A kaleidoscope of men, matters & moments that make the madness & magic of Mumbai
Selfie Point
Taking a selfie by their smart phones and post it on social media platform is a fashion among youngsters. And it’s crazy how the social media is flooded with selfies. Any good location is an ideal spot for these youngsters to get them selfies captured and post it immediately on social networking sites. Taking a clue of this, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) started a selfie point at Shivaji Park, Dadar. Brainchild of MNS corporator Sandeep Deshpande, a selfi point with colorful umbrellas hanging from a tree in Shivaji Park was set up.
After putting up the umbrellas Deshpande was just watching the point and talking with some people to get feedback of his idea when he was approached by a woman. Deshpande’s fellow asked the woman if she liked the selfie point. She said that it was beautiful. “Who made it and whose is this?” she further inquired. These MNS activists with much pride pointed at Deshpande and stated ‘It was his brainchild.”
The woman immediately walked up to Deshpande and asked him how much is a cost of these umbrellas? She thought that Deshpande was selling the umbrellas and he had setup his stall at Shivaji Park for the same. Upset with the woman’s question Deshpande said, “There is much more in life apart from the selling and purchasing business. Some people don’t know about art.”
Caught off guard
This reporter was doing a story about an initiative taken by a woman corporator, which was pending for the approval of the BMC. The reporter wanted more information about the initiative and called the corporator.
After identifying herself, the reporter asked the corporator about the initiative but the woman seemed clueless. She first told the reporter that she had called the wrong corporator and when the reporter insisted that she had called the right person, the corporator denied having sent the notice of such an initiative to the BMC. The corporator wanted to hang up, but the reporter who was really confused now insisted that she had a copy of the notice this woman corporator had sent to the BMC.
Then the corporator asked the reporter to hold the call for a moment, then called out to her husband in Marathi and asked, “Have we put such and such a proposal to the BMC for its approval? Some reporter is asking details about it.” Her husband, who is ex-corporator himself, came on the phone and explained the proposal to the reporter!
Children’s prayer
Thursday night onwards it was heavy raining and Municipal Commissioner cautioned the citizens not to come out of homes unless it is urgent and necessary and declared holiday on Friday for schools in the city. Next day, rain continued and poured in the city. Education minister Vinod Tawde who is also the guardian minister of Mumbai Suburban District declared holiday for schools on Saturday.
Unusually, rain continued on Sunday which was scheduled to be celebrated as International Yoga Day. Citing rains, several schools postponed the programme. A few schools had yoga event on Sunday. Eventually, city students had longest weekend in the beautiful weather. Sunday morning, when this reporter was going to buy milk, all boys of the society had gathered in the parking plot. They were sitting on the ground and unusually quiet. It was very striking, a dozen of primary school students scrambled at congested place, without any fighting or making any noise.
He went closer to the boys. They had closed their eyes. Most of them had folded their hands together and a few had just open palms. It was visible enough that they were praying. Without disturbing the, the reporter went on with his priorities. After lot of coaxing, one of the boys said that they were praying to God that rains should continue so they will get holiday on Monday.
What a wonderful picture it was! Boys belonging to Hindu, Muslim, Christian religions and various castes categories were praying together since it is a MHADA colony. The nature had united them for one great reason, at least for them.
Speak in Bangla, otherwise don’t
This reporter was working on a story wherein she had to speak to an additional commissioner in order to get information for her story. The reporter started making calls to the additional commissioner, however, he didn’t answer any of her calls even after trying for half-an-hour. Finally, after 15 minutes when she once again called him, he answered her call. At the moment, the reporter was very happy that she would get all the required details for her story. But she didn’t knew what was stored in for her.
The reporter introduced herself to the additional commissioner and started asking him questions in English. However, in reply to her queries, the officer said in Bangla, “Speak to me in Bangla language as I don’t understand English.” The reporter was shocked to get this reply from him and she told him, “Sir, I don’t speak and understand Bangla language but we can communicate in Hindi.” To this, the officer denied in Bangla language and was repeating the same that he only understands Bangla language. She ended the call and was wondering that how can the officer know only one language. Following this, she called another reporter and asked him if the additional commissioner knew only Bangla to which he denied and said, “It is not possible because I have spoken to him and he knows Hindi and English very well.”
Tail-Piece
BMC came up with another version of the movie Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) which hit the theatres on Friday. It was called Any Body Can Drown (ABCD)
Contributed by Pandurang Mhaske, Eeshanpriya MS, Vishnudas Sheshrao and Manasi Tahalani
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Midnight Madness
The week before brought ominous news – suburban rail fares were going up, we were going to get a fright when we renewed our railway passes after June 25. So as a salaried aam aurat, this correspondent did some quick calculations and found that by purchasing an annual second class pass before the deadline, she would be richer by at least Rs 3,000 for that period. The trouble was, the ongoing pass was still good for over a month, but the smart savings were too good to be passed up, so, two days before the deadline, she took a cab right from the office gate to make extra certain to catch that fast train to reach her destination station at the relatively quiet hour of 11:30 pm to buy that super saver pass and breeze out in a couple of minutes as was the case every time. Did she get it so wrong!
Dozens of fellow travellers had the same idea. There were two long queues, since only two counters were open at that hour with fewer than five women visible. At the rate the lines were moving, it would be well past midnight before the mission was accomplished, so she promptly picked up her phone and asked the spouse to show up at the earliest. On arrival, he grew anxious that they were waiting in the longer queue, whose counter sign didn’t indicate that it would be open all night, unlike the adjacent one.
Needless to worry because nothing short of a riot would have broken out had even the words ‘counter closing’ been uttered that night. A freshly-showered, casually clad young man sauntered to the front of the queue and the standees roared. First class pass, he haughtily said.
Only for first class tickets can you skip the queue, an angry chorus told him, and he was made to fall in line. Then there was the hapless ticket buyer who was allowed up front so that he could catch his train, though he was told why bother with the ticket, kaun poochhega iss waqt? But this correspondent was deeply annoyed when it was her turn finally and without so much as a by-your-leave, a lady stuck her hand in between, seeing that it was only another woman in line and she could take liberties. One had to firmly refuse.
Thirteen hours later, she observed surging crowds at Churchgate and the same story coming back home – two serpentine queues for that precious season ticket, to enjoy the continued privilege of the world’s only sardine-packed travel experience, day after day. All in vain, as she found out, shortly after the rollback was announced and those super savings evaporated just like that.
That is, she figured, until Phase 2 of the hike is introduced.
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