Yesterday PM Modi unveiled 183 meter high statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. This is the highest statue in the world dwarfing Statue of Liberty and Chinese statue of Budha! It’s indeed a matter of pride that after a long long time India has added a place of great interest to its repertoire, which will attract more international tourists.

While we can keep on debating whether India requires statues of Sardar Patel and Chhatrapati Shivaji at exorbitant cost or bullet train for that matter, it’s also true that these developments also serve a purpose! Statues of our national heroes inspire us to learn from their deeds, modern innovations such as bullet train bring us on par with most modern nations. Of course, every nation has to set its priorities right and we should not forget that Monsoon has again played truant this year and amongst other states, half of the Maharashtra has been declared to be draught affected. Between now and the next monsoon, it’s going to be one big daily struggle for millions of residents of these areas to walk miles to fetch a bucket of water. We shall see poor farmers committing suicides under duress!

In the above backdrop, the monies spent on statues and proposed bullet train appear to be not well utilised and case of misplaced priorities. What happened to the proposed National River Unification System, where water from all major rivers was to be pooled centrally for equitable distribution amongst various states! While Yamuna has become like a dirty mullah, what’s the outcome of all the money and efforts spent on cleaning Ganga? Karnataka and Tamilnadu continue to slug it out on Cauvery water sharing! Green energy initiatives, CNG, water harvesting, afforestation, population control- all remain jingoistic talks with very little action on the ground! It’s completely incomprehensible that when draught is staring the country in its face, food and potable water shortage is being foreseen, Kashmir is going from bad to worse, Naxals are raising their head again and Pakistan is making threatening overtures, the energies of this nation are being misdirected toward Ram Mandir, Statues, RBI- Govt. tension, Sabarimala and Rafale issues.

It’s clear that nobody is seized of or concerned about the real issues – they are looking at making quick political gains!

Bullet train will be good for India as it will take our nation into a select league of advanced nations that can boast of having bullet train! It will reduce distances, bring cities and people closer and would be a step in the field of technological feats of our nation. To this extent, my views are at variance with set of people viewing Government’s bullet train plans with circumspection.

However, today I came across heart wrenching news items that have brought me closer to the thought process of aforesaid Group of circumspect people. The first is death of 3 workers who died while cleaning sewer line in Dombivli. A deadly mix of filth and noxious gases from the untreated chemical discharge by certain plants in that area snatched three poor family breadwinners from their respective families. In which advanced country is the sewer cleaning process manual that risks the lives of such workers? The second news was about the death of a father -son duo of welders who died after falling down from a multi storey Versova building where they were fixing window grille.

Yesterday, we read about a volunteer enroute the proposed Shivaji statue site dying when the boat carrying the group capsized in Arabian Sea. The Amritsar train tragedy on Dussehra and the recent events of collapse of Majerhat and Andheri bridges in Kolkata and Mumbai respectively are fairly fresh in everyone’s memory.

When our fire brigade is ill equipped to fight infernos in sky rises, police is armed with redundant equipment, hospitals are in miserable condition, roads are God forsaken, public transport is crumbling, traffic situation is pitiable and all our airlines are bleeding white, bulletproof train indeed looks a luxury that India needs the least at this juncture. Mumbai needs flyovers, sea links, local transport, airport, good roads, slum clearance and basic cleanliness much much ahead of bullet train. Let’s build our metro and resume our white elephant Monorail first before even dreaming about bullet train!

Just read that China has constructed a 55 Kms long sea bridge that connects the main land with Hong Kong and Macau. It’s the longest sea bridge in the world and like several other things Chinese, an Engineering marvel.

We sometimes hear the plans to make Aamchi Mumbai like Shanghai. Bandra-Worli sea link, a no less engineering marvel, took very long time and substantial cost overrun in getting constructed and though the original plan was to have a sea link from Borivali to Nariman Point, the other links viz. Borivali to Bandra and Worli to Nariman Point may never see the light of the day. We are now reading about coastal road from Borivali to Nariman Point, but given the challenges (green brigade, fishermen, slums, land acquisition, court intervention) , when an ordinary Mumbaikar will be able to savour the benefits, only the God almighty knows!

To give the due to the present Government, the work on Metro corridors is praiseworthy, though next couple of years will be hellish and commuters’ nightmare. Moreover, given the size of Mumbai’s population and it’s severe size constraints, the above drive gives you a feeling of “too little, too late”.

