77 - POTHOLES AND MUMBAI

Today's news is rife with the death of a nine year old boy and a fifteen year old girl, who fell off their father's bike, which had the father, mother and these two siblings astride.  Everyone is cursing the potholes and the government and the maintenance of the Shahpur highway, where the accident occurred.  Every Television news channel is highlighting the numerous potholes on the numerous roads.  The truck driver that ran over the siblings when they fell off the bike, is absconding and is going to be arrested.

Not one journalist or any other person has voiced the opinion that why were four persons travelling on a two wheeler, and that too on a highway.  The parents are to blame as much as the police that failed to stop them from travelling overloaded on a two wheeler.  And then why does the RTO insist on two wheeler riders wearing a helmet?  One can just look at children and women riding pillion behind and in front of two wheeler riders.  

Mr.Tata invented the Nano car, so that nuclear families would not endanger themselves by overloading two wheelers.  Specially school children, who wear their school bags, water bottles and ride pillion in groups of three and four, on two wheelers.  Often the child who travels on a scooter, standing in front of the rider, crouches on half bent knees and rests his head on the handle, looking very uncomfortable.

All this does not take away the blame of the road maintenance department.  Better to have a kachcha rasta than to have a pucca rasta with potholes.

76 - FIRE . . .

Builders advertise a very rosy picture for flats to be sold.  The first page of newspapers flaunt exciting images and lucrative offers.

 Hiranandani builders, Thane,  offer 'an address that's lively, convenient and desirable'.   With tennis courts, tree lined avenues, landscaped gardens and an exclusive gymnasium in the building premises.

The Regency Group, Titwala,  promises 'your dream home with lakhs of savings'.  No GST, no stamp duty and no registration.  Besides these promises, they boast of having won various awards, the affordabloe segment by CNBC, environment friendly award,  Times realty award for affordable homes, etc.

RNA builders,Mira road, boast about children's play area, senior citizen garden, 24x7  cctv surveillance, etc.

Rustomjee Thane, advertises that it offers a balcony,a squash court, tennis court, mini theatre, swimming pool, mini golf, party hall, spa, tree surfing, yoga hall etc.

Ekta builders, Goregaon, has a full page ad that  says 'an address that will make your life  luxurious'.
They will give buyers an experience designed by Holyfield gymn, with international equipment, coupled with the finest luxuries and comforts to let you live healthy for your lifetime.  No hidden costs, no club charges, no infra charges, no outgoings.

The Ozone Group, Dadar, has advertised that they are selling lavish homes.  And that 'thank god, money can buy heaven.'  A concierge, a podium, zero bricks, crack free construction, fire safety ducts and a fire lift.

These are a few details of only the full page ads that appear in newspapers.  Besides there are countless offers of flats for sale and hire.  But yet, none are promising  that the premises has a foolproof fire fighting system, except one project that promises 'fire safety ducts'.  But nothing about the wiring, whether it is heavy duty copper or cheap aluminium.  No mention of the trip switches or the fuse box or the common electrical room precautions mentioned at all.

As a layperson, I do not comprehend a few of the items mentioned.  What is a 'dry fountain'??, no outgoing??,  infra charges??,  tree surfing??,  a dedicated fire lift??

There are so many things that can cause a fire, and a multi storey is a death trap, no matter how careful everyone is, because the residents overlook many risks that can lead to a fire.

1)  The wiring in flats is usually cheap aluminuim wiring, and it needs to be replaced with copper electrical wiring.
2)  Trip switches should match the gadgets installed in each house.
3)  The main fuse in the common metre room should also match the number of gadgets installed in each house.
4)  Servants should be trained as to how to handle electrical gadgets like irons,  geysers, ovens, chargers, ACs and also the gas of the cooking range.
5)  Children should be made aware of the dangers of misusing power for video games, mobile chargers etc.
6)  When new gadgets like a washing machine, or a fridge, or an oven are installed, the owner should make sure that the the plug point is matching.
7)  Rats are a major concern because they chew wires of electrical gadgets and that leads to short circuits and fire.

