I turn my face to the sky. Gentle drops brush my skin. Lightening cuts to the ground, a temper tantrum. Rain: intent, pelting, insistent, driven falls like a sheet of steel. I draw the raincoat closer, all resistance futile, drenched in no time.
Another rain: bai’s shanty, mostly mud, tin and stone, has caved in. She runs around trying to find the money, knowing that she hasn’t what it’d take to build strong, 1.5 lacs. She knows and I know what she’s putting together is flimsy, temporary, just about there, but it’ll have to do. Like a lot of things, patchwork.
The city is a mess. Already. BMC, MMRDA officials should be made to stand on the expressway in a downpour, swirling water rising waist high. A first witness check on the so-called disaster management. My first and last crib on this issue.
10 comments:
just once, officials should live though a flood, a tornado, a hurricane.
just once, pigs will fly.
an annual event, isnt it?
Yes. They all should be forced to live under the results of their own decisions. Anywhere.
Don't wash away, sounds bad from here where we get heavy rain mixed with hail and some thunder this time of year.
Not the same. Disaster management doesn't work here either remember Katrina? Pathetic.
Ah, refreshing Austere with such descriptive language. I have missed you in my busy days!
I remember a similar incident when I was in Bangalore. I was afraid to fall in a hole in the sidewalk. Sadly four people were electricuted at a bus stop when power lines made contact with the water. I don't know about Mumbai, but some of those power lines hang really low. I often had to duek to avoid them and I'm only 5'8" (170cm)!
Take Care, really!
-P
P.S.
My Meexz is wearing a pretty Sari for you. :>
A German magazin "Der Stern" (The Star) has a column "Mail aus Mumbai" (Mail from Mumbai):
http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/599742.html
Just wanted to show.
I wrote a long long comment but the changes I'd made in Firefox caused it to disappear.
Quin: make that pigs, and elephants pls. Not likely. :)
Manu- in our Shanghai- Singapore cloning frenzy, more's the pity.
Mago- but they won't, that's what history says, right?
babyisland- stay warm and safe. Yes, Katrina will compete with Nero fiddling someday.
Proxima- let me drop in and say hi to your Meez, did read up your post with a grin and a hmmm y'day. :) More's the pity, one develops an internal system to cut out all this. Survival tactics.
Mago- THANKS. Now this means you get all the Mumbai masala (spicy news) before I do. Wasn't that image of the train horrendous?Ppl in germany would want to know what's happening in distant Mumbai?
I do not know what history says, but it clearly shows that those responsibly mostly make it away unharmed ... and do not have to suffer from their decisions, be it public transport, taxes or educational money: From some level onwards it gets unhealthy - they are allowed to fly, to get unreal. That is an area for thinkers and intellectuals, not for our average run-of-the-mill-politician - regardless where he grows, be it India, Asia, Europe or the Americas - the system is the same, the mechanics is the same, the bubble-building is the same.
People in Germany want to know what happens in Mumbai. After all it is one of the most important cities of this globalized world. open your eyes in the local university library and you see people from Asia (Japanese connections are traditional) as Korea and more and more India.
Do not overjudge it. We have a real scissors-situation - a part of the people gets interested and looks - a lot of people do not care for anything and do not WANT to understand ...
ach, I am tired ... stop here now.
:)
At some level mago, isn't it survival of the fittest, Darwinian? These are the privileges, of prestige, power and money, so the haves create barriers and raise the bar to a cocooned, unreal exclusivity?
Amusing too, to see how things revert to a mean over time, one generation creates wealth, the third generation squanders it.
You may like mid-day.com for that grime and grit flavor
tabloid journalism, take it or leave it.
temper tantrum indeed. it's very hard, disorienting, for me to fathom what she must face.
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