Mumbai was once almost bereft of two wheelers, but now you can see two wheelers zig zagging all over, driving dangerously. Each day, the city adds more vehicles, making it amongst the densest (vehicles per square kilometre of road) places in the world. BEST is losing its sheen, efficiency, reliability, safety and punctuality and is surviving on oxygen supply by the Govt. Mumbai locals carry passengers who are dangerously perched on the footboards, living by razor’s edge each day. Monorail project is complete but for some reason lying abandoned. Metro is still at least 2 years away.

This is the treatment meted out to residents of the highest tax paying city of the country. Don’t make our Mumbai Shanghai- at least restore the past glory of this historic and fabulous megapolis.

That global warming is changing the climate world over is now a universal truth. Seasons are becoming shorter but more intense. So we have shorter summers now, but there are few days when mercury breaks all previous records. Similarly we have shorter monsoon, but there are periods of extreme flooding followed by long spell of dry days. Ditto winters.

October heat is typical of Mumbai, when post withdrawal of monsoon, humidity increases and temperatures rise. I think it is true almost all the seaside cities!

But when Delhiites talk of searing heat in October, it’s a clear sign of global warming’s adverse impact. Actually, October used to herald advent of autumn that was highlighted by warm days (not hot) and cool nights. In fact, we used to get 10 days of Dussehra holidays when several mohallas used to stage their version of Ramlila at nights. I clearly remember, going for these shows either wearing a light jacket or wrapping myself in a shawl and enjoying hot groundnuts! While sleeping, one required light blanket!

Where is the autumn now? I think that two seasons the have fallen victims of global warming are spring and autumn, those transitory seasons separating winter from summer and vice versa respectively. Now, suddenly in February, you feel like drinking cold water and fan breeze to kill afternoon heat! Similarly, one fine day in late November or early December, you suddenly start feeling the chill! India being a land that enjoys all 4 seasons will soon become a myth, consigned to folklore!

As Mumbai never really had any winters, this phenomenon does not seem as pronounced here as it seems in Delhi and other cities of North, East and Central India! But worry is worldwide as October heat is more severe and whatever semblance of winters that Mumbai had may soon vanish! Time for all of us to make our bit to the world’s environment.

I recently shared my thoughts on #Me Too campaign by a set of ladies who were molested or ill treated by their male colleagues, co-stars, friends and relatives in the distant past, but the matter seems to be serious enough to merit more than one blog. The mint fresh casualty of the campaign has been Minister for State for External affairs M J Akbar. Akbar has been a trend setter of sorts. He excelled in journalism taking the magazines and publications he edited to unprecedented heights. He remained a well read writer and author whose views on various social and political aspects made difference. He became one amongst handful of Muslims to align with BJP and the party rewarded him with Ministership. Everything seemed to be going well for this eminent personality till the rage of Me Too fire singed him. What started with an unnamed reference by one journalist is now turning out to be a flurry of accusations by the past victims of Akbar’s lewdness. Another shocking revelation is ever dependable, fiercely independent and orator par excellence adman Suhel Seth being named by one former model having crossed all limits of modesty at a social event! Suhel joins long list of perpetrators that already seems to be growing longer and longer! Several people, especially celebrities, seem to be on tenterhooks fearing revelation of their names for the past acts!

It is so unfortunate that what takes years of hard work, achievements, good work and contribution to build a stature or reputation can get sullied in no time! MJ Akbar has had years of great work as an editor, journalist and author behind him! Suhel Seth spoke from his heart fearlessly voicing his views aftermath 26/9 terrorist attack on Mumbai! His firebrand expression of angst won him a whole lot of lifelong admirers! Anu Malik has endeared himself to music lovers through years of distinguished work and he remains unchanged as a judge on India Idol season after season! It has just taken a moment of past indiscretion ( except Alok Nath, no one else has so far been accused of rape and the incidents mostly related to seeking a sexual favour rather than doing so forcibly) to bludgeon the reputation built over the years of distinguished existence!

I had earlier written a blog on interesting thoughts displayed on Church hoardings, which are not only thought provoking but at times very topical! I read outside a church ” Forgiveness is very dear to God and should be practised by everyone- he, she, you and Me Too! If indiscretion was rather minor, made too far away in the distant past and really not impacted the life of the victim other than momentary (or even prolonged) mental agony, now that the objective of the campaign is achieved and it is unlikely that respected men will indulge in such indiscretions in future, can the victims forgive their tormentors and move ahead ?

