The fire that wasn't

Let me begin by conceding that this post comes almost a month later than when it should have. Partly because of the delay in getting the picture, partly because of some unforeseen problems with my website, etc etc.

As is visible in the picture, I, along with two of my friends am holding a bunch of wood-sticks. The place is Kashid Beach, a famous new year celebration spot near Mumbai. We left Mumbai at around 7 in the evening, hoping to make it there in time. I know, 5 hours is a long time for a 135 km journey. But, you know, Mumbai traffic doesn’t need an introduction. Despite all that, and some added hindrances by nakabandees on the highway, we managed to reach there, barely in time. It was sharp 2350 by my watch when we entered the Kashid Beach.

The view was amazing, a lot of people had gathered there to celebrate the new year, and we could see quite a few bonfires on. Fireworks were amazing and the environment was as serene as it can get. The tides were expectedly noisy and high.

Excitingly, we all caught hold of a local lakdi-walla who was doing the great job of lighting up bonfires for people. We found a decent place and the guy started assembling the wood-sticks. We were enthusiastic about it and gathered around it, clicking pics one by one. It was barely 1 minute to go for the new year and we were ready to light our fire. The kapur was in place, and the match stick was burnt.

But, the fire was not to be! In few moments a hawaldar came and dropped our wood-sticks as if he was playing a touch-and-run game. The match stick was left to burn itself to death. We were amazed! A 5 hour journey for this one moment, a moment that was not to be. But it was an experience in itself, and that too a great one.

We later learnt that as a part of the security procedures, the Mumbai police was ensuring that no sea-face will have any bit of lighting after midnight. Given the kind of terrorist attacks that have been rocking India in the past few months, the strict security measures were understandable. All beach shops were also asked to shut off lights and the whole area was totally dark.

The next day was great fun. I will now pen off and let the pics do the talking..

;

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I moved to Mumbai in July last year. I was highly relieved and excited when I found that unlike most of my peers, I would be spending next couple of years at a place other than Bangalore. I have a terrible experience struggling with the mismanaged transport infrastructure of Bangalore during my internship time. The city lacks subways, and one can rarely cross a street without getting stranded for minutes.

I must mention that the relief I talked about was not unfounded. I visited Mumbai for 5 days in September 2003 for the Aditya Birla Scholarships interview. Though I did not get much time to roam around, that visit reinforced the cosmopolitan image of Mumbai I had my mind. While travelling from the railway station to the destination and back, the weather and the path made it feel exactly like the movie scenes where the lead is travelling in a cool town in his open jeep. The only place we visited out of our way was Gateway of India (well, not exactly “out of the way”; we stayed in The Taj). I left the city wanting to come back and have a better look around soon.

Ironically, it saddens me to realize that I now work and stay in Mumbai. Sixteen months into it, I have found that the city is nowhere near the “Mumbai” I experienced in my first trip. Well, a lot of things still attract me, and will always do. But if I leave these “fascinations” aside, I dare say that everything else about this city is screwed up. Yes, in the real sense of the word!

Picture this:

7:00 AM. Wake up. Check email. Internet not working. Bah.

7:30 AM. Wake up call from Mom. Start talking. Call gets dropped after 20 seconds. Huh.

8:00 AM. Watch news channels. Read newspaper. Someone broke something in town yesterday. Someone is doing something about it. All the same. Crib. Show me the NEWs!

9:00 AM. Get ready for office. Fortunately everything is in order in the bath. Yay!

9:35 AM. Auto-rickshaws not on strike. Relief. Hunt for an empty one.

9:40 AM. Could not find an empty one. Curse mankind for over-population. Start walking towards office.

9:45 AM. Walked nearly 1 km. Pity the godforsaken roads. Finally found an auto. Thank God. Yippee!

9:50 AM. Stuck in traffic jam. Half road blocked due to construction. Vehicles parked carelessly on the other half. Curse mankind again. Curse yourself. Curse everyone. No point. Wait and watch.

10:00 AM. Somehow manage to reach office on time. Thank God.

2:00 PM. Feel like eating outside today. Come out. Get wet – either due to heavy rain or due to sultry sun. Crib. Return. Eat random office meal.

9:00 PM. Reach home. Check mail. Net working dead slow. Try calling Mom. Network strength weak. Wait.

9:15 PM. Try calling Mom again. Connects this time. Voice breaking. Crib. Get frustrated. Bid an early good night. Have dinner.

10:00 PM. Net crawling. Takes minutes to open mail account. Curse. Curse. Curse.

