Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Mumbai Drowning
Its been almost a week with massive downpour in Mumbai and I can imagine the city lying crippled under water with garbage piling up in most places, water supply cut off, and many areas with no electricity too. And whilst the locals try hard to get back to their feet, I wonder if this is a sign which we should not let go so easily.
It is true that the city received the highest amount of rainfall in many years, but have we not seen similar sights during the past rains? Every monsoon has brought atleast 1 day in a year which shuts down the whole city and the next day we causally leave it behind and get on with our daily chores.
Now when we sit down to judge what went wrong (which we always do only after something happens) we find ourselves talking of MPs who are absconding and governments that have been irresponsible. But wot in the freaking hell is Govinda going to do even if he tours the affected areas other than phantomime grief and sympathy (which he cud very well act out knowing his background)! And were we not well-informed to know that an "Actor" does not have the experience to run a city? Then why shud we advocate him to be a deceiver ven it is we who put him there in the 1st place!
Mumbai's infrastructure has always been on the edge with the onslaught of unregulated development and exponential growth of slums that has caused the distruction of the mangrove swamps and encroachment into the costal zones in the name of reclaimation. And whislt we proudly state that Mumbai is the commercial capital of India, I wonder just how much money is really put back into Mumbai to aid its development and growth.
And I sure do hope and pray that ven Manmohan Singh talked of transforming Mumbai into a Shanghai in the next 5 years, he meant it to not be just false promise. And I sure hope that the glaring sign which nature has presented to us by pushing Mumbai a little more than it cud handle has been noticed and acknowledged.
It is true that the city received the highest amount of rainfall in many years, but have we not seen similar sights during the past rains? Every monsoon has brought atleast 1 day in a year which shuts down the whole city and the next day we causally leave it behind and get on with our daily chores.
Now when we sit down to judge what went wrong (which we always do only after something happens) we find ourselves talking of MPs who are absconding and governments that have been irresponsible. But wot in the freaking hell is Govinda going to do even if he tours the affected areas other than phantomime grief and sympathy (which he cud very well act out knowing his background)! And were we not well-informed to know that an "Actor" does not have the experience to run a city? Then why shud we advocate him to be a deceiver ven it is we who put him there in the 1st place!
Mumbai's infrastructure has always been on the edge with the onslaught of unregulated development and exponential growth of slums that has caused the distruction of the mangrove swamps and encroachment into the costal zones in the name of reclaimation. And whislt we proudly state that Mumbai is the commercial capital of India, I wonder just how much money is really put back into Mumbai to aid its development and growth.
And I sure do hope and pray that ven Manmohan Singh talked of transforming Mumbai into a Shanghai in the next 5 years, he meant it to not be just false promise. And I sure hope that the glaring sign which nature has presented to us by pushing Mumbai a little more than it cud handle has been noticed and acknowledged.
:: posted by RagsInRags, 11:29 AM
2 Comments:
Yeah.. ven it sounds so terrible, I can imagine how it will be in actuality.
santy has said it all..felt terrible even while reading it..it felt safe at home..after watchin live news did not have the courage to step out even for a sec..it was like no one could find out ven the water level would rise & to wot extent.. people could not do anything about the dead bodies that were floating in the water..had to move on to save their own lives. im very lucky i wud say that i was at home that day and dint go to bhatkofy to b'bay..
