Mumbai will have a Metro

For a lighter take on this issue you may want to visit : Random musings of a Questioning mind (Content Advisory : May contain booger humour. Visit at your own risk. Readers are cautioned that they will probably need to use shampoos to grow their hair back, once they are done pulling them out after reading the blog!)

Mumbai is the city of dreams. Nowhere in the country will anyone find such a plethora of opportunities nestled in such small a place. It is the city which the nation looks up to for its growth, prosperity and its generosity. It will not be unfair to say that Mumbai is because of its people. People from all walks of life, all parts of the nation and all ages are what make Mumbai this special. People, who are willing to work that extra bit to make sure that their families remain well fed and their children can be educated so that they don't have to eke out a living as miserably. People, who commute absurd distances to reach their place of work, in the hope that some day their plight will be understood by the powers that be and they might get redemption in the form of a few extra local trains at the peak hours.

These are the people who will be the most thrilled at the prospect of Mumbai getting a metro. While the current layout of the metro is not exactly suited for the people of suburbs commuting downtown, it is nevertheless a beginning for a better travel facilities for the city that gives so much to the nation and asks for so less in return. A plan (proposed) for the metro is as shown below:

Image Source : (http://urbanrail.net/as/mumb/mumbai.htm)

The right to information act for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project yields the following:
http://www.mrvc.gov.in/tenderphp/admin/upright/summary.pdf

As things stand, the project is going to benefit the people who currently use the roadways connecting the east-west corridor (horrible state of affairs) and the already cosseted western corridor of the city. I fail to understand why the majority of the city's construction fund is diverted to the west. A significant amount of the working population of the city resides in the central suburbs. The western suburbs already have the western railways, the western express highway and the new and upcoming Bandra - Worli Sea Link. This is grossly unfair for the denizens of the central corridor. Not that I hear them complaining. But they have always been the proletariat as opposed to the upper class bourgeois of the western suburbs.

As I foresee, the Mumbai Metro is going to have the following effects:

1. The Western Suburbs will prosper
The western suburbs already are in the cream of things. The locus in quo the western denizens reside is already served by buses, railways and private vehicles to the point of overflowing. Yet, they are the recipients of the latest improvement in the urban transportation. Yes, they deserve better transportation to an extent, because they are the so-called business class of the city as opposed to the worker class of the central line. However, such an unfair distribution of benefits smacks of something more than simple preference for the western side.

2. Mumbai will be more crowded
This is slightly debatable. However, it is not so hard to believe if you follow the following line of thought:
Everyday, there is an influx of people into Mumbai. And everyday, some people leave Mumbai for the better (implausible I know, but just assume it to be so) Given the state of Mumbai's infrastructure right now, there are many people who are definitely considering leaving Mumbai as part of their retirement plans. A calculation will show that the limiting population, with respect to water and power requirements per capita, will be achieved within twenty years at the current rate of influx. Consider this in the light of improved transportation in the city and this will lead to a greater influx of people, thereby resulting in the limiting population being reached in somewhere between 8 to 10 years, after the completion of the MUTP. These are rough, back of the envelope calculations. However, I believe they should be sufficient to convince rational people that Mumbai is going to get further crowded!

3. More tourists
Better transportation with world class facilities can mean only one thing : more tourists. Which also means more and more stories of cons, rapes and the other malarkey that usually follows tourists around. There is also the matter of increased foreign exchange and increased rock concerts! :-)

All in all, the metro is a welcome thing. It will serve the needs of the people wanting to go from say Mulund to Borivali (a journey which takes two hours at peak hours, minimum) in a jiffy. However, to what extent it will change the fate of Mumbai's ever growing populace will only be told by time.

Beauty and the Beast - Part Two

The last time I had written an article titled "Beauty and the Beast" it was a movie review of King Kong. While the premise is the same, the movie this time is very varied in its style and substance. The movie in question this time around is, hold your breaths, Gangster.

