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Mumbai ke laal

‘Paan’ is a feature of Mumbai’s culture, and its biggest bane – every corner of the city is a spittoon.
by Devashri Prabhu

Whoever came up with the phrase ‘Paint the town red’ sure had Mumbai in mind. Mumbai has always been a colourful city – it is green and grey in monsoons, it has the blue of the ocean, and the red of paan.

Whoever invented paan sure has it coming from the city’s clean-up marshals. People spit paan juice freely and with practiced ease all over Mumbai. No detergent or cleaning solution is strong enough to clean off the stains caused by paan.

Just spit it

Paan graffitiIt brings a smile to your face when you hear of a fellow Indian proudly telling a foreigner that paan is part of Indian culture. Sure it is, but are also proud of how the same paan is a health hazard? And what about the sanitation problems it carries? The people who eat paan choose to spit out the betel juice instead of swallowing it, because swallowing it is said to be harmful. Well, spitting it out isn’t harmless for the city, either.

Wherever you go in Mumbai, you can see paan stains. Corners of public buildings, corridors, bus stops, public benches, footpaths, public walls, railway platforms, subways and religious places, too. How do you stop this habit? Even the garbage cans provided by the municipality have been gladly used as spittoons.

My story

Apart from dirtying every conceivable surface in the city, paan eaters will also gladly spit on other people without a care in the world. I have been spat at personally. I was sitting in the train by the window. It was evening time and I was returning from work. The train had halted at Wadala station.  After a tiring day at work, I was just about to catch a wink of sleep when phachaak! Someone had spat red betel juice on me. It was like he had sprayed me with it. The guy with the paan was in the train next to time and was still chewing his paan. Even before I could react, his train moved and he continued chewing and spitting without a care in the world. A real mai ka laal.

How to tackle it?

Since you can’t really stop people from chewing paan, people have come up with a few ways to discourage spitting. The most popular way is to put up pictures of gods and goddesses at all the strategic places such as public walls, corridors of buildings, etc. A sense of decency (otherwise lacking) prompts the spitter from selecting another spot to spray his paan all over. Another one was a feeble attempt to save the municipality garbage cans from becoming spittoons. The BMC would line each bin with large plastic bags on the inside, so that cleaning staff merely picked off the bag every day without having to clean the bin from the inside.

But these are ineffective measures. More stringent and consistent punishments have to be imposed on these habitual spitters. I suppose levying heavy fines could be a deterrent. A way to do this is to empower citizen clean-up marshals comprising of a force of senior citizens or interested youth volunteers who could be selected by the BMC to police certain areas and who would carry official badges indicating their appointment.

Spitting is rampant in Mumbai despite anti-spitting laws and heavy fines. A good way to stop the menace is to publicly shame the spitters. We are too casual about dealing with people who litter all over the city – why don’t we stop people from throwing garbage outside the train windows or spitting all over the place? The responsibility of a healthy and hygienic city lies equally in us and the Government. We should rally against the habit of spitting paan, tobacco or other substances together. Our city needs to have clean roads and public spaces – not those festooned with paan stains.

Devashri Prabhu has a Masters in Psychology and her interests lie in areas like Mental Health, Social Issues and Spirituality.

(Pictures courtesy gbtimes.com, sparknbeyond.wordpress.com. Images are used for representational purpose only)

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Bombay, bas

Mumbai to become slum-free?

A few suitable amendments to the Slum Redevelopment Act 1971 are in the offing; but will Mumbai ever really lose its slums?
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

“The Maharashtra Slum Redevelopment Act 1971 will be suitably amended to achieve the Government’s vision of a slum-free Maharashtra and the ultimate aim of the Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) is to house slumdwellers” said Aseem Gupta, CEO, Slum Redevelopment Authority, while speaking at the4th Edition of the CII Regional Conference on Infrastructure Project Management in association with CBRE in Mumbai yesterday. The Conference aimed at focusing on the challenges and possible solutions pertaining to on-ground project management practices for India’s construction industry.

CII Photo 1Gupta said that the proliferation of slums happened as a result of the city not being able to provide affordable housing at the rate at which population increased. He said that amendments to the Act will act as a catalyst to providing affordable housing in a time-bound manner with lesser hassles. He added that while undertaking a slum redevelopment project the social and economic aspects of the community are taken into consideration. He also spoke of how a recent amendment that provides for the eviction of non-participants of a slum scheme after 50 per cent of the dwellers have moved out can actually accelerate the process of clearing slums. As per the ammendment, the dwellers can be evicted after issuing them a public notice as opposed to individual notices earlier.