To sum up, no network connectivity on Vodafone phone, crawling Tata Indicom “broadband”, broken roads, no traffic management, overcrowded local trains – all in all, a total infrastructure breakdown.

Would you want to stay in a “financial capital” that offers you this kind of a lifestyle? And, above all, costs you more than Rs. 15 thousand per month?

I have to. And many others.

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(Photo courtesy Norfolk website)

I hope it works.I hope this does not get away as just another enacted-but-hardly-implemented law.

In an extra-ordinary development, I found the news channels flooding with a real breaking-news (yes, for a change, a real breaking news). I emphasize that bit because a real breaking news comes as a fresh change in a nation full of news channels treating all kind of non-stories as breaking news (in the rarest chance that you do not get what I mean, read about the great INDIA TV here, here and here). Let me stop talking here about the news channels because their stupidity needs another blog post.

I strongly believe that smoking in public places should be banned. While other addictions (drugs, alcohol etc.) do not affect anyone other than the active user, smoking is one thing that affects even the most remotely concerned. At numerous occasions, I have found myself seeking freedom to breathe when I am with friends in a bar/pub.

I started the article with the “I hope” statement for a reason. Today morning, the day when this smoking ban starts, I saw a news reporting that Mumbai government will find it hard to impose the smoking ban/fine due to insufficient manpower. So, although this ban does not bring any bit of relief to Mumbaikars (including me), I am happy for frustrated fellows like me all over the country. Now they (and hopefully after some months, I) can have the freedom to breathe-in fresh air while the smokers smoke it out at their homes.

To be honest, I treat a smoker walking on a street while I am walking around him exactly like a vehicle emitting a bad smoke while I am driving around it. Just like no one would prefer to be around a vehicle emitting repugnant black smoke, I would not prefer to be in few meters radius around a smoker. A driver will try to overtake the offending vehicle asap, and I try to overtake the smoker as soon as possible. In fact at times I find them so similar that I even contemplate pollution check for smokers! (Do comment on this post if you agree with me)

Rightfully recognized by the government, these smokers have no right to destroy the atmosphere in a serene public place with their stupidity. A drunkard becomes destructive only when he is out of his senses and starts hitting and destroying public property for no particular reason. A smoker does not even have to go through the latter bit to become a destroyer.

Come on, why can’t you smokers think of other innocent people in your vicinity who have to go through the torture because of YOUR stupidity ! Pretty simple logic; no rocket science, isn’t it?

I think I have blurted out enough to show my frustration (and a bit of relief, provided the law becomes a success).

Now, the uphill task in front of the government is to think of cool (yes, I mean cool) ways to implement this law. I, on this public space, declare that I am ready to (and will) do my bit in making this law a success.

I think given their reach and influence, this is the issue that the news channels need to be talking about for a day or two. All you “India TV”s out there, wake up and use your most influential hours, for a change, on a story that deserves mention. Use your brains and try to mobilize the masses to take up a task that will help them (and give you your most coveted TRPs). Believe me, this is the time to act and make it a huge success.

If man-power is the only issue, our valuable citizen-power can be used to catch the offenders. I was impressed by the “Shoot at sight” campaign started by The Hindustan Times to clean up Mumbai. In case you do not remember, it had planted banners all around the city urging citizens to click pics of garbage-throwers using their cellphones and send it to the newspaper office. I am sure that this works. The offender will be too embarrassed to see his picture in the next day’s newspaper.

I will update the post with more ideas as they cross my mind. You are free to comment/send your ideas to me at me@pawanjain.com.

P.S. : I love my hometown. Chandigarh, the first Indian city to go smoke free.

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So I was really elated after I had the ticket in my hands. But alas! did I ask for the window seat? No! And there was no way I was going to go back to the counter and get my seat changed. I did not even know the procedure of that. Also, I was unaware of the numbering system used in the coaches of JS. So I just prayed that I get a window seat. I am crazy about window seats – be it bus, train, or an airplane.

I reached the station well in time. The train was to depart at 1550, and I was at the station at 1500 hrs. Within 5 minutes, the train arrived(from Chandigarh). I entered the train, wishing that seat number 48 is a window seat. And to my surprise, it was actually a window seat! I was overwhelmed at my great luck. It is always my dream journey – travelling in a train sitting in the window seat.