I know, some people are probably sniggering. Yeah right, you are saying. How can you even compare the two movies? Well, I am not comparing the movies. I am saying that the underlying principle of these two is the same and that is exactly the title of this article.

Gangster is the story of Daya : a simple guy from a small village in Kashmir, who grows up to become a key cog in the underworld. He is constantly on the run from the police and it is during one such escapade that he runs into Simran, the femme fatale. He is flabbergasted by her beauty and therein starts the love between them. She is taken aback by certain chivalrous stunts he performs and we have the premise for a love story in the protagonists' life. Certain incidents force them to "adopt" a child and during an encounter, the child loses its life. This leads to the estrangement of the hero and his love.

Separated, they begin to lead their lives in the hope of someday being able to see each other. Simran becomes an alcoholic and seeks the company of Akaash, a singer at a local restaurant. Love blossoms again as Akaash inveigles Simran to accepting his proposal with visions of grandeur and a "settled" life. Daya chooses this exact moment to drop in, thereby sending Simran's plans haywire. He concedes that Simran would be better off with Akaash, but asks her to give him a last chance to prove that he has turned over a new leaf. To this she agrees.

Daya's past however refuses to lie down. He gets chased by police wherever he goes, much like fans chasing Amitabh Bacchan all around Mumbai, with the exception being that fans probably seek an autograph, whereas the police seek Daya's finger-prints i.e. the DEAD Daya's fingerprints! In this pandemonium, Simran realizes (surprise, surprise) that she is pregnant with Akaash's child. Akaash, the goodie two shoes, asks her to hand over Daya to the cops and lead a "happily ever after" life with him. Simran's dreams are dashed when she realizes that the guy she has duped had changed his life for the better and the guy she hoped to "settle" down with her that duped her. This aptly sums up the slogan line of the movie : She fell in love with him the day she betrayed him.

The scene in which the cops separate Daya from Simran is particularly touching. We see a hysterical Daya, bewildered at the thought of being separated from his love and feeling a tad depressed because of the fact that she let him down. This is why, I once again repeat the famous words of Carl Denham (Jack Black) from the movie King Kong : "It wasn't the air-planes that killed him. It was beauty that killed the beast." The femme fatale in this case leads our protagonist to the gallows and ends up joining him up there / down there according to your preference. In the meanwhile, she also manages to finish off Akaash.

All in all, a slightly depressing movie, what with the theatricals the actor who plays Simran's role goes through in an effort to make her role seem natural. I think someone else should have been handed that role. Someone who would be less willing to let her clothes off on screen and a bit more willing to act the part of the character that she is supposed to be. Shiney Ahuja is a revelation and he should refrain from scenes which require him to cry. As for Emraan Hashmi, well, he pulls off his role to a perfection. One has to admit that he can do the job of the bad-guy really well. Gulshan Grover does well in a cameo appearance. The sound track is good and although I have heard from sources that the music has been ripped from all over the world, the songs make for good listening, anyway. And the most attractive part about them is that they are unobtrusive in the movie. The movie moves along at a good pace and finishes within two hours. All in all, good value for money. To be avoided if you are the "core" hindi movie fan.

Breakfast with Dr. Smith

Dr. Kirk R Smith. What do you say about the doyen of Indoor Air Pollution research? I am, for a change, speechless. Also, nervous, apprehensive, edgy, tense and uneasy. I haven't slept properly. I was awake all night wondering what I am going to discuss with him. I have just stepped into the world which he has created painstakingly and over a period of 27 years. I am but a small ant in his universe. And yet he has very generously agreed to meet me. What should I expect to hear from him? Will I be too awe-struck? Later on, will I remember anything from the conversation that I will have with him? I don't know. Well, in case you people are wondering why I am so flabbergasted at the prospect of meeting this person, check out http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu/krsmith/page.asp?id=2

He is to Indoor Air Pollution work what Einstein was to Photoelectric effect. If it weren't for Einstein, we wouldn't have has printers and photocopying "xerox" machines today. Similarly, we owe a lot to Dr. Smith for our current knowledge of the health effects of indoor air pollution. And I am about to meet him. The rendezvous is at 0800hrs at the Guest House. Wish me luck, people.