 Once when we had bought a new Godrej fridge, it was installed with a small size three pin plug.  Within two days of use, we noticed smoke and flames ensuing from the plug point and had to take steps to put off the fire,  and thank God we were just leaving the house to go out for a walk, when we noticed the flames.  The company was unapologetic and just replaced the plug with a bigger one of higher ampere.  The plug point that had burnt off had to be repaired at our own cost.

I recall that there was a dysfunctional geyser in the flat when I came to the house as a new bride and I decided to replace it and get it functional.  The shops are freely selling the gadgets one needs but there is no way that I can hire an electrician who is well trained.  I was directed to ask around for a plumber or an electrician among the squatters on the footpath at Nana Chowk or Tardeo.  How was I to ascertain the credentials or expertise of persons that squat on a footpath, waiting for odd jobs?  Some of them look so poor, with tattered clothes.  Anyway, one person came home and fixed the geyser.  The next day when I switched it on, there was smoke where the wire was joined to the main line.  The man returned and put in place a porcelain connector, which worked for a few days and then it also started smoking.  It was a horrifying experience, and I would just wait for the water to be heated by the afternoon sunlight, instead of using the geyser.  Many years later, the entire aluminium wiring of the house was replaced with copper wires and then the geyser too worked safely.  But most of the flats in the building still have aluminuim wiring.

Another time, I dropped the electrical iron and after a few days, there was a minor blast in it and smoke billowed from it, giving me  a fright.  But I switched off the mains and saved the situation.

At a certain workplace the AC went up in flames all of a sudden and it was later discovered that the rats had chewed the inner wiring causing a short circuit and so the flames.  And it happened twice, in different rooms at this workplace.

Recently, an article in a newspaper outlined the precautions that should be taken for the electrical wiring of highrises, by Mr.KKK Nair, an electrical expert.  But where is an expert when we want to install an AC or a washing machine, or even an oven?   The company offers 'free installation' and thats it.  The follow up for any problems have to be handled by others,  whose expertise we have no means of checking.

All schools teach about electricity at the senior levels, but there is no practical knowledge given.  It should be a compulsory subject in all schools, and every student should be trained in simple awareness about electricity gadgets, how to change a bulb, how wiring affects the electrical charges, how electricity is dangerous, how it can lead to shocks or a fire etc.

At bus stops, the advertisements have generators installed to supply power to the lighting at night.  I have warned children not to hug the pillars that support the electrical wiring, even when they are with their parents, who are quite oblivious of the dangers that  that can cause.  The worst aspect of electricity is that it cannot be seen, only felt.

Electrical giants like Kirloskar, Bajaj, Crompton Greaves, HBL, Emco, Havels, BHEL, Siemens, and service providers like Reliance, Tata, BEST, and retailers like Croma, Vijay sales, Kohinoor, Godrej, should all make it a point to educate students and hold camps at crowded slums, and housing societies, to educate people about wiring, amperes, short circuits, fuses, trip switches, etc.

I visit schools during any function like an interschool competition, sport's day  or a prize day or even any wedding and am appalled to see how fans and lights and speakers are installed with the naked wires poked into the plug points, without any earthing wire or plug.  The temporary connections are dealt with by contractors and so no one bothers to interfere,

It is the duty of the concerned principals and administrators, who hire them and pay them,  to be aware of these minor problems that could lead to a major accident.  But who will bell the cat??

75 - PARSEE NEW YEAR

Parsees are a very confusing lot.  Actually, the parsee and irani community are zorastrians.  But most people recognise the word 'parsee' only.  As a teacher and a zorastrian, I have always tried to educate my students about the name of the religion, that is 'zorastrianism'.   Zorastrians belong to three sects, according to my limited knowledge, faslis, kadmis and shehenshahees.

The faslis celebrate their Nowruz or 'new year', on March 21st, which all other zorastrians also celebrate, but as a 'new day' or a spring festival.  The calendar year of the shehenshahee zorastrians, or 'parsees' is celebrated in August, and the kadmi zorastrians or 'iranees',  celebrate their calendar new year or 'nowroze' a month earlier, sometime in July.

