A kaleidoscope of men, matters & moments that make the madness & magic of Mumbai
Railway-like monsoon
This reporter was doing a report on the approaching Mumbai monsoon last week. At the time of doing her story, the south-west monsoon had arrived in Kerala. When the reporter called an official from the Indian Meteorological Department for information about the exact date when the monsoon would hit the city, the official laughed and said “Madam, you know very well how the Indian railways run. They are always late.” The reporter was trying to deduce a connection between the monsoon arriving in the city and the Indian Railways not running on schedule and when she could not draw any, she asked the official what he meant. He laughed again and said, “The monsoon has just boarded the train in Kerala Madam, now only God can tell when the train will reach Mumbai.” Then after a pause he said, “We can only predict, but the rains will come in their own time, like the Indian Railways.”
Multipurpose Victorias
Moving around the Queen’s Necklace, one cannot fail to notice the horse drawn carriages running parallel to the sea side on the city street. The only use of these multi-coloured wagons this diarist perceived was for carelessly moving around city streets mostly by tourists or the first-time visitors of this city.
After the High Court ordered a ban on these carriages, this diarist has come to realise the multiple use it had in this society.
This diarist was talking to one such Victoria owner trying to understand what jobs he will be taking after these carriages will be banned in the city. While narrating their helplessness, the owner suddenly exclaimed, “Madam we will be jobless that is there but what will those Hindus do who used our Victoria for Ganesh Chaturthi or those Muslims who used these horses for their yearly Juloos or for that matter those Buddhists who used them for Ambedkar Jayanti.” The diarist was rather speechless and kept listening. The man further added, “What will the bridegroom do when he will not get a horse to reach his bride’s house during a wedding.” The diarist could only smile in agreement.
Divine teaching
While, teachers have been protesting for increase in salary and other allowances, a teacher in rural area of Palghar district has politely refused to accept remuneration of checking SSC papers from the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
Board officials said they realized that one teacher has not been filling the application to get remuneration against the checking of board papers, from the last three consecutive three years.
This year, the board officials asked for justification from the teacher who just said that he gets the monthly salary against his duties and he is happy with it. Worried board officials wanted to disburse the money so asked him to file the form and accept the money.
The teacher who don’t want the money asked the board officials to give this money as scholarship to some needy girl students.
Childhood pleasures
With the fast-paced life in Mumbai, people sometimes tend to forget how to enjoy life. This reporter had realised this very well when she saw a group of girls and boys dancing in the rains.
This reporter was at CST Station and she was looking out for a taxi to come to Nariman Point. Since it was raining heavily, she found it difficult to get a taxi. However, during her taxi-hunting at CST station, she saw a group of kids having fun in the rains. She noticed that the kids were laughing, dancing and enjoying with each other. At this moment, she realised that childhood days were the best time wherein you are carefree without any worries of work or family.
Contributed by Eeshanpriya MS, Iram Siddique, Manasi Tahalani and Vishnudas Sheshrao Compiled by Iram Siddique
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House That!
House hunting in Mumbai is a herculean task, any poor soul who has come to Mumbai for the first time to start a life or even those who are looking to change their house can vouch for this fact. The house-hunter has to go through a lot of pain! The pain of looking at ugly houses with paint peeling off, the pain of dealing with obnoxious landlords, the pain of manoeuvring through dangerous localities, the list is never ending.
This correspondent had one such experience recently. After an exhausting week of looking for houses of all shapes and sizes, the moment had arrived when she thought she had found the perfect house. Her prospective future roommate sent her pictures of the house. It was the perfect size, the location was perfect, the budget was just right, the windows were big enough for a claustrophobe like her. You ask, what went wrong? The cab ride to the ‘perfect house’ was an eye opener. When we reached, the cab driver said, with a cheer in his voice, ‘Madam yahan toh mera bhi ghar hai’ (Madam, I, too, live here!). She didn’t give much thought to what he said. ‘A well settled cab driver’, she thought. That should have been a warning sign for her.
On entering the gates of the building, she was greeted by bunch of marijuana smoking, rather rowdy looking middle-aged men. She looked past them and went inside the building. The wait at the elevator was never ending, she felt all 20 pairs of eyes staring her down. Good sense struck and she took the staircase. Upon reaching the fourth floor, her destination, there was a mixed bag of smells enveloping the atmosphere. There were little, half naked children running all around the corridor. There were women cooking, clothes drying and children urinating all in one place. The origin of the pungent smells, deciphered!
She finally reached the house. It was as sweet as it looked in the pictures. She met her landlord, a lanky man with a kind smile. He introduced himself to me, somehow it didn’t come as a surprise when he told her, ‘Mai taxi chalata hun’ (I am a cab driver). It was then that realization struck, the building was a rehabilitated slum. Mumbai you never fail to surprise!
-By Adel Macdonald
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