The deluge that was

It is that time of the year again the time when the municipal authorities have started admitting that the rain management is still not under control. and mumbai can flood again if it rains hard ...reminding us of the torrential tuesday of 26/7/05. well to start with our help and good wishes be with all the ppl who lost their lives,health,belongings and homes in that merciless downpour .Just pray to God for everyone.
as everyone else .. i too have a tale to tell abt that tuesday ..and being me i d tell that for sure .. but then first of all .. i dont know if all of the numerologists were sleeping or got washed off in the rains ... but did anyone notice .. that it was 26th again .. yeah very much the horror date for India .. be it the tsunami, the gujarat earth quake or now the torrid downpour , all nature's wrath Hit India on 26th. just an observation .. there s nothing much into it for sure ..( i dont hope the cabinet wud setup a committee to investigate the 26th phenomenon) .just a coincidence i guess
anyways ..my story ,,well i had college on tuesday just like most of the days of the week, thankfully we had lectures upto 3 only ..but then one of my friends cleared his KT exams that day ( we all know what joy that is ) so he treated us to nice chinese food in the canteen ( i hate china even more now ) and we ended up staying till 4 in coll .. and by then the rain d got heavy and by heavy i mean 1000 kgs heavy .. and being the yuppie youth .. 15 of us decided to get .. drenched in the downpour and walk upto reclamation to enjoy the rains ( i m still looking for the dude who gave the suggestion :P)well we did enjoy the water clogs and torrentiality of rains for arnd 30 mins and boy what amazing 30 mins .. our bags were parked into two cars and we had arnd 5 bikes .. well at 5 everyone started panicking as the smsS of the jammed bombay started pouring in ...( we all knew that the trains had halted but then we had cars and bikes )anyways .. we made headway then ...and as soon as we reached the bandra flyover at ONGC ....the w.e highway ahead was jampacked ...with water everywhere arnd the flyover .. we knew we were stuck .. 10 of us including the girls were trasported to a friend s house nearby .. and since the carowner friend of ours refused to leave his car on the flyover ( the dumbhead thot that .. it d be towed when the rain stops .)
6 of us decided to stay with him and get the car parked at a safer place .. which was nowhere offcourse .. anyways we right turned from the next signal at kherwadi all in knee deep water .. and parked the car at chetana college ,,,it was 7 by then .. one of the 6 of us .. stayed very closeby .. but we didnt have the keys to his place ..since we thot it d be a long night .. we decided to have our dinner at the only open restaurent .. the biryani was the only hot thing abt the day :P,... anyways we started walking upto the place at 8 after calling home,the bags and other things ( apart from wallets and cellphones) were left in the car... the water had now come to our waist level and we walked for one hr wading water .. ( it generally is a 10 min walk ) to reach his place .. his flat was on ground floor ...anyways .. we had to break the lock and get in .. we changed into his clothes and made ourselves comfy .. while we were chatting away .. at 11 .. bad luck struck again and water started coming into his house from everywhere .. ( first time i saw water coming out of the commode :P)we had to make everything at his place safe from water .. and then we decided to evacuate the place and walk to another frend s place who again lived 10 mins away ( yeah .. tell me )...anyways .. we changed to our wet clothes again .. took the dry clothes with us .. and walked in chest deep water now ....the night was amazingly bright that night ...as we walked again .. noone was joking thou .. very few words were spoken .. as everyone probly wanted to reach sumwhere as fast as they cud ..we saw a provision store open .. with water inside .. we asked for biscuits .. the guy said we cud buy if we had exact change .. just then .. the counter of his shop ..started draining awy with the current and he had to run behind it .. the biscuits were never to be ... well we had to go thru the service road off the highway .. the scenes on the highway were .. unblvable .. i had never seen so many ppl walking thru on the highway .. it was a mad rush to neverland ...cars were abandoned and flooded all over....anyways .. we had to walk .. one of my friends.. kept abusing the rains all along ..( i wonder whether that angered the raingods)we saw a small tabela along the way .. with a solitary buffalo .. mooing and stuck in clogged waters .. we felt sorry and helpless for the buffalo ..( just hope that she wasnt among the 1000 buffaloes dead in the city that day ) ...we reached our new destination at arnd 11:30.. and right next to his building .. it was neck deep water .. well ...we got in and heaved a sigh of relief and ran towards the fourth floor .....as he opened the door .. there were 10 ppl already in his house .. and we were welcomed ..we reunited with one of our friends who had gone to king s circle and then walked upto bandra to this place .. we were treated to much desired biscuits again ...