Well, I was in Mumbai !!!

But just missed a miracle (Thanks to independence day). To start with I had been to Mumbai for a one day trip, with my uncle who was on a business trip and I was accompanying him.

The journey started on an interesting note, we were waiting for the BIAL bus at Hebbal, and surprisingly we didnt get one for close to 25 mins (till 11.15 and we had a flight at 12.20) which meant we would be late for the flight (with my uncle around I always live on the edge). Luckily, we found a cabbie who came to our rescue and we reached the airport just in time. Thanks to the cabbie who made full use of the wonderful BIAL road. The interseting part of this travel to BIAL was me and my uncle were the 2nd and 3rd passengers in the cab, there was already a female passenger(oh sorry a lady or a girl passenger - this is a completely different story). My uncle stuck a conversation with her (thanking her for the timely drop) and I continued further making it an interesting one till Priyanka revealed that she is going to the airport to receive her boy friend.

We boarded the Indigo flight. Within 1 hour and twenty mins we were flying in the skies of Mumbai. And when you are there in the skies of Mumbai, all you can see is Slums, dirty flats and more slums (No wonder Danny Boyle got inspired by them). Once we landed in Mumbai, the weather was surprisingly pleasant. We headed directly to the Chembur where my uncle had a business meeting to attend. In the whole trip, one thing I was completely impressed of Mumbai was the attitude of the Richshawallahs and the Taxiwallahs. I was apprised by Madhu of the their honesty towards passengers but was overwhelmed when I experienced it first hand (Well if this is the true spirit of Mumbai - I am really a fan of it). Infact to check one of them I purposely gave ten rupees extra but the guy promptly returned it back. Their counterparts in Bangalore or for that matter anywhere in India are such Chors that hardly any one believes them.

In the evening we went to the Siddhi Vinayak temple. I had heard a lot about this temple but was visiting it for the first time. I must say post 26/11 the security in Mumbai is beefed up and rightly so. We went around aarthi time and we had a good darshan. However, I believe the crowd controlling and planning of the queques can be done better to avoid commotion at the Vinayaka. We then went to Mahalakshmi tempple, again a very famous one. Unlike the Siddhi Vinayaka, this temple was not crowded and had a very pleasant and a wonderful darshan of the goddess.

We then thought of chilling out and having fun and headed to Mumbai Central but only later did we realise that it was Independence day which meant a lot of shops were closed. By now we were tired and wanted to get back to the room, so we decided we will catch the local train for the experience. The last time I had travelled in local train, I had a very pleasant experience and had reprimanded Madhu for not using it. But this time around my opinion has changed. I had heard a lot about the Mumbai local trains and how crowded they can get but yesterday was insane. We saw crowds jumping on to the train from the time the train was slowing down till it took speed. 9 out of 10 ten times I wouldnt have travelled in that train but for the fun of it, me and my uncle decided lets try it, we travelled from Dadar to the next stop (I do not remember the name), hanging on the footboard of the train , these five mins were filled with a lot of fear but at the same time had a lot of adrenaline rush. At the next stop my Uncle decided not to continue in train but will take a taxi, but I insisted we will continue in train. We finally took the taxi. All throughout the journey back to room I was feeling, we couldnt do something which was a routine for thousands of Mumbaikars. The next day I woke up to read the newspaper which reported that 6 injured and 1 dead among the many who had fallen of the train because of the excess crowd. I thanked my uncle for the timely decision of opting the taxi.The excess crowd all of a sudden in these trains was because many of the train lines are stopped for renovation which meant the same amount of crowd with lesser trains. I hope somebody does something to control the crowd if not they would read more such reports in the newspapers.

We then checked out of the hotel and reached the Shivaji International aiport, this time much ahead of time, all throughout the trip in Mumbai I saw dirty flats, more slums which made the city look for more dirtier and cheaper than Bangalore but I must appreciate that the roads in Mumbai are twice wider and no pot holes at all. We then took a flight back to Bangalore and reached back in time for my uncle to get back to races and make up the Mumbai trip expenses. By the way this was my maiden flight journey, hopefully many more to come in the future. As expected I was very excited, luckily I got a window seat both the times and was observing different activities and the wings with keen interest while it looked like trite speech for many frequent travellers. I will always remember that my first flight journey was to Mumbai in a Blue Indigo flight, flied by Captain I.G. Singh and this part of information was announced by the very pretty head flight attendant Ms.Reena Verma. I observed that the both the times the head flight attendant had a boy cut and hair was let loose while the other hostess had tied their hair in a bun. I wonder if this was a coincidence or was the haircut part of their uniform based on the grade??


