A city of dreams,economic hub,home to around 14 milion people,cosmopolitan!In a split second you could garner hundred answers.As precisely stated by one of my favourite legendary writer and artist Lt.Pu.La.Deshpande,"Mumbaikaraancha nasheeb he ghadyalyachya katyala bandhalele aste."
However as a matter of fact Mumbai is also a city where resilience has become a habbit,people are impervious to politicians who act like flibbertigibbets,a city which has Asia's largest slum!
Since I consider the last one as the greatest hindrance in city's progress I would like to elaborate on the same. There are certain facts that baffled me.
1]Almost 54% of Mumbaikars live in slums.
2] Another 25% to 30% live in chawls and on footpaths.
3] It is estimated that 100-300 new families come to city everyday and subsequently land up in a slum colony or erect a shack wherever possible.
4] According to World Bank's estimate of the city reaching 2.25 crore mark by 2025 ,would be the time when there would be slums practically everywhere.
The expanse is widening day by day,characterized by filth, diseases, poverty and crime too. One of the recent TOI articles stated that it takes two years on the whole for the postmen to get accustomed to the lanes, routes and houses in Dharavi slums. Moreover even the Intelligence agencies have no option but to take their help in tracking down the criminals.It is no less than a deja vu reckoning that everything looks just the same.
Another major drawback is city's extremely poor urban planning.It is one of the reasons for the horrendous catastrophe of 26th July,2005.
So I was wondering, for a city which has allowed us to exercise our freedom to a great extent, what is it that we can do?It all boils down to power,electing an Amol Arte from Paa would probably help but my question is, "Does he exist"? For all those who promised to make Mumbai as beautiful as Shanghai,we can only retort by saying,"tumhala Shanghaila jatay kai?"
Yaaaa...True...the dirtier side of mumbai.....but what about the brighter side....
ReplyDelete1.Spirit
2.Never say die attitude
3.The diversity of people
And another bad thing....
They are Wasting SO MUCH Water......God Help Us
@vaidya..i did mention it is a cosmopolitan city..but as i said never say die attitude nd d spirit r d ways of masking our helplessness..people have really no choice dan bouncing back to normalcy asap.
ReplyDeleteya water wastage is anoder issue I forgot to mention!:)
GAURAV S. SHAHANE- A riveting piece of reality based on the unique features of mumbai as a whole. it would have been better if some positive points too had been added
ReplyDeleteHaha , the city's management should be outsourced to the British again.
ReplyDeletethis has already started racking questions in my head....can v do nething about it?
ReplyDeletehmmm...nice one.Written like a true mumbaikar.A little one-sided view as stated before by others, but a true and harsh fact about mumbai that can't be denied.It has 2 be accepted and more importantly, worked upon by us!
ReplyDeletei believe da sitn currntly is far bettr den say a decade back viz a viz infrastructure etc...u cannot wipe out slums overnight but definite progress has been made...and we need not compare mumbai to shanghai...mumbai has a distinct cultural ethos which makes it problems far diffrnt frm dat of shanghai's :)
ReplyDeleteGood efforts...!! u hav made one mistake n i want 2 clarify it...
ReplyDeleteIts nt "tumhala shanghaila jatay kai?"
its "tumhala sangayla jatay kai?"
@ d above person...well der was pun intended in that statement..i meant,"tumhala SHANGHAI-la jatay kay?"(based on d mumbai-shanghai comparision)..:)..I would appreciate if u could share ur name :)
ReplyDeletefantastic!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate ur strength of imagination.
But tel me cant we do anythin to make our city clean n green???
nicely put... but u kno very frankly... sayin this by personal experience,, ders no oder city as mumbai... no matter how many improvements it may need, its undoubtedly da finest city 2 live in, u knw its value nly by stayin away 4m it!!
ReplyDelete:)..i know!
ReplyDeleteaye dil mushkil hai jeena yahaa,
ReplyDeletezaraa hat ke zaraa bach key ye hai mumbai meri jaan...a well said n well presented blog.An intelligent take on the rather neglected side of the city.Although this part of the city is a thriving ground for many of the city's -ve aspects it does provide employment for the underprivileged section of the society.It does support the leather ,plastic moulding ,garmenting n many other small scale so called Laghu Udyogs.thatz the rather brighter side of the coin.
My point is rather simple ,if people become self employed n a bit more careful about their social behaviour may be then the Amol Atre within them will quit his dormancy n walk the Jago re path.But this time rather then following the 'Eklaa chalo rey' legacy he surely will have many counterparts.
N last but not the least I do admire the marmik pun.
hmmmm.
ReplyDeletea thinking post.
but while we're thinking... maybe a little bit of a diversion is required. one way to look at politics is to distinguish governing from aam zindagi... while that has historically worked, india being the biggest democracy... will need an option 2. which is seeing it as a baby of the aam zindagi. we all are the same. so y doesn't an architect go and put forward his plan?? no body wants to touch dharavi. you no the government has converted the untouchable MMRDA into quite a project. and that was all Govrnment. soo.. we are not being watched ny incompetents. Not really.
any way you make LA proud. nice writing.
@ anonymous. hiding behind thatmask huh??
ReplyDeletewho ever u are... i think you should either join in the spirit of the discussion or not comment. you were not requested to comment.
P.S- If your so smart, show me the link to ur blog.
thanks a lot for those compliments.
ReplyDeletefirstly all anonymous persons r not the same. dude anonymity may be my mask but my thoughts r the ones which I represented here.
N now coming to the point,these places r not developed bcoz therez lotz of political backing against it, as they r easily targeted 'vote banks' .Moreover, if they r developed then the so called 'aam zindagi' will cease to thrive as these developments cannot sustain local sources of livelihood.
Due to these reasons the locals oppose the development plans.
But incidentally I do agree wid u that such a locality does need a mutually motivated makeover.