The 40 Day Deadline!

In my childhood the phrase that came across my mind whenever I heard the word 40 was the story of “Ali baba and the 40 thieves!”. I am not sure how many of today’s kids know that story!

Today 40 is perhaps the hottest number in Mumbai, especially in the political arena, Media, Taxi & Auto drivers, and with people like you and me. Thanks to Raj Thackery who has given the 40 day deadline to all the North Indian Taxi & Auto drivers to learn Marathi or leave for their native states. I wish he could have instead ordered the Taxi & Auto wallah’s to realize that Taxi & Autos are meant to take people where they want go and not where the Auto or Taxi wallah prefers to go.

If I had the power to make things happen my way… here is what I would have asked people to stop within the next 40 days… If you don’t you can take your ass out of this city!

So here I go:

1. Stop peeing & shitting wherever you feel like!
2. Stop spitting in local trains (especially in that gap between the door and the coach!), buses, corners of stations, and that lone tree and that panwallah’s corner and that BEST bus stop’s chrome pillar and…  everywhere else!
3. Stop jumping signals! I don’t give a shit if your ride is a 500 bucks one or a 50,00,00,000 one!
4. Stop waiting for a BEST Supervisor to tell you to maintain a Queue, let us get the Queue culture!
5. Stop blaring your loudspeakers, be that of your cellphone or the one at your place of worship or party!
6. Stop illegally advertising misleading ads in trains, buses etc!
7. Stop charging “cooling charges” on cool drinks and “Bisleri”!
8. Stop honking when see the lights go green and you are at the fag end of vehicles lined up at a signal. Everybody is not an “expert driver” like you!
9. Stop paying respect to Gods by showering your offerings in Plastic bags into rivers and the seas.
10. Stop littering! This one is for that pan masala eater who is oblivious of where the sachet of pan masala falls the moment it is popped into his mouth as well as to the one who eats at place  like McD, KFC, Subway etc and drop the crates, wrappers etc outside the malls)
11. Stop ignoring words like “Excuse Me”, “Sorry” and “Thank You” instead of giving other a piece of your butt or shoulder when you want to sneak through crowded place.

Ah! My list will be end-less, of course, it is a wish list!

I know I am asking for too much in too less of a time! But folks! Let us face it! We lack basic civic sense!

If anybody abuses, insults or doesn’t respect the local culture & language it is unacceptable and he or she better start doing so. Again here what I call as abuse may not be what you consider as abuse and vice verca. Hence it is a thin line, so why ever tread on the thin line when we have broader outlines.

I wonder what value does it add to a common man if a cabbie learns the regional language, considering he will be driving pretty much inside the city where almost everyone knows Hindi.

Instead of concentrating on issues which divides people, let us concentrate on bringing out and addressing issues that effect our daily lives. Let us all work to tackle larger issues. We live in a country that is so damn resource starved that the best we can do about it is to utilize the available ones as efficiently as possible. Mindset change is something that cannot come overnight, there has to be collective effort from everyone, especially the educated ones. The ones like you and me who lives in this age of information.

Just imagine, if you stop doing the 11 things (I am not proposing a 11 point agenda for renaissance in Mumbai) but a set of few things that I think must stop at any cost. I am sure you have much more to add to it! Let us get a bit more civilized! Let us get it done! And yea… the 40 days deadline? Well, we’d see some people getting trashed (may be even me for writing this ), some smashed windshields, probably some mangled Autos and Cabs and a mute govt & law enforcement.

Signing Off!

Novin

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Silent Diwali

Ah! This is that time of the year when the noise levels in our cities are at the peak! Our festivals are incomplete without waking up the neighbours… We are like this only! (We are like this only is the most abused phrase these days )

So here we are with Diwali – The Festival of Lights! Really?? It appears to be more like the festival of sound! We spend lots of money buying the fireworks that contribute to hell lot of air and noise pollution. We the educated youth should take responsibility of spreading awareness about these issues among our peers and children. When I say spreading awareness, I mean to pass this message about rising pollution levels during festive seasons, weather to implement our thoughts or not is solely up to them.

My employer planned a Diwali fest last night and had planned to burst crackers to conclude the even. I wrote to the organizer who didn’t give a damn about it. I didn’t want to play spoilsport and didn’t push the matter much.

Check out some facts and figures here:

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_ganpati-beats-diwali-at-decibels_1299092

1 lakh students vow not to burst crackers: Times of India: 15th Oct 2009:

Can’t we all celebrate a Diwali which is full of light than full of noise, smoke and burn injuries?

That is just a thought for you to ponder upon, at the end of the day we are a democratic and free country, we can celebrate our festivals the way we want!

Happy Diwali Folks!

Thank You

Novind

Water Cycle!

I just added this new category “Earth and Us” and to start with I thought of sharing the phenomenon of Water Cycle as the first post! I remember the amazement when learning water cycle, I guess it was in 4th grade, the diagram was damn interesting! It was amazing to learn how the water from sea used to become vapor and then precipitate back to earth!

And for all of us who have forgotten the terms “Evaporation”, “Condensation”, “Precipitation” (Just like me ) Here is the  ”Water Cycle”!

http://www.geocities.com/kindergartenkapers/preparingroom.html

Check the above link for some learning it the way we did years ago!

Signing Off

Novin