Speaking about a unique situation seen in the last five years, Gupta said that although Government has been allocating huge budgets to local bodies to develop cities, the same was not utilised due to the lack of preparedness on the part of the latter. He said that in Mumbai there were around 1,400 ongoing slum redevelopment projects with some projects having up to 25,000 houses each. He admitted that on an average, a slum project take around five to 10 years to complete and delays are mainly on account of sudden and unexpected Government announcements.

Rishi Bagla, Convenor of CII Make in Maharashtra Panel and Chairman and Managing Director, OMR Bagla Automotive Systems, said “Although the construction industry has flourished in the last decade in terms of project procurement methods and the number of new players in the field, it lags behind with respect to on-ground project management practices.” Explaining the importance of Agile Project Management Approach, he said that large scale development projects suffer from cost and time overruns that are typically symptoms of productivity problems and directly affect overall industry profitability.

Aamer Azeemi, Managing Director, India, Cisco Consulting Services, spoke at length about the Western models of Smart Cities and their future in India. He said, “Infrastructure is essential to make cities smarter and technology is an enabler in this process.” He described Smart Cities as smart and connected communities and said that their successful implementation needs a strong leadership at the local authority level. He added that a city would truly become smart by implementing `Internet of Everything’, which essentially means connecting things, data, process and people to internet.

Rajesh Doshi, Executive Director, Acme Housing India Private Limited said that most of the reasons for the delay in a development project are beyond the control of the developers and this includes DC rules, which have changed many times. He added that in addition to being construction managers, developers also don the hat of risk managers.

Pointing out to the various delays caused in huge projects because of lack of effective project management systems, Gurjot Bhatia, Sr Executive Director – Project Management Group, CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd said that 83 per cent of the Central Government projects in India suffer from cost overruns and worldwide about 70-90 per cent of projects exceed stipulated time and costs.

(Pictures courtesy www.theaustralian.com.au, CII. Featured image is a file picture)

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Dear Mumbai, I am leaving you

A Mumbaikar writes with sadness about being unable to cope with the madness of Mumbai – and asks for forgiveness.
Pooja Birwatkarby Dr Pooja Birwatkar

Dear Mumbai, I am sorry but I have decided that eventually, I will leave you. Not that I don’t love you or take pride in being a Mumbaikar. I am a Mumbaikar to the core of my heart and you are my eternal abode. My most memorable years of life have been spent in your shelter. However, I am really shaken at how you have transformed over the last few years.

I owe you everything for making me strong and independent, but I am unnerved by the state of affairs. As I advance in years, the Mumbai lifestyle is becoming increasingly difficult to cope with. My reserves of endurance are draining at the crammed trains, buses, roads and traffic signals. I begin to freak out now when I wait endlessly in a traffic jam. It is wonderful that the city is getting its various mono and metro rails, and over bridges and freeways, but I shudder to think how Mumbai will cope with the herds of immigrants crowding into it every day.

A few years from now, I anticipate that all our modern infrastructure will only be bursting with people. The many freeways and bridges built to make commuting easier will simply crumble under the weight of so many people. Eventually, everything will sag under the burden of catering to the huge population. How many more bridges will we make, how many other developments of such type will take place? There is simply no space left any more.

My Mumbai, I loved you in the monsoon when you looked so beautiful under a canopy of clouds for almost three months. The arrival of monsoon was timed to perfection, but for the last few years, the rains have been a cause for much nail biting and stress for me, as I wonder if I or my loved ones will be stuck in a deluge. Or the rains are so poor that our water reservoirs have no stocks left. And then there are the potholes, making my body ache and causing so many accidents every year.

Water shortage is now an accepted part of our lives, and soon, power cuts would be, too. If it’s not water cuts, it’s the fear of dengue, malaria and swine flu. I get goose bumps when I see an Dirt in Mumbaiambulance stuck in traffic pleading to pass through the merciless traffic, and I torture myself thinking that I am in that ambulance and not able to make it in time.

The city’s busy life gives us just enough time to meet our loved ones on the weekends. We have lost the luxury of catching up with our neighbours over cups of tea after a long day of work – because we know we would be intruding on their private time, of which all of us have so little. I like to imagine that I will spend my retirement years in a garden in front of my house with a cup of tea and my husband and friends for company. Sadly, I don’t see this dream taking place in Mumbai. Leave alone a garden, I have started envying those Mumbaikars who have balconies in their houses.