The last ten days of the old year are called muktad and are dedicated to praying and remembering the dead, by visiting a fire temple and lighting an oil lamp or divo, and dedicating a flowers in a vase, in memory of the dear departed.    The last day is called 'papeti' or 'pateti ', and is a day of repentance for all past bad deeds.  Nowroze is the new calendar year, and six days after this day, Khordad Saal is celebrated, which is supposed to be the birthday of the prophet Zarathustra.  So there are two khordad saals, one celebrated by the kadmi sect and the other by the shehenshahees.

It is during the March Nowroz, that a 'table' is arranged and seven objects that begin with the letter s are displayed for ten days to celebrate the equinox, seb (apple), sabze (sprouted wheat), sirke (vinegar), sir (garlic), surmai (kajaal), sharab (wine), shama (candle), sikkeh (coins), any seven  or even more is okay.  A mirror, painted eggs, goldfish, and the holy avesta are also displayed on a specially decorated table, to welcome spring, new life and guests, who are welcomed with a sprinkling of rose water and dry fruit or meweh.  I recall, my favourite as a child was that we always enjoyed falooda and sweet sev, during these celebrations.  My grandmother also made 'seerogh', a type of hand fried flat bread, flavoured with kishmish,, cumin seeds and coriander seeds,  which we enjoyed with mint chutney.

Zorastrians decorate the entrances of their homes with fresh flower torans and chalk designs on the floor.  Food is a major ingredient of the festivities, and pulao dal, patra-no-machchi, farcha, rotli, custard, ravo, are quite popular on the menu, but nowadays with the numerous world cuisines easily available, any type of  'bharnoo bhonoo' will do, so long as the ladies of the house can enjoy a day out.  A few visit a fire temple.  Most parsees, celebrate by having a day out to watch any parsee play or 'natak'.  And everyone wears new outfits and shows off.  Outside agiaries, poor persons beg for pateti baksheesh. And  parsees greet their relatives and friends in Canada, New Zealand, UK and Australia. 

What makes me frustrated is that, when school students represent the festivals of India, in various handcraft articles, like diyas for divali, wreaths and Xmas trees for christmas, dandiyas for navratri, a half moon and stars for eid, rakhees for raksha bhandhan, etc., but there is nothing to make to represent the parsee navroz festival.

My close acquaintance with colleagues who are christians, hindus, muslims, bohris, has made me aware of how close knit each community is, besides the parsees.  Only the parsees who live in a 'colony' become friends, otherwise there are very few occasions on which they can interact, unlike christians who have sunday school, and so many activities revolving around each parish, the bohris and muslims too have regular get togethers and celebrations, but parsees ......................

74 - INDEPENDENCE DAY.

On this day, in India, on 15th August,  all schools have flag hoisting and so, mostly senior school children are visible on the roads, early in the morning and returning by ten o'clock.  Sad to say that these kids litter the roads with wrappers of snacks that the schools distribute among them.   Worse still are the police personnel,  who board the public buses and then spit through the window.  Even the bus conductor refuses to scold them because they are 'vardiwalleh'.

Many readers may feel that I am being pessimistic, but it is the reality.  There is loud blaring music of patriotic songs,  that the local politicians take credit for.  It is an opportunity for local politicians to display life size posters of themselves, wishing random public a 'happy independence day'.   It is distressing to see the display of these lavish larger than life posters, displayed on  a street that is in dire need of pavement repairs, daily clean ups - which are not too effective, and potholes that need urgent repair.

At the road signals, urchins sell little flags and badges, and target people's 'patriotic' spirit, to make fast cash.

Nature's Basket, the posh grocery store, had arranged carrots, garlic, and green chillies, like a flag, with an avocado in the centre, and a border of potatoes.  Garment shops like Westside, Biba, Premsons, Amarsons and Meena Bazaar, clothe their mannequins in the tri colour.  Others use balloons to add a festive mood to bring out the Indian national flag colours.

The newspapers are splashed with full page advertisements of 'independence day discounts' if booking is done for a flat, a car, a mobile.  Electronic retailers like Croma, Vijay sales, Kohinoor, etc splurge on advertising their ware, promising 'slashed GST' rates just for Independence day.  Reliance retail and Big Bazaar outlets also offer discounts to lure customers, but if you visit these outlets, it is torture to stand in the serpentine ques to enter and to pay.  So why do these shops offer so many discounts on a particular day and then struggle to maintain the crowds?

