bangalore–aaaaarggh!

wonder y ppl make so much of a fuss about the water logging in bbay… the last few days in blore, it has been raining.. not pouring, mind you.. just a lil bit of rain.. the kind that will make a paddy field just abt wet — but, yet, the blore roads say a different story all-together!! thers atleast an inch of water on the roads — every road .. and in parts where the pot-holes lurk underneath.. obviously more!!

and… on closer inspection — i cudnt find a single drain opening… whether storm water, or regular water — nope.. no drains at all!!!

hmmmmm… here’s what ppl living in glass houses shouldnt do!

BMC’s new toy..

For some time now, the BMC — the god of small things (well, actually everything) in b’bay — has been saying that they are taking the cleaning up of b’bay very seriously … err.. something a lot of people are willing to contest — but i’m going off-track…

yesterday, i saw actual proof that the BMC is really trying to clean up b’bay… i saw this tiny little robot-like apparatus — which looked like it was a manned version of R2D2, cleaning the road, with rather fancy looking bristles — a big-brother u can say of the tile polisher that makes the horrible noise when the neighbours are “doing” their house yet another time…

very impressive i must say… though, wonder when the BMC will realise that the time to use this new toy is in the wee hours of the morning or late at nite, when not too many cars want to use the road…. definitely not at noon when your “toy” causes a massive traffic jam!!!!

when the rains cometh

its raining!!!!!!! not the mercy drizzles that had graced bbay for the past few weeks… the rain gods have actually smiled. and brought with them the rains bombay knows!!

its pouring.. its completely overcast… the horizon is lost in the haziness of the drops………. hmmmmmmmm!!

Paus Aaala Re!!

…. And the rain gods have blessed us!!

over the last few days monsoon arrived in mumbai.. making the city more beautiful than ever.. the cloudy skies forming a dark, greyish background that makes the tiniest detail of the skyline standout, the sweet smell of the wet ground (yes u do get the smell of wet earth in a concrete jungle like mumbai) and the greenery that suddenly sprouts out everywhere… mumbai wears a different look when it rains…(yes yes i know ppl out ther must be dying to say how dirty and mucky it all is.. … but to them all i say is…  look above it all… tell me one place that doesnt get mucky and dirty in the rains…  )

to reallly experience the rains in mumbai.. mumbai-ishtyle.. go to marine drive when its really cloudy and rainy… sit on the promenade,  sip on a coffee from the coffee-wala on the cycle, maybe eat bhutta with extra masala and nimbu… take in the strong sea breeze and get wet in the sea spray…. then u’ll see what i mean when i say — aaaaah… how i love the city!!

Where has the Jhankaar gone?

“Jhankaar” is the Bambaiyya lingo for the dhin-chak music that is often heard blaring from autorickshaws …. (and yes this phrase was very much in existence before the movie appeared!) …. for the uninitiated its a typical remixed version of regular hindi songs - with a specific “chan chan” sound (like the sound of ghoonghroos) to accompany the myriad of instruments that go into the making of a hit hindi song…

As unappealing as it may sound to connoisseurs of music, I must say the jhankaar music in a rickshaw can lighten up even the longest (and full of traffic) auto ride in Mumbai.

the rickshaw-wala’s for their part say that installing a music system in their rick leads to more trips… customers like listening to music while travelling.. and no wonder; since loads of youngsters prefer to travel with a music-wala rick. However, over the last few weeks in b’bay, i’ve hardly seen music wala rickshaws… or for that matter even heard the jhankaar. which brings me to my question…. where has the jhankaar gone???? have the number of rickshaws increased so much that the erstwhile significant proportion of “music-wali rickshaw” decreased to an insignificant amount?? or can the “Freakonomics” thoery be applied here??? Nokia and other cell-fone giants didnt know they would be causing this effect when they launched cheaper mobile handsets with radio… nowadays practically everyone has a cell-fone with radio… with music available at everyones fingertips… is this the real reason why the jhankaar has disappeared??

food for thought eh!?!

Thoughts of jhankaar and music are invariably accompanied by this incident that always brings a smile to my face….

This was while in college…. some years ago… A friend wanted to hail a rick to go Bandra.. but the condition was that the rick had to have a music system… now usually, there is a whole line of ricks rite outside our college gates.. so my dear friend went peeking into all the ricks.. to see if anyone had a music system… as luck may have it not one of them had a system… so madam stood around waiting for one that did have a system… all this while a rick-wala stood silently observing her… and to our amazement came up to her and said.. “Madam hamare rikshe mein music nahi hai.. par ham gaa denge… aap baithiye to sahi” !!!! …