I am pained and saddened that my formerly ‘safe’ city is no longer so. My life’s story too may end up like so many elders in the city who are alone, their children having left home for better pastures. The ghastly stories in newspapers about acts of organised gangs targeting seniors fill me up with fear.

Dear Mumbai, if I am so stressed out, imagine the pressure you are under! You also must long for shady roads and clean air, quieter festivals and open spaces for citizens. You must long to look prettier and not so dirty all the time. Do you even remember a time in your past when we didn’t shamelessly rob you of everything you had and not give you anything in return?

I am sorry to be selfish and abandon you, my home land, and I expect that you would forgive me some day.

Dr Pooja Birwatkar is currently pursuing post doctoral research and working in the area of science education. She has been associated with the field of education in the past as a teacher educator, and her area of interest is research in education. 

(Pictures courtesy badabingbadabambadaboom.wordpress.com, knowledge.allianz.com)

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The femininity code: Contrasting Mumbai with Thailand

A recent trip to Thailand opened this Mumbaikar’s eyes as she introspected on the status of women the world over.
Pooja Birwatkarby Dr Pooja Birwatkar

Travelling to foreign places has really become a fashion trend. Thailand, of all such places, seems to be hot favourite among Indian tourists. Almost all my neighbours, family and associates have been to Thailand. Hearing about its popularity, this year we decided to go there as well. The most appealing factor, of course, was that the Indian rupee is not so low in denomination as compared to their currency, so we wouldn’t spend all our time mentally calculating and converting while shopping!

But the trip to Thailand totally shook me up and made me seriously rethink issues that feminists all over the world have been most vocal about. I was cautioned by few people that Thailand was ‘a naughty place’ and so when I travelled there, that adjective ‘naughty’ was firmly stuck in my head.

Actually landing there and experiencing the place made me reinterpret my own ideas of what constitutes ‘naughtiness’.

The first thing our tour manager, Tuk, told us was to keep our eyes, mind and heart open. She said, “This is Thailand, not India…Everything happens here. See the other side of the world.”  I soon understood what she meant. Imagine my shock when I saw young girls moving around with oldies who could pass off as their grandfathers. The night life was rather too bold for me. Not that we Indians are unaware of such acts back home in our country, with numerous stories of bawdy brothels, prostitution and human trafficking doing the rounds in the news and mass media almost every day. But you don’t witness these as openly as you do in Thailand.

I was intrigued by these girls wherever I saw them, on beaches, in hotels, in shopping arcades, on the streets and mostly when travelling in those cute tuk tuks. I shamelessly stared at them and observed them; sometimes I was obvious enough for them to notice and smile cutely at me.

I also noticed that unlike in our country, these girls were not a taboo on their society. They were as much part of the regular local crowd as anyone else. The locals did not treat them differently or Sex workerslook down upon them. I began to wonder if their work was looked upon respectably here. A little discussion with my tour guide on this made me realise that whatever these girls were doing was not disrespectful in the eyes of the people of Thailand. They were merely doing their work, so what if the work happened to be of a ‘different’ type?

Pondering over my own reservations about their choice of profession, I began to feel a deep respect for these girls as I saw them walk with their head held high. I am sure they must be regular wives, daughters and motheres in their houses and their profession may not way affect that ‘normal’ part of their lives in any way. I gathered that women in Thailand did all types of work and millions were were bread earners of the families. Only I wish there were more dignified professions for them.

I also questioned the entity of women. Are we mere objects of sexual desire or are we actually reduced to being such objects? I remember a few days ago, after a visit to a beauty parlour, my six-year-old son asked, “Why do you go to the parlour and endure so much pain?” He then asked if he would have to go to the parlour too, when he grew up. I told him that boys didn’t need beauty treatments.

His next question was simple: “Why?” And even as I fumbled for an answer, I realised that we women groomed ourselves to look attractive, but nobody placed the expectation of looking good all the time on men (though I know of several men who groom themselves a lot). The larger question is: who exempted men from looking their best at all times? And who said women cannot go about with unmanicured nails, hairy armpits and visible moustaches? What is so unattractive about that? And if we have to blame ‘society’ for these expectations, then aren’t we women a part of this society, too? Why, then, do we accept the idea that women must always look attractive and ‘ladylike’ at all times?