Mumbai

To an astute observer, this would seem a city of nightmares, rather than dreams. This city has seen everything : from floods due to torrential rains to power cuts in peak summer time. From bandhs in the city to blasts in local trains. And yet, there are people like me, who still believe that this is the city of dreams. And not nightmares. Mr. Astute Observer, you are mistaken. And here is the reason why.

1. Can you tell me Mr. A. O., which other city can regroup as quickly and return to work as quickly as Mumbai can?
2. Can you, Mr. A. O., find another such place where people go out of the way to distribute food packets, water bottles, and other small (but necessary) miscellany to complete strangers? (Damn the Reader's Digest report. It was all crap anyway.)
3. Another thing, Mr. A. O. Which metropolis has gone through all that Mumbai has and still come out tops (and with a weathered, if only a bit wry smile on its face)?

The question that still rankles in the minds of all the average Mumbaikars though is "Why us?". Haven't we got enough to already chew upon? We've got corrupt politicians, a rubbish media, bad roads, insincere officials, drugs, cigarettes, poor public transport (which got even poorer by the latest addition to its services : improvized explosive devices (ied)) and other hassles to handle. Why torment us with additional misfortunes? Why barrage us with the occasional, more often than not, bandh, blasphemy, blast? Why is that we still live in "BOMB"ay and not Mumbai? Do we need to look within to find answers? I suspect not.

There are other places to look at. Other people to blame. For now, in the time of need, the spirit of Mumbai will reveal itself. We will move on. Those unfortunate enough to have not made it to another day in this splendid city will be missed. I am sure that they would have wanted us to carry on anyway. The way they themselves did all their lives : clinging to the local trains that were their daily partners.

Reservation Quotas

Much has been made of the reservation quota in higher education as proposed by a certain Mr. Arjun Singh. Here, I add my own few bits to the issue that has sparked so many revolts around the nation. I will not add anything new, I know. I just want to speak what I feel about the whole issue.

I was introduced to reservation quotas when it was time for me to seek admission to junior college. I never knew that the Indian society was divided into so many sects. Throughout my schooling years, I learnt in Civics that India is a secular country, where the individual and his/her abilities are placed above everything else. I grew up in a secular environment, thanks to my educated and well-groomed parents. I was never even aware, till my junior college admission, that I belonged to the so called upper caste. I did get admission to the college of my choice and that was based upon merit. The sense of satisfaction that I got is something that people who get admission by miscellaneous routes will never be able to gauge.

People will probably say, "Wake up and smell the coffee, kid! You are an idiot if you thought that the country is secular". This might probably be true. I am an idiot. Until the riots of 1993, I did not know about communal hatred. Heck, I didn't even know what Hindu and Muslim was. I was all of 10 years and I lacked this information. Not that it is important in any way, but there you have it. And the other day, when I was assissting my senior with her project at a slum in Saki Naka, I was asked by a six year old Muslim kid whether I was a Hindu. Imagine that, a kid all of SIX years of age. Kids these days are more pragmatic and more tuned in to the world around them, it would seem. Either that or their parents don't have the sense to keep them away from such meaningless and pointless things such as caste, religion, faith. But I am veering away from the topic at hand. My veering away is justified though; enough has been said about the reservation issue and therefore I don't think I have anything new to add. I will make it clear that I am very much against the hike in reservation.

Other anti-reservation-hike people will probably say that as an IIT-ian, I should be more active than the rest of the country in protesting against the reservation. Well, it's not as if we IIT-ians are taking everything lying down. There has been a lot of activity going around in the seven IITs and I can assure you that we are doing our bit for the anti-res-hike movement. Let's just hope that the madness ceases and wiser counsel prevails.

Rang De Basanti

Every once in a while comes a movie which leaves you with the feeling : "Why did I pay to watch this movie?"

