Accompany Me On My Journeys

Dear Mr. Modi,

People worship you, praise you to the heavens and truly believe you are the only one that can uplift India from a developing nation status, closer to being a developed country. And when I say people I don’t just mean the Gujaratis but the people of India in general. My plea to you as a Mumbaikar is please don’t ignore our city like every other PM has. Mumbai provides the highest per capital income at Rs 1.67 lakh but still has the maximum number of homeless people in India.

Mumbai is bleeding, it is bursting at its seams and is a ticking time-bomb that only you can stop from an otherwise inevitable detonation. Our wonderful city that contributes to 33 percent of India’s tax, 60 percent of India’s customs duty and 20 percent of India’s foreign trade is in a state of wreckage. In spite of doing so much for the nation for years on end, Mumbai only got its metro 30 years after Kolkata got hers.

There are more than a hundred reasons as to why Mumbai needs a drastic overhaul. For instance, the vehicular traffic according to the 2009 Mumbai Development report was to touch 1.87 million by 2010. We do not have roads wide enough or strong enough to handle that. In the financial capital of the country 55 percent of its population lives in slums. And we still have more and more people pouring in everyday from every corner of India. Mumbai is still currently running on the Storm Water drainage system put in place by the British more than 100 years ago. Now that is just ridiculous! Don't you think? Travel by the local trains during one heavy shower Mr. PM, you will then know what a living a nightmare looks like. Noise levels all over Mumbai exceed prescribed standards of the Central Pollution Control Board. And if you want to talk about air pollution levels, things are so critical that breathing the city’s air for a day is equivalent to smoking a packet of cigarettes.   

At Rs 1.03 lakh, Maharashtra has the second highest per capita income as compared to other major states in the country, according to the latest Economic Survey. However, on the Human Development Index (HDI), it ranks way below states like Kerala and Punjab that have a much lower per capita income. Why so Mr. Modi? 

Mumbai is still however made out to be a city of dreams, but where is the quality of life? The Mumbaikar has to survive in spite of a serious lack of infrastructure, horrible and dangerous roads, overcrowded public transport, water problems, obscene rent rates, pollution and filth to name a few issues. In spite of these problems more than 1000 people migrate to Mumbai everyday in the hope of finding work to provide for their entire families back home, wherever that may be. Mumbai cannot handle its current population; imagine what will happen with the increasing migrating traffic!

There are about 75 lakh people who travel by the suburban railway system everyday; and around 360 thousand people per hour during the peak period, while the capacity of the services is close to about 160 thousand per hour only, that’s close to three times the capacity. Imagine the stress levels this city has to deal with every single day! And still we’re expected to make do, survive, and travel to and fro from work preparing for a battle with our lunch dabbas and laptops before boarding a Churchgate/CST local. Yes, traveling by local train is the same, if not worse, than a battlefield.

To make things worse, our city is also sinking! Yes, Mumbai is sinking and according to Marine Biologist, Vishnu Kanhere, there has been a 30 cm rise in sea level over the past three years. And no, we cannot blame Global Warming for such a rapid rise. Kanhere also says, “In Mumbai, the seashores have been reclaimed. Mumbai itself is a reclaimed area comprising seven islands. If the high tide level continues to rise at this rate it is time to seriously think of how to save Mumbai. Even the seashore has eroded and there are few beaches remaining.”

Mr. Modi, we have survived bomb blasts, flooding every monsoon, the everyday Virar local and many other things in this beautifully abused city. But it is not ok anymore, we cannot adjust, we cannot make do, we NEED a change. And we need it ASAP. Millions of Mumbaikars, me included, are eagerly waiting, not for a reply, but for some ACTION on these critical problems.

Resources:

• 2009 Mumbai Development report
• http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-city-s-sinking-feel-experts-1172357
•  http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/per-capita-income-state-second-only-to-haryana/#sthash.jHXy48aQ.dpuf
• http://www.moneylife.in/article/creating-stressful-life-for-all-in-mumbai/27126.html

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ps: I know this is not a regular blog post but since you agreed to accompany me on my journeys, this is one of them.

It has been eons since I wrote, also it always feels like eons since I have travelled. There has been a feeling of numbness when it came to writing. It happens every now and then and to best of writers. There are those days when life feels drab and grey. But on those dark, cloudy days there is nothing like indulging in a cup of steaming hot chocolate and curling up with a favourite book.

So what have I been upto?
I have been planning the trips to come, day-dreaming, obsessively reading travelogues for inspiration, over-enthusiastically mailing my husband link after link and sighing way too much.

But the first quarter of 2014 wasn't all that bad. I took a 5 day break and took off for Hampi with a few of my girlfriends. It was a very peaceful trip. I do want to go back again with Shayne and explore more sites and also stay at Shanthi. Shanthi is a beautiful resort, tucked away in Anegundi which is on the other side of the river facing stark green rice paddy fields. We went there for lunch one day and the place was just so tranquil that my friend dozed off waiting for our meal. The food is not so bad compared to other places. Food by the way is a trial and error kind of thing in Hampi. Definitely try Mango Tree restaurant.



Although we flew both ways from Mumbai to Hubbali, we spent way too much time travelling as there are no direct trains or flights to Hospet from Mumbai - which is the closest spot to Hampi, just a riksha ride away. However there are daily buses running from Mumbai to Hospet if you are not weary of long bus rides. Avoid taking the local buses unless you are feeling adventurous from Hubbali to Hospet. The buses take much longer and might not be direct buses which means a few changes. And with two other pretty girls by my side I had to fight off a lot of drunk lungi clad uncles poking their behind in our faces. Some of them were practically sitting on me and I had to elbow him as he didn't seem to understand any Hindi. The train journey from Hospet to Hubbali was so much more comfortable on the way back.

So you take a train/flight and get to Hampi, the melancholicly beautiful land of ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site. The former capital of the Vijaynagara Empire, is now captured by monkeys and you better be beware of them. While we all sat waiting for our riksha/bicylcle South Hampi tour and were admiring the beauty of the Virupaksha temple from a shady spot, guess what crime we became witnesses to? What we saw left us stupefied! A tiny langur sees a bunch of unattended bags lying. He sneakily opens the zip of the bag and removes a mobile phone and runs away! I wonder if that was for his girlfriend.