Final Transit

I wake up to an extremely lazy Monday morning, the most hated day of the week. The sunshine girl on morning radio quips something smart about rains and administration, and goes ahead to announce that the Central Railway is struggling to survive the wrath of Rain Gods. I remember some high school quote about dark clouds and silver linings

I call up few friends and we unilaterally declare a holiday. Everyone in Mumbai, particularly in the suburbs are skeptical about rains after 26th July, when the whole state was flooded, and any signs of heavy rains implies a break.

I grab something to eat while watching the sloppy news channels beam same old news. What the hell. Irregular showers splatter on the window panes, producing melodious beats, and suddenly I am inspired to play the Sitar. Alas I don’t know raga Malhar yet.

The showers slow down for a moment and I snatch my beloved camera, eager to go out and try to shoot something good. I’m confronted by a puddle full of toads, some abnormally grown shrubs and an army of snails determined to devour anything green. Fantastic.

I consider myself lucky and start clicking, whilst the Gods up there have a different plan. It starts pouring, my battries die down and the electricity supply trips. Coincidence? Lovely!

The day ends but the snails are still hooked on to an amazing race to reach the top.

What a peaceful life.

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Once upon a time, the pavements on the road from Flora Fountain to Churchgate station were lined up with a number of booksellers, treasuring thousands of books. The courts ordered their eviction some four months back, a thing I plainly dismissed as ‘unpractical’ and ‘unjust’. They couldn’t be doing this to Mumbai, and it would be a matter of days until they came back, I felt. My visit to that place last week told me how wrong I was.

I graduated reading Mass Transfer Operations by Treybal and Reaction Engineering by Levenspiel, and almost all of my Engineering knowledge came from books purchased from this street. I would get my supply of Robert Ludlums and Jeffrey Archers for the holidays, or simply spend time browsing through the books (and glance at the Playboys!) on my ocassional visits to teh uptown.

This street was the unofficial ‘book street’ of Mumbai, something everyone was proud of. ‘Yeh book kahan milega?‘, ‘Fountain’, came the default reply. Stocked with books ranging from almost all subjects known to mankind, these booksellers, most of them barely literate, were smart archivers.

Alas, this book street has been ripped out mercilessly from the heart of the metropolis.

Related reading: Dance bars, yes. Books, no!, What did the books do to you?

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Received this in my inbox today:

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina… 18
inches of rain in Mumbai (July 27th)…. 37.1

population of new orleans… 484,674
population of mumbai…. 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina…100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans… entire city
number of people evacuated in mumbai…10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans…Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans… 48 hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai…12 hours

status 48 hours later…new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
status 48 hours later…mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA…world’s most developed nation
India…third world country..

oopss…did i get the last fact wrong???

The basis of comparison is flawed. Hurricanes and Cloud Bursts do not compare.

Spirit of Mumbai is amazing though. No wonder.

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