what's missing in bangalore?

what do you miss the most when you move cities?

your friends? your colleagues? your favourite movie halls? eating joints? your house/ flat/ apartment? the temple in the neighbourhood?

i recently moved out of mumbai. and i miss the shoe-shine boys! and the beggars in mumbai! (i don't miss the smells and the sights! thank you!)

i used to take the local trains every day to office and would get my shoe shined from the ubiquitous shoe-shine boy at the railway station platform! in mumbai you will find a shoe-shine boy at every railway station at any time of the day! (i have not seen a single shoe-shine boy in bangalore till date! and i've been here a month already! anyone knows where you can find them?)

so i now have to shine my shoes every morning before leaving for work. not that i'm cribbing, but the pleasure of getting your shoe shine from a shoe-shine boy in mumbai is something different altogether ! any true-blue mumbaikar would confirm that.

i also miss the beggars & the homeless people of mumbai. in bangalore if there is excess food left over after dinner we don't know what to do with it! it doesn't feel right to throw it in the trash. in mumbai we used to pack the food in containers and drive out into the night and hand over the food to the scores of beggars and homeless people you saw on the roads.

i'm not saying there are no beggars on the streets in bangalore, but they are definitely not as many and as obviously 'in-your-face' as they are in mumbai! and for me, that's definitely an indicator of the economic status of a city.

p.s. i am not missing natural's ice-cream! they have arrived in bangalore! :P

big move!

and i'm back again!

this must have been the longest time i've been away! and even i never thought i would ever come back. but then i guess i was missing seeing my own posts out there! i'm such a narcissist! :P

there have been some big changes in my life... actually, big would be an under-statement.

for starters, i have changed jobs! and when you change jobs, or take up a real job after 15 years of doing your own thing, it is big thing! and especially when you have taken up a job which you have never done in your life and is not exactly your area of 'expertise'!

and because of this job, we've all moved out of mumbai! again, a not-so-small change, when you consider the fact that i was in mumbai for over 23 years! and the big boss has been there for even longer!

so we're now in bangalore... and its a whirlwind affair of school admissions, house hunting, maid hunting, furniture hunting, finding your way around, meeting people... its almost like starting life all over again!

the kids are having a gala time... we're finding new eating joints, shopping malls, complexes with swimming pools, and TELEVISION!!!

we're temporarily staying at a dear friend's place. he stays at this place only for a few days each week. ever since our brood moved in here, the tv set has been used for more hours than he ever used it over the last 5 years that he has been here!!!

p.s. every morning when i slip on my shoes, i miss the shoe-shine boys of mumbai!

who's the villain here?

another new year and another shameful story besmirching mumbai's tag as a 'safe' city for women! two women, who were accompanied by their male partners, are molested by a group of over 70 men for about 15 minutes before a few journalists get help from a police inspector who chases away the mob. the two couples are taken to a police station nearby, but they choose to leave without registering a complaint.

now while the incident is a heinous act and the perpetrators of this should not be spared and all that... i wonder who is the actual villain here?

1. the people in the mob who commit this crime with the secure feeling that they are safe since they are part of a mob. and as recent incidents point out, people really believe that mobs are the best way to party! mobs allow the tiger to be unleashed from the whimpering kitty!

2. or the police, for the amazing faith they manage to inspire in the law-abiding citizens of the country! why do you think the victims of this incident did not want to press charges? and it was the same with the molestation case at the gateway of india last year! in fact the newspapers even claimed that the two couples were asked to go to another police station since the area where the incident took place did not fall under their jurisdiction! i guess registering such cases would not look good as far as the statistics go!

(all the 5 suspects arrested in last year's molestation case were finally let off because of lack of evidence!)

3. or the media! i'm sure the molested couples, already traumatised by their experience, would have been horrified to see their images being splashed across all the newspapers and television channels. and this would have only intensified their suffering and destroyed whatever little hope they had of trying to bury the entire incident as a bad dream!

now some people may defend the media action by saying that the media's job is to report facts and be honest about it and all that. but did anyone even bother to ask the permission of the victims before using their images to publish a sensational story? did any of the journalists pause to think of the mental trauma they would heap upon the unsuspecting victims?

so who is the true villain here? you decide!

single in mumbai

i wish i was a single woman in mumbai.

no, i am not going through a mid-life crisis. nor am i suddenly wondering which side i should be on!

i am just plain envious!

i believe this is the best time to be :
1. a lady (the men don't have half as many advantages)
2. in her mid-20s to mid-30s (not more not less)
3. single (that's the entire point; singledom = freedom)
4. working (you have enough spending power to last you through the first 15-20 days of the month)
5. living alone (please refer notes of point 3)
6. in mumbai (no other city gives her half as much freedom; maybe bangalore comes a close second)

if you are someone who satisfies all the above criteria, then the world is at your feet.