There is one thing I hate about JS. It is fast allright, which is clear by the fact that it covers a distance of around 200 km (New Delhi to Ambala) in just 3 hours (thereby reaching at around 1850). A normal roadways bus would be able to manage it in not less than around 4 hours. But thats where the problem starts. The momentum just gets destroyed as soon as the train leaves Ambala. The journey is never the same. Chandigarh is only 45 km from Ambala, a kind of distance that JS should be able to manage in 30-35 mins. But the train takes a whopping 90 minutes to reach Chandigarh, reaching there not before 2020. This is just not done.

I agree this is all traffic and signal stuff, but I just wonder why the priority of the train is this low on this route. It has to stop for each and every damn train that needs a signal. Come on people, why so? Why would you not like passengers do travel the whole journey by your train? Why do you want to force them to take a bus after reaching Ambala station? I am afraid I have never done that, but if the scenario continues I will start doing that. Anyways I have only a month of stay left in New Delhi after which I will head to Mumbai. So doesn’t make much of a difference to me.

Nevertheless, the train does save time if you compare it with a whole journey by roadways bus. Charging just 75% of the roadways fare, and offering too many additional facilities (to name a few are the all-time availability of snacks, tea etc. ; more comfortable seating; and last but surely not the least – restrooms), the train will always be an automatic choice of any passenger, provided the time suits him/her. Clearly there has to be a tradeoff somewhere. You cannot have the best of everything for less price in one firm with the other firm still making profilts. Roadways buses between New Delhi and Chandigarh are available so frequently that you just need to stand at the gate of ISBT for a maximum of 5 minutes. It seldom happens that no bus to Chandigarh crosses you in those 5 minutes. Thats where roadways win. But, if the departure time of JS suits you, there is nothing better (of course there is the Shatabdi Express, which charges a whopping 430 – personally I find it totally useless – no value for money).

Comparing with the famous fable, the roadways may well be called – “The slow and steady”, and JS the other character who sleeps in the middle. But the moral doesn’t hold here. “You thought slow and steady wins the race? Well, not always the case !”

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Ooty was our destination the last weekend. It is an overnight drive from Bangalore. We started at 11:30 at night, and reached there at about 9 next morning. I slept for hardly 40-50 minutes in the whole journey, rest was all fun filled singing with other nocturnals. The journey was great.

We stayed at Hotel Maruthi. Apparently the Tamilians dont have ‘t’ in their dictionary(the hindi ‘t’). I wonder if they speak Tamil or THamil.

Ooty is a very dirty place. Atleast I found it so. Even though main Ooty is a flat place, there is no traffic management, no footpaths to walk on etc. The restaurants are equally pathetic. We somehow managed brunch and left for Ooty Lake. The lake is beautiful, and ideal for boating.

Now we wanted some daring stuff. I never imagined I would ever visit the highest point in Tamil Nadu. It was all ad-hoc planning. We heard of the “suicide-point” and headed for there. The bus was giving troubles on the steep slopes, and somehow managed to climbed to the top. And Ah! What scenic beauty!!! I cant remember if I had seen a more beautiful site before. An aeroplane flies a bit too high, so this cant even be enjoyed from inside an airplane. So this was really special.

All in all a fun-filled trip!

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This weekend we visited the Wonder La.. a wonderful amusement park in the outskirts of Bangalore.

The best part for me was the water park. You really cant return before enjoying all the water rides. Thankfully there are no silly rides in the water section which tend to do crazy things with you.

We also had a pleasant rain in the evening, just after we had returned from the water rides. I couldn’t stop myself from taking a photograph of the rainbow that emerged after that. Its a collectable by all means

All in all, Wonder La is a omplete one day package for someone who really wants to enjoy his day out!!! More information at http://www.wonderla.com

I have shared all our ful filled photographs here

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Wing cricket has long been a tradition of Jwala since many years. It feels great to live it when we play wing cricket at 1 am with this cool breeze blowing and touching us as it crosses the wing from one balcony to other.

Rules of this cricket are amazing… We came up with a ‘Body’ rule.. It was really getting annoying when the batsman is not willing to get his bat in place and always gets his chest, or back, or legs in the line of the ball just to pass time given the fact that number of overs are unlimited. The rule says that you cannot touch a ball with your body 3 times in a row. That clearly increases the probability that the ball will meet the bat and makes the game somewhat more interesting.

But today’s game was abandoned halfway. Guess why??

Yes.. HOLI!!

This hostel holi is real disgusting. I hate it. They make a mess of a good colorful festival by running after each other with a bucket of water just to make the person wet. I do not get the point. Whats the fun involved. Moreover in this cold weather you might catch fever.

Anyways.. the cricket is great fun!

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