We lament the plight of our women but I find that women are exploited all over the world. My experience in Thailand made me introspect about my own status as a woman and I found that thankfully, till date, my gender has never been a hindrance during any of my life stages, be it school, college, career or even as a citizen. I am proud to say that I owe most of this to my city Mumbai which has largely contributed in making me cherish my gender rather than be struck down by it.

Mumbai definitely scores much above all other cities in India as far as gender issues are concerned. Despite incidents of molestation and rape being reported on a regular basis, I still feel safe in Mumbai. The city doesn’t care much about me being a woman, and I get to enjoy my freedom when I walk on the streets late at night or reach home late from work. I have my own compartment and seats reserved in trains and other public transport. I can have coffee at a coffee joint without being stared at. My workplace does not give me any concessions because of my gender. I see hordes of women every morning stepping out of their homes on the way to their jobs, and they don’t look nervous or scared – on the contrary, their confidence rubs off on newcomers in the city. There are dark sides to Mumbai where one can find Thailand-like scenarios, but still the city lets you be what you want to be. This is a city that belongs to me as much as anyone.

And my heart goes to the millions of women all over the world who are sex workers. I feel their outrage at being commodified, but I feel tremendous respect for them for being courageous and dignified despite their situation.

(Pictures courtesy content.time.com, www.zimbio.com. Images used for representational purpose only)

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Bombay, bas

How a Mumbai housing society became a joint family this Christmas

A busy Mumbaikar describes how a simple act of putting together a Christmas celebration became a unifying labour of love.
Pooja Birwatkarby Dr Pooja Birwatkar

The title of this piece may not make much sense to people who live outside Mumbai, where the concept of housing societies has still not gained much popularity. But for us Mumbaikars, housing societies define our habitats. A few years ago, the building where I live formed a housing society and christened it the Blue Bell Housing Society. The formation of this society naturally brought its residents in close contact with each other, as meetings and agendas required frequent participation. Slowly, it gave way to bonding and many residents became friends.

Most families in Mumbai’s building societies are nuclear ones. It is not possible for people like us who live in nuclear families to always rush back home to near and dear ones in times of crisis and celebrations. Our fast lives leave us with no choice but to spend our free time within the confines of our homes – often leading to feelings of loneliness. The loneliness is pronounced at times of festivities. Fortunately, our building found a solution to this grave problem – by starting a small community Ganapati celebration, which later led us to organise many small scale celebrations like Children’s Day.

This year, our building decided to celebrate the spirit of Christmas in a big way. A few parents led the idea and religiously trained the building’s children and a few volunteer moms for almost a month in carol singing. Like all big things that start with a small idea, this celebration too started on a lighter note – but soon assumed the guise of a professionally-arranged event.

Celebrating as a joint familyEvery day, children of all ages from 2 to 13 years, regardless of their religion, gathered to learn carols. As they practiced the carols every day, we saw some unique transformations taking place among them. They started to share and support each other, a group feeling and discipline crept in among these children who hadn’t been socialising with each other that much prior to their practice.

As adults, we feel that we are the ones bogged down by daily pressures, but we don’t realise that changing times are also taking a toll on our children, and that they need stress-busters also. But we completely ignore the fact that with changing times even kids have started to experience stresses of all kinds and they need some stress busters too. In this case, music proved therapeutic for our children; it pepped them up and made them happier.

Even more pronounced was the effect that the entire activity was having on the mothers who were organising the event. Most of them were stay-at-home moms who previously had rewarding careers, which they had given up for raising families. These women proved to be storehouses of talent when it came to putting the event together.

On the day of the event, everyone was understandably nervous but excited. We had decided to do the event on a shoestring budget, and the costumes had been put together (creatively) at home. I must add that the children outdid their previous efforts and left all of us awestruck. The audience comprised the building’s residents and their friends and families. All of us had a merry time feasting, enjoying the music and taking part in the fun activities arranged.

But more than the actual event, what all of us enjoyed was the run-up to it – in just a few days, we learnt so much about each other as we worked together for a common goal. Most of us have been living next to each other for years. But it took one event to bring us all closer in the true sense of the word.

I feel all Mumbai housing societies should plan such activities periodically. There can be no better way to become secular than to act and behave like a large joint family. There is so much to learn from each other. Ever religion, every festival, every culture teaches us in its own unique way humanity, love and respect for all, and definitely makes us better individuals. We Mumbaikars are too pressed for time to fully inculcate family, cultural and ethical values in our children, but we can come together as a group and try to jointly teach our children all of that which we alone can’t.