- you have at least half a dozen eligible men (it could even include some married men) wooing you
- you get invited to most of the happening parties and events in town
- you don't need to spend a penny (read rupee) at these dos
- you can stay out as late as you like, you can choose to stay over at a friend's (and nobody is likely to ask you which 'friend' it was)
- you don't have parents/elders/relatives asking you to behave/ get married/ dress decently/ etc.
- you can live at the cutting edge of fashion without having to worry about 'what will people say?' (so people stare; let them!)
- you don't have to attend family functions unless the food is worth the effort (you can always say you had a late day at office)
- you can have parties at your pad, again without worrying about hiding the empty bottles and 'airing' the room (the neighbours hardly know of your existence)
- you can eat out if you feel too lazy to cook

i am sure the list can get longer and have many more interesting entries. you have something to add?

irony in our modern world

i've been in dubai all this week for some client meetings.

and i'm carrying back some volvic flavored water for the kids. i have not seen this kind of flavored drinking water back home. and this is what i find ironical. i am carrying back water from dubai (which is in the middle of a desert) to india!

i have been travelling from dubai to abu dhabi by road almost every day. it is amazing to see the extent of construction going on in dubai. the largest number of cranes in the world are apparently deployed in dubai right now.

what also strikes you is the amount of greenery and flowers in full bloom all along the well planned and immaculately managed roads. there is also hectic construction activity going on for a metro rail in dubai. the project was given the go-ahead in may 2005 and is expected to be completed in 55 months (http://vgn.dm.gov.ae/DMEGOV/dm-metro-news01). and by the looks of it it should be completed within that time.

dubai is a melting pot of many cultures. the largest groups of people you see are indians, pakistanis, filipinos, chinese, egyptians, lebanese, moroccons, russians and many europeans and americans too. at a superficial level there seems to be no discrimination against any specific community here. but most of the indians i spoke to do feel a sense of insecurity about their jobs, the rising prices, etc. (rentals have escalated by more than 100% within the last 2-3 years).

but for me dubai lacks a soul. there is a lot of glitz and glamor, but it all seems very fragile. i guess the fact that most of the funds pouring into the ecconomy here is from the underworld and from people who are avoiding taxes in their respecti8ve countries only adds to this sense of dicomfort that i feel. i prefer visiting other asian countries, but give me 'aamchi mumbai' (our mumbai) and 'mera bharat' (my india) anyday :-)

mumbai local - II

i got the overwhelming go-ahead from innumerable people which prompts me to continue with this series. and if you think i am going to share more details of the numbers, you can think again :-)

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many non-mumbaikars might wonder why any sane person in their right senses would want to inflict such torture on themselves and willingly contribute to the 'Super-Dense Crush Load' (SDCL) by commuting in local trains everyday?

no, its not mass-masochism! it just happens to be the most reliable way of commuting across the two linear stretches of mumbai city (known as the central & western lines). let me give you an example of what i mean.

just last week i had to attend the wedding reception of a friend, in a suburb called kandivali, which happens to be the next station to malad (which is where my office is located) on the western line. i left office at about 7 pm and all i had to do was cross over from malad west (all of mumbai is divided into west and east as bifurcated by the railway tracks) to kandivali east. the distance which is about 3-4 kms should have taken me all of 30-45 mins by road, given the rush-hour traffic. well, i walked into the reception at 9.15 pm! give me the SDCL any day!

coming back to the rule book of local train travelling in mumbai, here goes -

1. if you are a male traveller, never make the mistake of travelling by the ladies' compartment. you will most probably be told off by the ladies and some might even pull the alarm chain to stop the train and have you hauled off by the local constabulary, who would only be too glad to do the needful, if only to earn a few additional rupees from you!

2. if you are a lady traveller, never make the mistake of travelling by the gents' compartment. you would most propbably be told off by some of the men for doing something as rash as this. (it is not exactly a pleasant experience to experience the SDCL, even if all the men around you are paragons of virtue and are ignoring the fact that you are a woman in their midst!)

3. during rush hour (which happens to be almost any time of the day) when the train (especially the virar fast) pulls into the terminus at either end of the suburban line, wait at some distance from the door and allow the people scrambling in to such in and grab whichever vacant seat is available. you should also try getting hit by flying hands, elbows and office bags.
but at all other stations in between, you should allow the people to alight first before you allow yourself to be swept in by the crowd. (the trick is to position yourself such that you enter at an angle to the door; else if you position yourself bang opposite the door you will only get swept away by the alighting crowd leaving you with little chances of boarding the train).

4. at each station the train halts at, you should remember to get in or out only from the rear-half of the door (which is demarcated by a vertical bar for people to hold on to). the 2-3 men/women standing in the front-half will just not budge if you are trying to alight or get in.

5. if you have to alight at a station you have to start inching towards the door from the previsou station itself. you keep asking the person ahead of you if they would be alighting at the next station. if they are not, they will automatically make way for you till you reach the person who will be alighting at the next station.

6. if you are travelling in the second class compartment you can ask the 3 people seated on the seats to squeeze in and perch yourself on the edge of the seat. but if you are travelling first class, you don't do that. even if you do try, you will only get scowled at!

7. if you are carrying a bag, you can ask the persone next to the overhead luggage rack to help keep your bag on the rack. nobody ever refuses.

