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Can you imagine that there could be such rainfall in one day that would leave trains, buses, people stranded and life in disarray. But it happened. A few days ago I was speaking to my dad and he was of the opinion that there havent been rains in 15 days and the weather was getting really hot for comfort. 15 days later on 26th July 2005, the city of Bombay experiences not rainfall but huge flood causing non-stop rain filling all the low lying areas.
My parents were stranded in their offices. While my dad was enjoying his stay in office ( at Vasai), my mom fought the incessant rains and reached home ( Goregaon- Borivli) in 5 1/2 hours. Her journey included an adventurous walk (read swim) in waist high water and then taking a tonga( horse-ride) from Borivli station to my house. My dad wasnt that lucky though, he kept visiting Vasai station hour after hour but there was no scope of any trains. People from his office started the unavoidable "padyatra" and few of them even travelled the lengths of Vasai Road - Andheri in 10 hours( have to give it to them). My dad was in his office for two days and finally reached home at 5 am this morning.
Was speaking to him on the fone and the popular sentiment was that this is a natural calamity and no drainage system can be good enough to counter 40 inches of rainfall in a day. No planning committee can make arrangements to fight the loss of comunication and paralysis to the backbone of the city's transportation. I think sometime the decision of my parents to buy a house on 3rd floor paid off, otherwise we would be ruing our decisions like one of my friends ( Venkat from office ), whose ground floor flat in Chembur was totally washed out. He told me that it was not the loss of furniture, or his TV set that is disturbing, but all his family albums kept safely in the "divan" (sofa cum bed) and also all small things which mean a lot and money cannot buy them. It is amazing how it is more disappointing to lose something you treasure that is not that expensive, while you bear monetary losses worth 2 lacs.
But the indomitable fighting spirit of Bombay stays on and thats what I love about it.People swimming through 10 feet of water to feed the people who were stuck in trains and buses. Rescue operations totally led by localites in the absence of the fire brigade guys or the police. And the total business mindedness ( read opportunistic mentality) even in the times of disaster ( I say this because the day it rained, a cup of tea cost 15 Rs on VT station. Finally they were out of milk, so tea was made with Energee and that cost 22 bucks .. Wada pav cost anywhere between 15-20 bucks..funny but true).But it is Bombay and it will rise back soon, the ever rising death toll from this incident and the shock it has endured, notwithstanding.

Is exploiting system loopholes for one's own benefit correct?

Death does not concern us.

Death does not concern us

I was reading a book and I ended up reading bt Epicurus, Greek philospher. His is a very interesting philosophy, one that we all have thought about at one point or the other. Writing this post to get people's comments on the same.

Epicurus believed that materialistic philosohpy could relieve human fear of death and punishment of gods. "Death does not concern us" he said. "For as long as we live, death is not here. And when death comes, we are no longer alive" . He summed up his philosophy by what he called the four healing herbs. "The gods are not to be feared. Death is nothing to worry about. The good is easy to attain. The frightful is easy to bear ."

Thoughts are welcome.

When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket...
When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy), chhepan-chhepai and pitthoo anytime...
When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi'...
When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so fulfilling...
When there was just one tv in every five houses and
When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down at stations to fill up the water bottle...
When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai jindagi' day...
When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and moms seeking our help while preparing them...
When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while slapping/beating us...
When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudaris and billus were our heroes...
When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechis...
When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajni' inspired us...
When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees...
When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough work or even fair work...
When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against 'reynolds and family'...
When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis'...
When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their homes at six in the evening...
When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'antardesis' and 5 paise machli wale stamps at home...
When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream and papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing...
When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on Holis as air and noise polluting or allergic agents...
The list can be endless...
I really miss those days... do u? I am doubtful if the new generation will be able to experience that kind of golden days in their lives...but I am sure they will have their own pleasures to live upon...

This is a test: Reepal Kapadia

Reepal Kapadia is a friend of mine and I am trying this to test the power of google and also the rank of my blog in the webspace. Kudos to Google if it manages to find it

I started to write this as a comment to the one Mike posted on the Blog but gradually, thought to post it separately and have some discussions ... it starts with the Iraq war but goes beyond the circumstances....

I have always thought all wars are outcomes of economic problems and the cure somehow becomes is thought to be a war. World War I and II are due to the that very fact or historically Battle of Troy or the American Independence War was also due to the same fact.

It is oil which is not the problem, but it is the associated thought process (read paranoia) in which it is assumed that high oil prices will stifle growth in US. Well, if u see India traditionally had very high oil prices, Europe too has very high oil prices and yet they do not ask for war, they are equally at a precarious situation. It is only in North America where oil is cheap (rather kept artifically cheap). Yet Europe has better or same standard of living as US.

The problem is of having cheap oil. US too has vast deposits of oil, but obtaining it is costly. They have just thought that having Iraq's oil supply will be enough, but it is not that way. Coz US relies on other nations for its economy. There is no manufacturing in US so US will have to share oil with those countries with whom it needs to maintain relationships.

So on a political and economical level there will be checks and balances and an equilibrium maintained.

But what are the actual effects of this cheap oil ?

1. Since oil is cheap, wastage is natural. So u make gas guzzlers instead of making cars / vehicles which are efficient ...
2. One stops using public transport coz u feel that u can afford buying a car and paying for the fuel. Did u think the same when driving a car in India ... U always thought abt how much u may have shell out with this ride?
3. But mostly " Necessity is the mother of invention" If u do not face a scarcity or high prices u are not going to put ur efforts in inventing an alternative fuel.

As someone said " Don't think abt short term profit but long term loss " lets hope .... pple soon realize it ...

A Modern Anne Frank

We are aware of Anne Frank and her memoirs of WW-II and her notings in her diary. Well we have one in our Era.

Its a young Iraqi programmer in Baghdad and provides a first hand view of the US Occupation of Iraq and the travails of life in Iraq and also piquantly called Baghdad Burning. She uses the blog rather than a diary.

She infact at times sympathize with the US troops as well as is very critical with a sharp sense of humor.

I am linking her blog.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/