Sunday, July 31, 2005

Good to see people coming together online to try and help out, give solid information and support:
Help Mumbai
Cloud Burst Mumbai
Both have good up-to-date information and are being constantly updated...
And, on the whole, much more constructive reading than the random musings of a sole lunatic : )
Met a journalist friend.. as confused as anyone else about "what the fuck is going on". Traded horror stories of people we knew, the shit they had to go through (quite literally in some cases), cursed the politicians and the Met department, laughed at the press, laughed some more for the heck've it, and renewed our pledges to survive and help survive.
Just when I thought things were dandy was brought back to Earth by my cabbie... "Idhar tho theek hai, saab - Kurla sab jaga mein abhi thak electricity nahin aaya. Aur aisa baas, jaisa soch hi nahi sakte" (Things are fine here, sir, but in areas like Kurla, electricity's not yet back - and the stench is unimaginable).
There's dead carcasses floating about. Parts of the city still waterlogged. People scared to come out of their homes and disease spreading. The newspapers will move on to the next story once the rains and Emergency SMS Warnings cease... and these people will be left to rebuild their lives ...
Such is our city ... and as the cabbie smiled and said "Bhagwaan ke saamne kya kar sakte hai?", I saw the hope and hopelessness in his eyes... the incessant paradoxes that define this place...

And when the authorities abandon us and it looks like mother nature is out to kill us -- all we have is eachother...
Walked from Worli, near Poonam Chambers to Lower Parel -- things seemed fairly normal on the road, but there was a sense of unease -- people looked at raindrops with a sense of fear ...
Saw a crowd gathered outside a Pizza Hut and wondered what's going on -- should've guessed, just trying to catch a glimpse of the cricket -- "Score kya hua, boss" - "Maalum nahi, abhi shuru hua" -- "Baarish mein mazaa aaya?" "Arre. poocho mat bhaiya" -- always a smile - this is aamchi Mumbai after all -- and this side of the divide, this side of town, things really aren't that badly affected. The beer bars seemed to have the usual amount of patrons...
Phoenix Mills was a little deserted. The road was pretty devoid of cars as well. I guess we can thank the Police Commisioner for that with some friends receiving SMSes every five minutes telling them not to get out of the house. The Met dept. has predicted heavy showers for the next 48 hours. Two days holiday... that's our Government for you. Sleep all through the disaster - when the bad press hits, they swing into action immediately and DECLARE A HOLIDAY. How nice.
Sunday 6 PM or so ..

They've just declared the next 3 days as holiday as well ... parts of the city flooded ... garbage, corpses ... places still without electricity ... they say the spirit of Bombay will always survive...

We've given up all hope in the authorities .. how the hell did this happen in the first place? Lots of questions to be asked - lots to be answered - and the realization that for better or for worse - we're all in this together ... human beings against the fury of mother nature? Or is she just giving a warning to her children -- maybe it's time to mend our ways... get together, figure it out - save our city...

What I love about this city is that however bad things get - nothing can take away the smile, nothing can take away the hope, nothing can take away the spirit that binds us together -- as we make our way, constantly in motion -- no time to think ...

Now she's forced us to stop. Pause. For a week now. Think. Where is our city going to? How did it get to be this way? What can we do?

I'm going to take a walk.