Today, I am happy that my son has a large joint family in his building, and that he will have many wonderful childhood memories. As a parent, what more can I ask for?

Dr Pooja Birwatkar is currently pursuing post doctoral research and working in the area of science education. She has been associated with the field of education in the past as a teacher educator, and her area of interest is research in education. 

(Pictures courtesy Dr Pooja Birwatkar)

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Bombay, bas

Trailing Mumbai’s roadside businesses

All sorts of entrepreneurs abound in Mumbai – the most ubiquitous are the ones operating their business on the roads.
by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

It takes all kinds of people to survive in a city that despite being already overcrowded, attracts migrants in droves by the hour from all over the country. The lure of making it big someday, the hope of feeding a family in a better manner, the irresistible pull of the city that never sleeps – there are varied reasons that bring a migrant to Mumbai. But once here, reality strikes in and strikes really hard. The rose-tinted glasses are cast off in no time and one settles down to the grimy, grueling existence.

One soon learns that nothing in this city comes for free, not even the tiny stretch of pavement where one can plonk a basket or a cart and hawk his or her wares. One learns the hard way that there is something by name of hafta to be paid to the cops to claim even that tiny stretch of pavement. But what if you are so hard up that you can’t even afford to pay the hafta?

Here’s where ingenuity kicks in, and several ‘roadside entrepreneurs’ are born.

Idli seller in MumbaiMurali, who sells idlis on the street corners of Andheri on his impromptu ‘stall’ set up on his bicycle says, “I live in Jogeshwari. I ride several kilometres to come down here because I can find office-going customers looking for cheap breakfasts. For me, this is a good business that brings quick profits. My grandfather owned a shop in the village. He used to cook and serve his customers. Here, in a city like this, owning even a tiny shop is difficult. I cannot afford it at present. I hope to slowly save money from this and eventually buy my own shop some day.”

Other roadside entrepreneurs move on to become ‘permanent’ by establishing a fixed spot on the roadside, even paying the afore-mentioned hafta. But many others function along ‘makeshift’ lines. Thus, the city teems with shoe sellers displaying their wares on a cart with wheels, or the no-frills idli-wada seller who just brings a large aluminium dabba with a stack of paper plates and a rolled up bunch of polythene bags, or the woman with a large container of poha and some Styrofoam bowls.

Savitri cuts a lone figure standing at the corner of the road that leads towards SEEPZ. There’s a small table in front of her and on it are placed two aluminum containers. One contains poha and the other sheera. A stack of paper plates completes the ensemble. A couple of young men head to the table and are soon munching away. “How much is a plate of poha?”, I ask, “10 Rupees” is the reply. And sheera? “15 Rupees.” she holds up a paper plate piled high with sheera enticing me. I take a bite and find it delicious. She lost her husband a couple of years ago and her children are in school. To make ends meet, she started selling food on the road, using the one skill she really knows well – cooking.

How many of these find customers, you wonder. But they do. Middle class office-goers who crave South Indian or Maharashtrian breakfasts but can’t afford the prices of a restaurant roadside stuff that, though sold through such humble means, don’t lack in taste. Likewise, the persons who can’t afford visits to even a small barber salon throng the roadside barber stalls, where they can get a quick haircut or shave for as less as Rs. 20 or Rs. 10.

Nasir, who runs a roadside barber shop in Kurla, is in his 60s. He has been in this “business” for decades. He has had several scrapes with the local cops but being the sole bread earner of his largeBangle seller in Mumbai family, he finds a way to resume his trade again. Though these barbers’ cuts are cheap, they are by no means untrendy. These barbers are known to tear out pages from used magazines featuring latest haircuts and see TV to keep themselves up to date with what’s in vogue.

Likewise, in many areas of the city, you will also find roadside ear-cleaners, impromptu dentists, bone-setters, and so on. All these persons operate from the pavements but never lack customers.

Unlike people who can invest good capital into their business, these people start with almost nothing. There’s no one to fund them, no means to pay off loans, and they cannot afford the licenses that would be required to set up proper shops. So they turn into roadside entrepreneurs and hope to fend for their families.

(Pictures courtesy www.stockpicturesforeveryone.com, www.thehindubusinessline.com. Images are used for representational purposes only)

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