Until next time,
Lots of Luv,
Sri!!!

Helpless Indians.

They had done it before on a Friday, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday and now they did it on a WEDNESDAY. Do not worry very shortly Monday will be covered as well. Nothing new, It was a terrorist attack again. Everything was the same but the manner in which they did it this time was different. Terrorists came through sea and attacked Mumbai as usual. Instead of common market or a crowded train, they choose Taj and The Oberoi hotels this time. They proved a point that if they really want they can come anywhere, anytime and attack us and we cannot do anything about it but die to their bullets, cover their action continously on News channels and after all this light a candle mourn for the dead. Come Monday we feel bad for the dead and the wounded and we are back in our respective offices doing our daily routine work as always. And people around the world call this the "Spirit of the City" , they do not understand "That we INDIANS are HELPLESS and can do NOTHING other than this". I do appreciate that Leopold Cafe, one of the places terrorists attacked, was open Sunday afternoon for business and there were people coming in as usual, but the point is what could they do other than opening???

Thanks to these terrorists for one reason, every time they attack, we Indians will stand united irrespective of religion and caste. But not too long, within no time our politicians have the ability to divide us back. Its a collective failure of the ruling state and Centre governments namely the congress. Shivraj patil resigned or was rather sacked and now Chidambaram is new Home minister but will things change?? Does that mean there will bw no more terror attacks on India?? No I dont think so. In US after 9/11, all parties came together and saw terrorism as a common problem of the country and took some decisions which have the results. No terrorist ever even thinks of an attack on US anymore. But in India things are different, when such a meeting was called our own Advani and Rajnath Singh were campaigning for elections and highlighting the failures of UPA. Vilas Rao Deshmukh was with Ram Gopal Verma for inspection of Taj. Why was RGV there?? If he was thinking of doing a movie, good but not the time for inspection when many people still did not know where their loved ones were. Mr. R R Patil said these kind of things happen in big cities. He should be ashamed to tell that. If terrorists had attacked his family, would he have told the same statement?? And where is Raj Thackeray who is the latest hero in Mumbai Politics who want to send non Maharashtra people out of Mumbai. He has to be reminded that the NSG forces which saved the city from further damage were INDIAN soldiers and not Mumbai alone. Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan of NSG who was killed while attacking the terrorists was of Tamil origin, brought up in Bangalore, part of the Bihar regiment, and camped in Haryana but when the terrorists attacked he came as an INDIAN and fought against them. The fact is in India the politicans concentrate too much on how to come to power but have absolutely no idea what to do when they are finally in power.

Lot of people say you have to vote to be a responsible citizen of the country but I do not agree with this. Whom should I vote and Why??
Congress : Because I can make a SC/ST certificate and claim reservation.
BJP : Because I am a Hindu and BJP promotes Hindutva.
LEFT : Because they would not allow any industry function smoothly.

The point is this terror would have happened irrrespective of UPA and NDA governments and will continue to happen as long as these corrupt politicians rather the privileged citizens of the country continue the administration as they are doing now.

I know my vote is precious and I pledge that I would not vote any idiot just for the heck of voting. I would vote only when some one comes up and tells, 1) Criminals when proved guilty for acts such as terrorisms will be killed till death. Punishments will be made more severe and will be implemented to one and all irrespective of politician or actors. 2) There will be no reservations based on caste, If it is there it will be only for people who are financially backward and not backward caste as I believe no caste is backward.

Finally Hats off to the Mumbai policemen and NSG for protecting us without caring for their lives. India lost three of its best policemen, I hope we can recover soon from the loss. Its happened in Mumbai this time, not too far it may happen to us in Bangalore here. The corporates here are asking for licence of AK 47, as they think that the government is incapable of protecting us and they can protect themselves. I do not know if this will be granted but it would be great if a rule is passed that all offices, schools etc should have compulsory training for citizens where they can protect themselves from fire, first aid training to save people in need of immediate help etc.

As I write this post the bottom line is "WE INDIANS ARE HELPLESS", I know nothing I told above would happen anytime. Politicians will continue to divide and rule us and we will continue to be as we are.


Until next time or rather
Until next terror attack.

Good Bye,
Sri