A kaleidoscope of men, matters & moments that make the madness & magic of Mumbai
Enough is enough…
They say, there is a limit to people’s patience and when one crosses the limit, the result is usually the worst of all. This reporter had boarded a Kalyan down local train from CST station. Till the time Dadar reached, there was huge hush-hush in the compartment and huge group of women boarded the train and the now empty train was totally packed. Amidst the already existing chaos, the sound of the two women overpowered the other sound noises in the compartment.
After a couple of minutes, the reporter understood root cause of the fight which was now heated up and had taken an ugly turn. One of the woman who was in her late sixties had kept her bag on the seat and had unnecessarily occupied space of one person. This irked the other woman who had asked the elderly to shift so that she can get a fourth seat. Such incidents in the train are not unusual, however, when the elderly started abusing the young woman that took the fight to another level.
This young woman didn’t react and called for the police who was standing near the door of the compartment who was paying attention to the spat but didn’t intervene to stop them. The young woman approached him and said, “Despite of witnessing the situation, you didn’t think of intervening and resolving this issue. Have you been appointed here to just watch the drama and enjoy the show? That woman is abusing me and getting violent but despite of doing your duty, you have been standing here for so long. Is this fair?
Hearing this, the police officer came towards the elderly and asked her in a firm tone to take her bag and keep it up where space is made available to keep their belongings. Sometimes, it becomes your job to wake people from their sleep and make them realise their duties, no matter who it is.
Every cloud has a silver lining
It was International Women’s Day. This reporter had gone to cover an event at a municipal school in Mumbra. It was a fantastic event. After it was over the reporter was having a late lunch of Masala Dosa in a small tapri nearby. She started chatting up with the cook about the water problem in the area.
When the time came to pay, she was shocked to find her wallet missing. She did not have a meagre Rs 30 to pay them. What was worse she had also lost her ATM cards, driving license, press card and of course, money. She realised that while she was busy in her work, talking to people and clicking photos, the pickpocketer had found his ideal prey.
Luckily, she got a call from someone who found her press card 3 km away from where she was. Surely, the thief found it of little use to himself. The garage mechanic who called her was so good, he came all the way to return it to her. She could not go to him since she had no money to travel.
Not only did he return the press card to the reporter, he also gave her Rs 40 to pay the hotel bill. That’s not it. He then dropped her to the station so she could go back using her train pass.
Go Green
This reporter was a witness to a unique tree plantation drive that was organised recently at the Shri MD Shah Mahila College at Malad (W). The mood was enthusiastic and the common interest of making the city green and clean brought together a big group of teachers and students.
A senior faculty member, Preety Jain explained that this is the age when we have to plant trees since they also have lot of benefits for us. “Specially something like Tulsi plants are very useful in treatment of cough and cold and must be planted by all,” she said.
Other faculty members said that we are all aware of the harmful effects of Global Warming and the only way to solve this problem is by planting more and more trees. Each person who was planting trees at this occasion was also encouraged to tag the names of five persons who will in turn have to plant trees around them.
The idea of tagging five persons is that this will bring like a chain reaction and encourage people to plant more trees, said Vidyalaxmi Desai, another faculty member. The programme was well received by the students who said that they understood the importance of tree plantation and will definitely do this on a regular basis. Equally important is to nurture the plants and take care of them so they grow well and give shade and oxygen to all.
Contributed by Manasi Tahalani, Bhavna Uchil and Rajiv Sharma