I got the same feeling after watching the movie "Rang De Basanti". Not because I think it's a bad movie. Not because it is long. The reason I had the thought because I paid money to inflict pain and hurt on myself. If this is not masochism, I don't know what is. Consider for example the scene where Aamir Khan cracks a joke about his would be children. And the female Sue, who can make out that she is going to lose him, can't help but laugh. That scene defined the movie for me. It is the situation in India. How many times have we given up something unwillingly? How many times have we sacrificed something and done that with a wry smile on our face? And there was always someone there to console us with the fact that this is the way it has always been. Adjust kar le yaar...

But then, that is what the movie wanted to convey. That we should stop saying "Adjust kar le yaar..." and start working to make our country perfect. Unfortunately for us, the thing that goes against us is our poor memory. It is as the Defence Minister in the movie remarks, the Public has a short memory, they will soon forget about this (the defective parts scandal). And this is true. Who remembers Ashar Bala? The female who was pushed off a train because she refused to yield to a thief? After the initial concern shown by the Metropolis, all was quiet. Now who knows where she is, what she is doing. Ditto for the children who lost their parents in the Gateway of India bomb blast. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for the trees that are being felled everyday, without alternate plantations being done elsewhere to compensate. And if I say that the media is to be blamed for this, I will be indulging in another of the nation's favourite pastimes : That of putting the blame squarely on somebody else's shoulders. The media is as good as the nation is. In a country of greedy people, do you expect the media persons to be any different? They print/show/broadcast what sells. And after the sellability runs out, they ditch the topic like a thousand tonne maggot.

I am (and sometimes I feel this is unfortunate) blessed with a good memory. I can't help but remember all the "small" things like the Bala incident. Or the rape of the girl at Marine Drive. Who cares about her now? Is she even alive? Was her post-incident trauma handled empathetically? Now, you will be prompted to ask me what I am doing to improve the country. That would illustrate another characteristic of the Indian junta : that of constantly trying to outdo each other. I will work for the country the day I see that my neighbour is doing so and getting praised for it. Why do we have to wait for our neighbour to start doing something to improve the country? Why not make an exception and for once start something ourself? It could be a small thing, something as insignificant as using less water everyday. While the benefits that the nation would derive from one person using less water can be written on the head of a pin, the point is this : if you can sustain your enthusiasm for the so-called improvement of the country, soon someone else will try to mimic you and hopefully, if you carry on the enthu all your life, hopefully, there will be some change in this country. As simple as using a litre of water less everyday...

I started this post with an intention to write about Rang De Basanti. And that is exactly what I will do now. Rang De Basanti is an extremely well made movie. One which has the ability to really awaken a generation. And this is not only because of the crashing MiGs. The generation of today can identify with the lead characters of the movie. And the transition that they undergo when they have a tryst with the past of their own country. The point that is most relevant here though is that it takes a foreigner to introduce them to their own past. The change that they undergo is their own. And that is the situation in the country right now. It's not that the youth have been corrupted by western thoughts as the politicians like to put it. If anything, they have been corrupted by the politicians themselves. The feeling of insignificancy and helplessness is very deeply ingrained in the psyche of the teenagers in India (and it is plainly evident from the characters' dialogues). This is all thanks to the current system. I believe that by changing ourselves, we can change the system. Here's hoping that India will become a superpower by 2020.

Disturbing occurrences

I was really perturbed after hearing about the attack on Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore.

I almost was a student there. I was rejected after the interview. But then, this article is not about my almost being a student there. I am beginning to sound like all the news channels that chew any happening to pieces. And then spew out meaningless statistics and data about the event. Who wants to know how many times Ganguly has visited the chairman of selectors or why Emraan thinks that Mahesh is the greatest director of all time? (I would think so too if he directed me in movies with all those kissing and steamy scenes)

I am not in the right frame of mind right now to write seriously about what I feel about the news channels. Or what happened at IISc and what could happen at any of the seven IITs. I am disturbed and therefore, I am making jokes in what is my Serious blog. I hope you can overlook that. I think I will write about this later.