Yesterday at 6.25pm one of the busiest cities in the World came to a total standstill for two minutes. As the coldwar sirens blared all across Mumbai, millions stopped all conversation, traffic came to a halt and cinemas interrupted films on Tuesday as the Indian city observed a short silence in memory of 182 people killed in last week’s bombings. They were accompanied by President A.P.J Abdul Kalam as he stood in salute at Mahim station. But will the terrorists ever be caught? The chances seem grim especially with all our politicians play the blame game that they are so good at!
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The Story of a Train Passenger
Received this email from a colleague of mine whose friend narrated his experience on one of the trains on which a bomb went off during the deadly Mumbai bomb blasts of Tuesday. It goes as follows: “STUNNED” – Mumbai Mirror. “7 BLASTS ROCK MUMBAI”- Yahoo! headlines. Which editor wrote these lines? Which abysmal mother [email protected]#ker had the guts to talk about my motherland, MY CITY being stunned!!! I was there. I was on the train, in the hospital and on the streets and I didn’t see Stunned. I saw Stunning…stunning acts of kindness. And nothing rocked Mumbai. No self respecting Mumbaikar can believe that. No. Its not ‘blasts rock Mumbai’…
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Light a Candle
Mumbai came to a shocking standstill on July 11 when serial blasts ripped through its local trains, killing and wounding hundreds. But the city of dreams stood fearless and fighting fit. Salute Mumbai’s never-say-die spirit and Light a Candle for those who succumbed to the blasts or got injured. For every candle you light, CNN-IBN and Channel 7 will donate Re 1 for the relief of the victims. Do light a candle. It is free and only takes a minute.
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Dear Terrorist…
Received two forwards with this letter. It very well could be a real letter from any Mumbaikar to the persons responsible for the bombings yesterday. Dear Terrorist, Even if you are not reading this we don’t care. Time and again you tried to disturb us and disrupt our life – killing innocent civilians by planting bombs in trains, buses and cars. You have tried hard to bring death and destruction, cause panic and fear and create communal disharmony but every time you were disgustingly unsuccessful. Do you know how we pass our life in Mumbai? How much it takes for us to earn that single rupee? If you wanted to…
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First Rains, Then Riots and now Bombs
Within just two weeks another tragedy has hit Mumbai. After heavy rains last week that brought Mumbai to a standstill and we were just resuming life as normal we faced riots yesterday when the Shiv Sena went out on a rampage shutting shops and pelting stones and burning buses all over Mumbai and Maharashtra. And this evening the Mumbai was rocked by eight serial blasts at Borivili (two), Khar, Meera Road, Matunga, Jogeshwari, Bhayander railway stations and on the Khar-Santacruz subway. Read more about the situation from IBNLive. This isn’t the first time Mumbai has been rocked by blasts. Everyone remembers the 1993 bomb blasts as well as many others…
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Manholes – Day 11
And my report continues. Not much development in the manholes. It hasn’t gotten worse from yesterday nor has it gotten better. Manhole 1 – Day 11 Manhole 3 – Day 09 Additionally the road situation on the junction has just worsened. Horrible traffic, bad roads, this is Mumbai!
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Manholes – Day 08
This is the follow up post from Manholes – Day 03. As I said, I wasn’t able to take pictures of days 04 to 07. However, the BMC hasn’t disappointed me. When I arrived at my stop today, both the manholes in a worse state since that day. Here’s Manhole 01 on the eight day: And Manhole 03 on it’s sixth day: As you can see this has broken down still further. One of the two covers has gone missing and there is water all around the manhole. What’s worse about this manhole is that it is exactly at a right turn, which makes it difficult for vehicles to maneuver…
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A Nightmare in Public Transport
Had to attend my Grandma’s birthday party last evening and since my bike was giving problems I decided to use public transport to get back home from work. Left my workplace a little after 3.30pm and hitched a ride with a colleague heading towards Thane. His plans changed and I had to get off at Rabale and find a bus or auto heading towards Airoli. For those who aren’t aware, the transport in Navi Mumbai SUCKS! After a good deal of waiting I a 513 arrived and I jumped in as it heads towards Mulund.
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Manholes – Day 03
Following up on my post, we enter the third day. The condition of Manhole 01 hasn’t changed much since yesterday, but neither has it been repaired. And I found another manhole nearby in a much worse state! I won’t be able to get feedback for Day 03 to Day 07, because of a two day training programme I have to attend, plus the weekend. Hopefully, the manholes would be repaired by Monday.
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Yeh Des Hai Mera
I’m a little charged up by my Manholes post. Born, brought up and having lived in Mumbai all my life, I’ve found a lot of things to complain about in this city, be it the roads, the traffic, the corporation or the people at times. And then again there are a lot of things that make me really proud to live in this city. I always look at both sides of the coin. At times it gets just too frustrating to do anything about it. At other times things are so amusing or downright stupid that all I can do is talk about it. So, why not talk about this…