Even the prime minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort and takes the opportunity to target and stigmatize the opposition parties.  My personal experience is that it does nothing to change the thick skinned 'rich' strata, who behave as crassly as they do on any given day.  This refers to riding off in their expensive cars with no regard for the changing traffic signal, talking insensitively to senior citizens or ladies that have the bad luck to be in their vicinity at a mall or a departmental store etc.

The speeches at schools and the speeches of ministers that are shown on the television, are reminders of the first independence day and the changes in the present, just brushing over reality and showcasing only the positives. Quite boring and so predictable.

73 - HEARSAY.

Travelling in a train does become interesting because of the conversations of the most unlikely co-passengers that one gets to hear.  This time my co-passengers, a muslim woman, one Hindu, another Hindu from UP, and five women that were three generations of another bhaiyya family, were choosing copper rings from a vendor, which triggered a conversation among them about gold jewellery.    One of them recounted how Hijras  had visited her home recently, and taken away her gold ring, in exchange for blessings for her newborn grandson. This led to rejoinders from the others about their horrific experiences when hijras have forcibly taken away gold necklaces and silver anklets from the new maternal and paternal grandmothers, by threatening them with dire curses if they do not comply.  Since I am a Zorastrian, their experiences were new to me.  It seems that hijras demand new and expensive sarees, food, slippers etc, from anyone who has a newborn in the family.

As the journey continued, the crowd in the general bogie got bloated to beyond its capacity.  The crowd swelled the most at Lonavla.  A very rich lady, with very very expensive luggage and three minor sons was one among them. The youngest son, about seven, whined on loudly and complained about wanting an AC bogie.  The older sons were quite happy to play with their expensive mobile phones.  And the women pampered the kids and offered them space to sit.  Toward the end of my journey, at Dadar,  a very young girl, hardly eighteen I guess, was selling clips and hairbands, with her three year old,  and since the crowd had shrunk now, she sat with her baby, who kept howling, and only kept quiet when she took out her mobile, an I phone, and let him handle it for a selfie.  So the conclusion is that whether rich or poor,  very young children are only pacified with a mobile in their hand.

Soon, a female chikki seller joined the clip seller and sat on the unoccupied seats.  Since she had kept her bag of goods near me, I picked it up to check out how heavy it was.  I could hardly lift it, it was very very heavy, with chikki packets and jelly sweets.  Striking a conversation, she recounted that she boards the afternoon train and goes up from her home at Badlapur, and s peddles her ware in four rounds, between Pune and Mumbai, upto twenty two hours.

Then a blind beggar joined them and began choosing hair clips.  Although blind, she insisted on choosing a specific colour.   All three, the clip seller, the chikki lady and the blind beggar, chatted with each other until we arrived at CSMT.

Along the journey, I was observing the station name boards, and they were all diamond shaped,  unlike the Grant Road sign that has become oval now.

All the rivers along the train journey were swollen and muddy.  The scenery between Khandala and Karjat is extremely verdant now, with pretty waterfalls along the steep cliffs.  But the Ulhas river is still black, with green oil stains and lots and lots of garbage all over.  As our train passed along Ulhasnagar and Vithalwadi, groups of young men could be seen and heard, practising drums, for the upcoming ganpati festival.  Quite a pleasant sound.

Most of the passengers doze off during the five and a half hour journey.  I make sure that I stay awake to take in the awesome views that the majestic western ghats offer.  The Monkey Hill stop was a real treat this time. There were a hundred monkeys of all ages, jumping up and down a huge tree, coming down to grab the foodstuff thrown toward them. 

 A window seat is everyone's coveted place.  It offers the best views of the western ghats.  If another train passes by, it gives a zoetrope effect,  and the view beyond the passing train is still visible through the windows and gaps between the bogies of the speeding train, very aptly demonstrating the principle of 'persistence of vision'.  At whichever age, a student learns about this principle, he should be allowed to experience the phenomenon with a train journey.  That is what I call 'education'.