( the only food at his place ) no electricity and two bottles of water ...was all we had ..anyways .. we started talking and joking again .. it was happy faces again .. some of us still cudnt blv .. whether it was happening to bombay .. we were worried abt other ppl .. tried to call up many of them but then cudnt ..one of our friends with his car had started alone ..at 4 and was stuck in bandra when he called last ...he was spending the night in his car .. my sister was stuck in andheri ...we tried to sleep .. 5 ppl on a bed .. one on the chair and two ppl down .. the bedbugs ..never wud have thot they cud be so ineffective as we slept .. well till 4 am ( water cud be so tiring )we were woken up by one of our frends at 4 .. who saw the traffic moving on the highway ,,,,,we cud hear the sounds of the water flowing ..some said it was raining harder and some said it was water draining out .. ( the positive ones kept saying that it d be all clear by 10 tomorow ) while the pessimists thot we were stuck here for 3 more days ...anyways.. we slept again .. after talking to our friend who was still stuck in his car on the highway .......
we got up at 7 again ... hearing the voices .. saying .. "Phat gaya .. phat gaya ".. welll amidst all imaginative thinking .. we found out that .. the one litre milk that was our last hope ...for a refreshing tea in the morning .. woh bhi phat gaya.. anyways necessity is the mother of invention and .. one of us made the tastiest black tea ever ..with everyone giving suggestions abt what goes into a black tea .. ranging from nimbu to namak to what not .. most of the ppl decided not to have the black tea ...at arnd 8 .. three of us including me decided that we shld be heading home now .. coz we cudnt stay with no food,no water and no electricity .. the 4 other friends thot that was a stupid idea and for the first time .. we had a standoff of sorts ..we tried convincing them but most of them ( the pessimists )thot its better here .. and they were anyways tired with all the walking thru water last night and didnt wanna do that again ...
well it was a very difficult decision since we had all been together thru this .. but three of us .. left the place at 8:30 after a breakfast of two biscuits .... it was neck deep water arnd the building again ,, the ground floor flats were half merged in water ... and it was a horrible sight with the furniture floating ...the other two friends ,,,stayed in parle and andheri .. and the parle guy was dead worried since his home was on ground floor and his mom was home alone ...so we walked upto the highway wading chest deep water again ..... well amazingly the highway was totally clear of water( at the most ankle high water ) ...there were cars and more cars .. and ppl and more ppl... we thot . and reassured that our decision to leave was the right one ...since the flyovers were built ..we were walking on them for the first time .. with ppl all arnd .. laughing, cheering each other on , telling stories.. the humour in harmony was amazing .. with some ppl cracking amazing jokes ...(someone talking abt the orange network breakdown told us that .. lagta hain orange ka kutta paani main beh gaya :P)we walked with packed hotels arnd vileparle , shutdown reliance energy building, the clogged airport ...for arnd hr and a half .. and parle guy s place at arnd 10 .. and he was very relieved to see that his place was totally all right .. his mom, uncle and cousin greeted us .. everyone had their stories to tell and everyone did ..his sis was still stuck in her office and so was his dad .. his mom had walked yesterday night from bandra west to her place......amazingly there was power at his place and one phone was working too .. we tried contacting our homes and the friends who were still in bandra .. but cudnt get thru ...
we had piping hottt maggie noodles and tea in breakfast ( i never liked maggie so much ever )..well at 11 ..me and the andheri guy decided to move on ...after thanking all ..
whilehe walked home .. i got a rick ride from andheri to my place for 50 bucks ..with three more ppl with me .. i reached home at arnd 12 .. and was relieved to see everyone and everything at home ...my sis had returned too .. i had lunch and slept for 3 hrs after telling my story to everyone at my place and hearing their stories ...
Life was limping back to normal ...
Cudnt help but not tell this story and .. cudnt help but not stretch it so long .. since i thot every story had a lesson for everyone ...there are lots of IFs and BUTs .. If we had moved out of college early that day, If we had left thecar and moved on , If we had not evacuated the overflowing apartment ... If ..
It brings out many technicalities abt how badly is this city planned ..or if it is planned at all .. and what are the authorities or the ppl doing to avoid this in future .. ther are lots of questions .. which will be asked for days to come ..
for now .. as we suffer the loss of arnd 5000 lives .. human and non human ...one shld just thank God that whereever we were .. we cud get thru the terrible day due to the resolve,spirit and cooperation and harmony that mumbai is ...there were more positives too .. the help and cooperation showed by ppl all arnd, the spirit and smiles ruled, the FM radio ,the truck rick and car walls offering lifts... and many more ..

