Disastrous Management. Review on Mumbai Monsoon 2006

Mumbaikars, let's talk. I think it is high time we got our due. We cannot be expected to embarass Krissh every monsoon. Unlike him, we are ordinary human beings who deserve at least basic infrastructural facilities and better handling of the rains for a basic level of convenience. I got this new topic added considering last year's disaster is repeating itself. Express your views freely on this review and write your own reviews on this too. Who knows, Johnny Joseph may be reading(What's the harm in a bit of dreaming?).

THIS IS WHAT I WROTE ON 4TH JULY 2006:

How do I start - the disastrous management continues unabated!!! Since Saturday, work in India's commercial capital has been thrown completely out of gear and the municipal and state authorities' tall claims appear laughable to say the very least. If yesterday I took a halfday from work, today I returned home halfway to work, seeing the water levels on the roads beginning to rise. And what a wise decision that was!!! Within hours, the railway services were thrown out of gear and waterlogging spread to several parts of the city. And - horrors of horrors - Nariman point, which was dry 'even' in the afternoon, got waterlogged towards the evening - rub your eyes in disbelief - with just a heavy downpour in the afternoon.

The worst affected areas in the city had to go without power. Thankfully, my locality Vashi - atleast my lane! - escaped all this to remain one of the best areas in the city and suburbs in the rains! And what does our dutiful municipal commissioner Johnny Joseph have to say to Mumbaiites - "Please remain calm, don't panic or believe rumours." Yeah, right, we have remained calm despite having seen you guys make a holy mess of this city over the years for that dirty word votebank, what makes you think we'll panic now? We have become numb without our resilience and immunity to anything happening around us.

If the sky were to fall on the city tonight - lemme tell you there's a prospect of that too! - Mumbaiites, instead of screaming in fright, would try to get out of the debris through the nearest gap in sight! It's not my intention to continue any further with this tirade - sorry Mr.Deshmukh, I don't believe anything can rouse the BMC or the State Govt out of its slumber. I just have a simple question to ask of you - In future, if it so much as drizzles in the morning, should Mumbaiites leave for work without anxiety about whether they will return home safely?

OK, I don't need to be told I'm exaggerating, Mr.Smart Aleck. But frankly, the rain this city has seen in the last four days is nothing new to it. Don't tell me the BMC was unprepared for 10 cm a day of rainfall. But that is exactly what has happened. No, I'm not demanding the sky; I do know that Kalina and Milan Subway are chronically prone to waterlogging. But then, there was no need for the authorities to make such absurdly empty promises which have been literally washed away in the first dose of seriously heavy rain. You could have asked us to be prepared for the worst, just in case.

We already were, you know. You could have asked companies to keep workload low in the monsoon and redistribute the backlog through the rest of the year to the extent feasible. Nothing difficult that - work an extra hour or two and breathe easy in the monsoon. Look, if you cannot bring Shanghai or Singapore or Manhattan or what have you right here in Mumbai, no problem, you know. We can forgive you for that. Just tell us that Mumbai will forever be like this only and we'll adjust our lives around that reality.

You've made us perhaps the most cynical bunch of people on earth. But even we are naive at heart. And we seriously hoped deep down that the downpour of 26/7 would bring some sanity back to Mantralaya. It is patently clear that that was very much the stuff of dreams. So, this is for all of you who plan to move to Mumbai - please do not come here only because some builder sold on you the dream of proposed infrastructural improvements in the area. Mumbai nahin badalne wala hain!

I'm fine with the city the way it is, for better or worse. But if you can't make that adjustment, I promise you, you'll not enjoy your stay here.

Update:Though I stayed home today, by all accounts, thing seem to have somewhat improved now largely on account of the raingod making peace with the city yesterday night. But the rain continues and the authorities continue to be clueless. One good news: today the BMC was pulled up by the Bombay High Court for its disastrous management of roads and asked to respond positively with some damage control by July 26 (do I remember somethign about this date?). That should bring temporary relief for us (there is no hope of permanent relief a slong as the present state of affairs continue. So, here's hoping we all get to go to work and return home safely without major hassles.