act of isolation. Keep the windows down. Let some noise in. As my friend said rightly, "You feel involved. As if you are a part of the happenings around." Some times it's a good thing.