Life u choose ....

i sometimes wonder why everything has to be so complex in life ..i mean to think of it ... why does one have to be so heavy abt life ?? why do u need to do the work the work u r doing ?
why does one have to study ? why get a degree and look for jobs ? why design programs , construct buildings , manufacture cars , and makes so many things and then sell them .., because in essence we can all do without all this ...
i mean this was never God's design ...
Ppl connected to each other much better before the age of mobile phones .and internet ...
It was easier to go from one place to another ... before the age of the fanciest cars... certainly better than being stuck in numerous traffic jams ....
we had better shows on TV and always found something to watch .. before the age of satellite TV ...
well while the materials increase ... the options multiply ... the opportunities double ... the comforts treble ... .. happiness eludes us even more ... and its amazing ... how none of us can manufacture happiness or the satisfaction of living a life we wanted ...
none of us can design programs ... manufacture products ..... or .. build infrastructure that will make us happy ... the ultimate happiness ...
and it exists ... for all of us ... and its upto us .. to choose a life .. path that leads to that ultimate happiness ... and thats what we shld seek ... first to know what wud give u that ultimate happiness and then to venture out and get it ....
we will talk more abt this .. and i wud want all of u to share ur thoughts abt this ...
hope u do ...

A life .. which ended .. when it started ..(something i wrote)

On a rain drenched august day ...

she opened her eyes ...to the world ..

her world ..which was her mother just then ...

who held her close with tears in her eyes ..

held her till she could hold ...

coz she knew she wont be there ...

wont be there to take care of her ..

when she wud need it the most ...

Five years on ..

and she does nt still know ...

why people look at her with disdain ..

why noone s there to share her pain ..

the pain of losing her mother to a disease unknown ..

the pain of having noone in this world she could call her own .

Why there are questions in everyone s eyes ..

which she doesnt understand .. let alone answer ..

Why noone wants to touch her ..not even her friends ..

why she is so alone in this world ..

There s noone to share her grief ..

the grief which she knows nothing about ..

And as she fallls sick ..

there s noone to take care of her ...

some people who care .. take her to the hospital ..

she lives in pain and grief a little more ..

her last few days ..

spent .. like her life ...

a life .. which ended .. when it started ..

She never knew .. why she lived ..

she never knew why she died ..

she never knew .. why she had no life ..

she never knew she had AIDS

Jobs, Employees and Resignations

well .. attrition is so commonplace these days in all companies .. and whenever i look at that next one who leaves .. i wonder whether it is just becoz there are so many opportunities available or there is some other reason too ??...just twenty years back ..leaving ur first or any job before at least 5 years would b considered a cardinal sin ... the issues and the outlook regarding, jobs , opportunities and manpower has changed.. thou i wonder how the rules regarding manpower at that time would have compared with the ones now ...

I mean . think of it guys .. the concept of manpower has changed so much ... today men are the biggest M for running a business . even bigger than Money and Material .. it s the age of paying hefty salaries to people .. but the fact still remains ... that be it a sales executive or a worker in a mfg. unit , a deskjob emplyee or a software executive ... they are still exploited .. all of them in a bigg way in most companies of the world .. and no i m not being disillusioned ...it s very true .. while we think that . so what if i put in extra hrs .. i m being paid so much ... the truth is that .. anyways the company pays you less than 20% of what u r worth .. they have to .. else how would they make those hefty profits .. most Indian companies i believe are very bureaucratuc .. and do not really understnd what investing into an employee for life means.. they are all very .. shortsighted in their outlook .. they want to get the maximum out of an employee while he s there .. coz they blv that he d surely jump out of the orgn very soon ... and thus companies create an envt, where even a person who s wlling to stay on for a longer term .. and wants to learn and move in a planned manner gets stuck in this cat and mouse game .....none of the orgns in india are good learning or breeding grounds for employees.. the good ole theory abt .. most learning happeneing at work s gone down the wire....orgns need to realise that like ,, money ..and other resources or like the organisation itself .. each and every employee is a long term asset and he needs to be nurtured and taken care of .. so that he stays on in the orgn for a longer time ...i mean we all know the perspective that the orgn . cannnot do anything since the employees leave so early ... well to give a new picture .. the orgns are just as indifferent ..and it would take a change of outlook to improve this situation ..