8. and if you have dozed off, somebody will shake you by your shoulder to wake you up once the train arrives at the terminus. and most people around you will nod and smile understandingly.

9. an altercation in a second class compartment could end up in blows while in a first class compartment it usually ends up in loud vocal fights. but 9 times out of 10 the situation is defused by the other travellers who will ask both parties to cool off.

10. it is acceptable to ask a fellow traveller for a sip of water (if he is carrying a bottle) or his newspaper if he has finished reading it. very rarely you will be refused.

11. and it is completely acceptable to sing aloud if you are travelling in one of those compartments which has a group of singers. these singers usually travel together by the same local every day. you get a choice of bhajans (devotional songs) or film songs.

so that was my own version of the survival guide for mumbai suburban train travel. if any of you have more tips to contribute please send in your comments.

(in some future posting i will also list out some of the major benefits of suburban/local train train travel in mumbai!)

mumbai local - I

would you like to live life on the wild side? rough it out for a while? try out some dare-devil stunts? you can experience all these and more and you don't even have to travel too far (well, at least not if you are a mumbaikar - a mumbai resident)!

no, i am not talking about bungee-jumping or hang-gliding or fighting the leopards from the sanjay gandhi national park bare-handed. all you need to do is travel by the 'mumbai suburban train' during peak hour!

you have led a secluded, deprived life if you have been to mumbai and have not travelled by the 'local' as the suburban train is called by the locals.

but first let's put things in perspective. to give you a sense of what i am talking about, let me share some statistics from some credible sources here.

"Along with its neighbouring suburbs, Mumbai forms the world's sixth most populous metropolitan area with a population of about 25 million. According to the BBC, Mumbai is certainly set to outstrip Tokyo as the most populated city by 2020."
(source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai)

"Bombay suburban services are run by CR and WR. Both run many hundreds of trains every day, and carry around 6 million passengers a day, roughly evenly divided between them. CR services connect the eastern suburbs to the city, whereas WR services connect the northern suburbs to the city. [4/02] CR runs around 1090 services daily, whereas WR runs around 980 services. Supply has not kept pace with the demand, however, as the number of passengers grew about 2.5 times as fast as the capacity of the system through the 1980s and 1990s."
(source - http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-metro.html)

"Due to its extensive reach across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and its intensive use by the local urban population, overcrowding has grown to be a compelling problem (4,700 passengers are packed into a 9-car rake during peak hours, as against the rated carrying capacity of 1,700). This has resulted in what is known as Super-Dense Crush Load of 14 to 16 standing passengers per square metre of floor space.
(source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai_Suburban_Railway)"

you might think that commuting by these trains every day is a horrifying experience. but for the seasoned veterans (viz. the season pass-holders) the daily grind actually is an uplifting, spiritual experience of sorts!

and if you are a first-timer, and for a moment lets assume you actually managed to overcome the panic gripping you when you actually see the 'Super-Dense Crush Load' of people, and you actually manage to get into the train (maybe you actually changed your mind about getting in but then you got swept into the train by the rush) you will very quickly realise that there are some unwritten golden rules that everybody follows. and the sooner you learn them the better the chances of your surviving the trip! (and till then you stick out like a sore thumb even though you don't have enough leg-room to place both your feet squarely on the floor! not to mention that you, and not just your thumb, end up feeling sore all over after the trip!)

so here's my own short & sweet rule-book (or survival guide) on how to commute by the local and live to tell the tale!

but i'm running beyond my self-imposed 'post length' here. so i'm going to have to share these 'life secrets' with you in my next post.

p.s. other 'travel-war veterans' among the readers here are requested to send in your list of rules so that i can filch them and include them in my list :-)

delhi vs. mumbai - I

this one's going to rub some people the wrong way! (all views expressed here are the personal opinions of the writer and may or may not necessarily be a true reflection of reality! but here goes, nonetheless.)

the comparison between delhi and mumbai is one of the oldest debates known to mankind and will continue till doomsday with neither side willing to budge an inch. i'm not surprised there are numerous blogs on this topic.

what i'd like to do is compare the two cities on certain parameters based on my personal experience.

1. infrastructure - delhi beats mumbai hands-down here. and that's a bug-bear which most mumbaikars hold against delhi. there's always a lot of animated debate in the media about the revenue contribution by mumbai to the centre as compared to delhi and the proportion of funds that gets allotted back to the city.

2. public transportation - the metro is something mumbai is aspiring for. but apart from that, public transportation is far better in mumbai. 'best' buses and the 'local trains' are more reliable and safer. (ask any lady in delhi if she would travel alone in a bus or train in delhi after 8 pm.)

even the taxis and autos in mumbai score much better. they are, by and large, reliable, relatively more honest and its unlikely that they would take you for a ride, literally and figuratively.

3. power - the situation in mumbai is threatening to get worse. but the situation in delhi is much worse with no signs of any significant improvement in the near future. one expects the capital of the country to have adequate power. the state government just doesn't seem to manage to fix the 'power pilferage' problem.

in my next post i will cover 'work ethics', 'people', food', 'water', and 'academics'.

do let me know if there are any other parameters that you would include!