Mumbai Musings

Finally, Metro!
On the special occasion of Maharashtra Day and International Labour Day on May 1, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan did something that will please the labour class – which is practically everybody in Mumbai – and Maharashtrians all alike. He flagged off the first successful test run of the Mumbai Metro Rail, after having missed several deadlines in the past. Nearly five years after the work started, the metro is expected to open for public later this year. The metro will improve east-west connectivity, currently a nightmare for commuters, who spend hours and hours honking their way through in traffic or fighting a war in the suburban local train day in and day out. With increasing fares of buses, autos and taxis, a working metro may just provide a tiny breather that the city is gasping for. 

Ghosts Of The Past
Even as the country dealt with the death of Sarabjit Singh and attack on a Pakistani in an Indian jail, a victim of the July 2006 train blasts passed away in a Mumbai hospital after battling for life for nearly seven years. Amit Singh, a commerce graduate, was 22 when he suffered serious injuries in the train blasts that killed 187 during peak hours on western suburban trains. It had become an annual ritual for media and politicians to visit comatose Amit and meet Dinesh and Meena, his optimistic parents at the Jaslok Hospital. The doctors said Amit had been through several ups and downs in the past seven years and it was a severe lung infection that was the last straw. The staff spoke of the parents, who were relentlessly hoping for a miraculous recovery. Another victim is said to be recovering at another hospital. The expenses have been borne by western railways.

Azad Maidan Echoes
In the meanwhile, a constable, who was injured in the Azad Maidan riots last year, succumbed to brain injuries, said his family. The protests which were held over the atrocities against Muslims in Burma went out of control. It is unclear whether he died of injuries sustained on that day or an infection that developed later because he did not complain about the injury on the same day. The police department has promised support. While two protestors were killed, more than 90 were injured, most of them police men. Women police officers were manhandled and even molested by the rioters, reports said. The then police commissioner Aroop Patnaik was later transferred, reportedly for being unable to prevent the rioters from attacking the cops.

Without Answers
And atrocities on women do not seem to let up (will they ever?). Preeti Rathi from New Delhi, who is studying to become a nurse, still does not know who threw acid on her face, after which she has been in the ICU. She has not been able to speak since the attack and may lose vision in one eye. The police has released sketch of the offender and is on the lookout. Newspapers have reported that she has been communicating with her relatives through handwritten notes. One of them says, “Has my face been damaged? ... Please take money from my account. The treatment must be expensive… I had done no wrong, why did this happen to me?” Any answers, anyone? 

Thumbs Up To Campa Cola
Soon after we reported about the demolition of illegal floors of south Mumbai buildings in Worli, the residents managed to convince the Supreme Court to give them five months before the hammer comes down on the illegal structures. And while the families scramble for alternate accommodation and some miraculous solution for the problem, activists have started talking about how widespread the problem is. “Why only Campa Cola Compound? What about the rest of Mumbai, where over 40% of occupied residential buildings don't have BMC's mandatory Occupation Certificates? It is reckoned that at least 6,000 buildings are being paying double for municipal water, which means they are not authorized. Many unauthorized structures are routinely regularized on payment of penalties... but there are many more that are not yet regularized for various reasons. Will this axe fall on them also? And why only Mumbai? What about Thane, Mumbra, Ulhasnagar etc. where thousands of unauthorized (and often unsafe) structures are standing -- a disaster waiting to happen?” asks Ramesh Prabhu, from Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association. 

Om Phat Swaha! 
One of the most popular Marathi films of the 1990s is making a comeback. And with two firsts. Zapatlela 2, will be the first Marathi film to be made in 3D and also the first sequel. So what if it was inspired by Child’s Play in the first place. The first one had everything right, scary ghost called Tatya Vinchu, played by Dilip Prabhavalkar (who also played Mahatma Gandhi in Lage Raho Munnabhai), protagonist Laxmikant Berde with impeccable comic timing (he passed away few years ago) and actor director Mahesh Kothare. This time while Prabhavalkar and ventriloquist Ramdas Padhye (he had created the ghost puppet) remain in the film, Kothare has roped in several actors doing very well in the current wave of quality cinema in Marathi. May be the gibberish mrityunjaya mantra ‘Om Bhugbhuge Bhagani Bhagodari Om Phat Swaha,’ which Tatya Vinchu chanted in the film has indeed cast the right kind of spell! It is set to release in June, after a gap of 19 years. Om phat swaha, ha!

Marathi-Kannad Bhai Bhai
As if we did not have enough border issues on our national borders, as politicians get active before the election year in 2014, the as old as ever issue of Belgaum is making a comeback, not just on the political platform but also on Marathi theatre. First it was R R Patil, who got into trouble with his speech over the Belgaum issue in April. Now a play titled Zhalach Pahije, which claims to be a “fiery Marathi play based on the Belgaum border issue,” has hit theatres on the special occasion of Maharashtra Day. The CM himself has recently acknowledged that Belgaum ‘is not a closed chapter’. Sir, you have not just taps but rivers running bone dry. This is perhaps the worst ever drought that has ever hit the state. The displaced are landing in the slums of Mumbai every day and ‘redevelopment’ projects are ‘redeveloping’ the very essence of Mumbai itself. Isn’t it time we closed at least this chapter?