Narishakti ---- to wake us up from the slumber

As has been the tradition it has always been women who have woken you, me everyone up from the deep slumber ...whether it is ur Mom, ur sister , ur wife (not yet for me) ... ur girlfried, sweetheart, dreamgirl, crush keeps u woken up through nights of starry loneliness
and if not for this .. studies have woken us up and kept us awake for long ... (studies or the Goddess Saraswati ...) Money or the lack of it keeps the rich and the poor awake ... ( Goddess Lakshmi) ... and if ever u do any misdeeds .. Durga the Goddess will wake u up ....
well so much to establish the ever powerful , ever soulful , ever earnest creation that women around u are .... and what calls for this celebration of womanhood is not because i m getting married or have gotten smitten ... but because ..for the first time in 60 years of our existence as a nation .. we will have a Feminine Head of State .. Ms. Pratibha Patil will be sworn in as the president of India on July26 and it should be a proud moment for all of us as a nation ... we have left behind USA .. who in there 230 years of existence have never had a female head of state ... and it is a shame on any nation to talk so much about equal existence and rights and be so hypocritical in their actions ...
I know this is a small gesture only as President's seat is more of decorative post .. but i hope it is a step in the right direction ..and we can really see the equality we talk about not only in the cities but in the most backward villages of this nation too

Life in India

18 lakh 17 thousand 8 hundred and 17 ... is the number of times i have had to answer one question to my friends, cousins, relatives, friends of parents, neighbours , relatives of neighbours , cousins of cousins of aunts , uncles of neigbours , grandparents and parents .... and this one question is ... " why dont u go to the US ?" and i have given them so many different answers at diff states of my life ... .. but the question remains .... and the answer is really close to my heart ....

Besides the fact that i would be "good for nothing" in the US of A or any place outside India, since i dont have any expertise into what most of u r doing in US ...

the biggest reason for me not being abroad .. is becoz i dont want to ... and thats becoz ... i love my life .... my life in India ... India which is home .. home close to my parents ... my parents who i cant think of spending a week without ... home of my friends ... who r integral to my life ..... home of my House .... every corner of which i love .... home of my dreams ... my dreams which have never crossed boundaries ... ... and i know this sounds very emotional and utter impractical stuff ... but to tell u the truth ... i cant miss the happiness that i get here everyday ...

the happy showers that wash the dusty summer .... the cold winters .... the familiar faces ... and the unfamiliar ones too ... which somehow dont let the person in the mirror be ur only friend .... .. the girls (the best and the most beautiful) .... the seas ... the mountains .. the deserts ... the plains .. the KHETs ...

India which is home to My country ... my coutry which is on its way to bcome a superpower ... which is the best place to be if u want to start a new business ... the place ... which is on the verge of the biggest development spree that mankind will ever see ... India ... the country the world's rushing to ....

India and my life in India ....i cant give them up ... and hence i ll be here ,,

Mumbai - Livable ?

One thing that really fascinates me .. is how cities are planned ?
i mean if we truly see .. there are some citiees which are planned ..
yes there are some in India too . ..
I mean ppl staying in Bombay ,, which is a totally unplanned city ..
would not actually believe that cities could be planned .. but than they can be ..
some of the best planned cities in the world are .. London , Shanghai,Singapore,
HongKong,Dubai
and many more ...these cities have well defined commercial, residential,entertainment
and other zones in the city .. there is so much emphasis on planning ..
some of the cities are so planned that .. that at any given time there are almost equal number of
people in all major areas of the city ... the commercial,residential and other sectors
are equally distributed to facilitate this

well i m telling u abt this coz traveling, walking and in fact living has become almost impossible
in Mumbai ...trains are crowded .. roads are jammed and there are ppl all around and
apart from the influx of ppl in this city .. another problem with this city is its crumbling
infrastructure and bad design (planning)

The problem with mumbai s infrastructure has always been that the city travels in
one directions at a time ..
it is either townwards in the morning or .. outta town in the evening ..
the reason off course is the fact that the city centre .. which includes the commercial hub
for which it is known .. which still employs the largest number of people is in south bombay ..
and as and when the land prices escalated in the southern area ..
and Mumbai had only one direction to grow.. so the residential areas kept moving .. upwards ..
and to such an extent .. that at one time .. almost all of Mumbai travelled southwards ..in the morning ..
anyways .. the authorities finally woke up .. and there have been infrastructure and transportation plans ..
like MUTP and MUIP to make mumbai a better city ..
the shifting of commercial areas to BKC, SEEPZ and New Bombay etc. is one such step ..
widening of roads . better planning in terms of residential areas ..extra rail lines , flyovers , slum rehab ,
clearing mill lands etc .. are projects which i hope will result in a better mumbai.....

to tell u a few facts abt some cities which are well planned and are Indian ..

Jaipur and Chandigarh are cities where all the roads cut each other at right angles ..

There can never be a traffic jam at connaught place which is the city centre of New Delhi

Vashi and Chandigarh are cities divided into various sectors .. of equal areas ..
and each sector has parks, markets and other facilities.

New Delhi, Jaipur, Vashi and Chandigarh .. are some of the recent cities in India ..
which are very well planned ..