The rains have once again underscored the fact that Mumbai is seriously facing a leadership crisis. During floods the road traffic situation worsens and local trains come to a halt, forcing lakhs of hapless commuters to jump on to the flooded tracks and trudge several kilometres home. Cabbies hike their fares to extortionate levels. A Powai resident had to shell out Rs2,000 get a ‘kaali-peeli’ to take her to Dadar. Uber and Ola too jacked up their rates, making a killing in the process. But the problem is there is no one whom Mumbaikars can look up to to come to their rescue. There is no plan A or B in place to tackle grave situations like the one the city faced recently. Disaster management is virtually nonexistent. The whole city carries on ‘Ram bharose’.
Spare A Thought For 'Kirana' Stores
Online shopping craze is picking up like nobody’s business. Even slum dwellers are ordering stuff online. In the past, people used to go to shops to check, select and bargain, whether it be whiteline goods, groceries, fruits and vegetables. Now the norm is to order online. Thousands of youths are hired by online platforms like Zepto, Blinkit, Licious, etc, to deliver goods to your homes in a jiffy. Even food delivery portals like Swiggy and Zomato have started delivering fruits, vegetables, stationery, etc. The result is that local stores are seeing fewer footfalls. The concept of the local ‘bania’ has almost vanished. In the past, you built a relationship with the local grocer, which ensured good quality stuff and even credit facility. The day after salary was received, the men used to go to the shops with long shopping lists prepared by their wives and order rice, wheat, pulses, namkeens, spices, etc, from the local ‘kirana’ store. When DMart opened its outlets, the middle class took to them like lemmings to the sea. But not any more. The preference is for online purchase. The plus point is tremendous saving in fuel and time. But then who will spare a thought for the ‘kiranawala’? Thousands of small shopkeepers are being ruined because of the online invasion. The huge money involved in home deliveries can be imagined by the fact that a US investor has valued Zepto at $5 billion!
Devotees carry an idol of Goddess Durga ahead of Navratri festival, at Parel | Vijay Gohil
Letter To The Rail Minister
My colleague Kamal Mishra wrote an open letter to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav about the working of Central Railway’s suburban section and we received a huge response for the same. Instead of moving a routine report about flooding of tracks and the agony faced by commuters, Mishra decided to pen an open letter to the mantri himself. In the past, railway ministers travelled on local trains with camera crews in tow. Vaishnav also did the same thing. But the expectations from him are different. He is known to be a bureaucrat with deep integrity and over three million passengers who travel on CR trains have pinned their hopes on him. Interestingly, he is among the two Union ministers whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put in charge of the BJP’s campaign for the assembly election in Maharashtra. If Vaishnav announces a concrete and time-bound plan to improve CR local commute, then he can ensure lakhs of votes for his party.
Value For Money
Sante Spa Cuisine has opened its latest outlet at the Royal Opera House after its success in Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, BKC and Pune. It is regarded as a ‘globally-inspired vegetarian and vegan restaurant’ and promises a new culinary experience in the heart of the metropolis. The prices are definitely on the higher side. But then you don’t complain when you are being offered a unique dining experience. The soups include chilled tabbouleh and tomato soup with pomegranate sorbet, Himachal apple and cheddar bisque and spinach, mungo and hemp chowder and, under the label of ‘substantial nourishments’, they serve toasted buckwheat and potato gnocchi, chargrilled yellow squash bartha, etc. The range of offerings is mindboggling. But then you get the fullest value for money.
Tailpiece:
Spotted a graffiti behind a City Flo bus: “I am currently WFH; Working from Highway”.
Compiled by S Balakrishnan
