I am stuck here in Singapore waiting for my evening flight to Mumbai that had been canclled the last two days.
I had time to introspect about the two cities of Mumbai & Singapore, both coastal & surrounded by water. Also, i was able to see the essential nature & attitudes of the people of these great cities.
Singapore with its spick & span cleanliness , orderly traffic, disciplined people, courteos taxi drivers who chat you up with intelligent relevant details was truly amazing. To imagine that the citizens are ethnic chinese, Malays & the Tamils, whom we know to be not so disciplined or strict social hyginists, itself is a miracle. Their discipline enforced or self motivated, has made their city & country a place much admired. I am sure there are ills in the Singapore society that are not apparent to a visitor like me, but on the whole i cannot but admire the city & citizens.
On the otherside, me a Mumbaikar has little to be proud of except for the apparent prosperity of the metropolis. The city by any standards can be termed as filthy, squalid & indisciplined in the extreme. Can we change this city and aspire to be another Singapore as MrPawar's much tomtommed fake dreams?
all messages and news are from mumbai, the worst affected area of Dombivli and Kalyan, because of heavy rain and the doors of Badlapur dam was open, there is no news that how many people died, the loss were in lakhs, but no news bothered to publish it. Kindly make a survey of that area, people could reach their home after two days. Is there someone who can take care of the middle class people staying.
the tragedy is not compensable in any way.the question which we should ask ourselves,and the politician-could this disaster be averted in any way. ask shabana azmi.she wants to protect the slums. who in the first place is responsible for the slums to grow.and then the politician who would promise to regularise the slums at the time of the elections. or are the slums part of the progressing nation.lot will say slums are all over the world, new york also has one-whats the big deal. for afew pennys more we will do any thing.the nation has no national character,individually we can boast of lot of achivements,collectively we are a big zero.such tragedies will keep taking place and inquiry after inquiry commission will be set up not to -correct any wrongs,book those who wronged or learn ho to prevent the tragedy in future but to provide employement to the retired beuracracy/judiciary,waste public money-the way it was done in bofors case - what happened. once again we'll ask-sir where are the bodies.
Now that everyone is fighting against the flooding of Mumbai, I wonder if anyone has thought of why it happened in the first place. Apart from the usual 'excuses' of high-tide coupled with heavy rains, we seem to forget that the major roads and housing complex construction activities in the past few years have led to indiscriminate tree-felling everywhere. With no roots to hold the sil, the heavy rain has caused soil erosion. The top-soil silt must have jammed the drainage systems. Any takers for this theory?