Alighting at CSMT and then having to exit the platform and to exit the intercity concourse is very painful. There are three electronic entrances which have people rushing in and it is almost impossible to exit.  The authorities should have an 'IN' and 'OUT' status for each entry and exit point.

A recent addition is a open car moving around the platforms, aka the airport vehicles.  It had this message painted on it,  'This car is for hire.  Asked for a lift and make us happy.  Rs. 40 per ticket.'
Most of the travellers are too poor to pay so much, just to go upto their bogie, or from their bogie upto the exit.  So many beggars are on the platforms and inside the trains, without tickets or the Rs.20 platform ticket.  And no one cares.  Yet the police are stationed at every entry and exit point, behind sandbags, with machine guns pointed at the public.

Somehow, in the melee of people, I manage to head home safely.

72 - ENGLISH VINGLISH, MARATHI SWARATHI, HINDI FINDI......

English is perhaps the only language that has an upper case and a lower case.  After a fullstop, a capital letter is used, and proper nouns too have a capital letter.  In Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, etc there is no need to use capitals. Also the pronunciation of every word is not too predictable.  Very often English words are pronounced incorrectly,  which is not the case with most other languages as the written word can be read as is.

 In India, most of the citizens are not familiar with English speaking and so they tend to translate from marathi or hindi, and then format the english sentence, which leads to hilarious sentences.  So if  the Hindi phrase of  'Aap kaiseh hai?'  gets translated as 'You how are?'

If you do not read good novels and classical stories,  then you are at risk to format incorrect sentences too.  Spellings also go for a toss.  I have been very puzzled after perusing certain items on a menu.  So there is  a "paper sandwich"  correct spelling should have been "pepper",  and the "chess sandwich" meaning a "cheese sandwich".    And these two misspellings were painted on the menu board of the Mumbai university at Kalina.

Everyday I pass the Aditya Birla school lane at Tardeo and feel chagrined to read the signboard that they have displayed at the entrance of the lane leading towards their school.  It reads, 'School children alighting and get off.'  In Pune there is a bench on MG Road which has this painted on it 'siniour citizen bench'.  In a Virar local,. the neon light message reads 'Emergency number of ladies passengers.............'.  One Union Bank branch has this message displayed, 'Account will be freeze in case of non submission of KYC'.

And I fail to understand why the BMC has painted an English phrase in the Hindi script on its garbage trucks,  'clean up'?  Also, the hindi and marathi words for 'please',   'sorry'  and 'thank you' are almost redundant, and everyone uses the english options, even when conversing in a colloquial format or in any local language like gujarati, marathi and hindi.

Very often, the speaker makes a mistake, and the listeners are unaware of its incorrectness, so 'all is well'.

71 - WHY ENDURE ? JAPAN'S IDEA IS A SOLUTION.

Every year Mumbai gets flooded and people suffer.  Then they forget all about the situation when the season changes.  It leads to leptospirosis and death.  After the water recedes, mosquitoes breed and it leads to chikungunya, malaria, dengue, and typhoid.  Besides the ground floor houses that get flooded, suffer sewer water enundiating their homes, furniture and electrical appliances like fridges, TVs, ACs , washing machines, getting defunct.  It is beyond my thinking, as to how they manage to answer nature's call for so many days, when the toilets are flooded too.  I have witnessed a ground floor home getting flooded.  The bedroom had soaked mattresses and the toilet had excreta floating up and into the other rooms.  Sic.  So it should be the priority of the concerned municipality to take proper precautions to prevent the flooding.  But they blame it on the high tide and the insufficient and outdated drainage systems.  Okay, so if everyone is aware of the problems, then why is there no effective solution? 

But obviously the high and mighty in this land are not affected directly and so they don't seem to care about the common man's plight.

National Geographic has done a review of the underground 'temple-like' storage tanks of Japan, that help to keep the city of Tokyo, free of flooding.  In 2001, Tokyo suffered severe flooding due to heavy rain.  And so they built a system of giant underground tunnels, six and a half kilometers long.  Each tunnel is ten meters in diameter and it allows the rain water to collect into this space and then be drained methodically into the Edo river. 

Our prime minister, Mr.Modi, should borrow this innovative idea from Japan, instead of the Bullet train technology.