My new residence has two big pluses- it’s bang on the Versova- Ghatkopar Metro line and is bang opposite Gurudwara. Yesterday, as I got down from the metro train and proceeded towards my residence, I heard a very familiar tune emanating from Gurudwara, though I was not able to discern the lyrics. In no time, I was able to place the tune, which was set in popular Hindustani raga “Shivranjani”. It’s the same raga that formed the basis of several popular Hindi film songs like “Tere mere beech main” from Ek Duuje Ke Liye and “Mere naina sawan bhadon ” from Mahbooba! Though my mother is an accomplished and classically trained singer, it was my father, who never learnt music, but who had an ear for raagdari and he would mention “Shivranjani ” to my mother, every time either of the above songs played over radio.

Though I too have inherited ear for music from my parents, I am no expert at discerning ragas. However, Shivranjani is etched in my mind for a different reason. A diehard Kishore Kumar -RD Burman fan, I always thought that the recognition and adulation that they got posthumously, were amiss during their lifetimes. While Kishore-RD Classic Mere Naina, except from being lapped up by aficionados , went almost unnoticed at that time, SP Balasubramaniam- LP’s collaboration, Tere Mere Beech, got them a National Award. I had earlier read of horrible decisions by Filmfare juries in declaring winners, but the above incident got etched into my memory. As a result, I loved Mahbooba song more and never had any problem in recognising any composition in Raga Shivranjani!

Of course, there’s one more angle that music lovers can immediately identify themselves with. While religious hymns (mata ki bhenten, bhajan, Shabad ) sound the best in original composition ( they lose their fervour when based on film songs) , the beauty of the ragas is that even if there are hundreds of film songs based on a particular raga, a religious hymn in that raga will still retain it’s divinity and purity and not sound a crude version of a Hindi film song! This Shabad I heard being sung in Gurudwara compelled me to write this musical blog!!!

The world is shocked at the revelation by scores of women regarding sexual molestation and inappropriate behaviour by their male colleagues, bosses, acquaintances, relatives etc. In India, this started with yesteryear’s starlet Tanushree Dutta accusing veteran actor Nana Patekar of inappropriate behaviour during the shooting of one of the movies in which they starred together. This led to several other women accusing many other well known and not so well known personalities of sexual molestation, inappropriate behaviour and outright rape. The accusers include names such as Sandhya Mridul, Deepika Amin, Vinta Nanda, Sona Mahapatra etc and the accused include names like Rajat Kapoor, Subhash Ghai, Alok Nath, Sajid Khan, Kailash Kher etc.

However, much before Tanushree Dutta revealed her story, Hollywood producer Harvey Wienstein was accused by multitude of ladies including names like Rose McGowan, Gwyeth Paltrow, Ashley Judd etc of molestation and rape. Legendary actor Bill Cosby is a sexual molestation offender and newly appointed US Chief Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual molestation in his student days.

Like all other issues, the nation is sharply divided amongst those who support this #Me Too campaign and those who call this sham being an attempt by marginalised people to hog some limelight! Actually, both the views are extreme and bereft of logical reasoning. We must applaud the courage of these women who exposed the real face of so called respected but vicious men, albeit years after the actual incident happened! Casting couch is something that we have all heard about with Bollywood producers, stars, middlemen etc exploiting the young budding starlets under the pretext of giving break to them! Give and take of this nature is abhorrent but then it’s something agreed to between the two parties and later on if one projects herself to be a victim of someone’s lust, it could be a promise not kept or a contract not honoured but definitely not a case of rape or molestation! Inappropriate behaviour is to be dealt with then and there but if it is exposed 10-20 years after it actually happened, the victim could be accused of trying to seek some publicity or mileage out of an incident of distant past! Not that it makes the act any less shameful or detestable, if one is seeking a legal remediation, law of limitation applies to everything that’s pertaining to law! People do move on in life and many of them may not be habitual sex creeps; in fact, several men like Rajat Kapoor, Piyush Mishra etc have tendered their unqualified apology though they do not seem to be remembering the specific incident held against them! And why blame other men, when it’s clear from the revelations by people of eminence like Padmalakshmi, Tahira Kashyap and many others that worst form of molestation happened at the hands of close relatives as a child, which is the worst form of incest! The problem is deep rooted and required to be tackled at society/community level – unfortunately, the celebrities evoke less sympathy and more curiosity making a a serious issue sleazy! It’s not the men vs. women – it’s a social malaise meriting downright thumbs down, irrespective of the circumstances or nature of the incident! It’s not about Me Too; the campaign should be renamed #Never Again!!!!!

Amitabh Bachchan turns 76 today. Born to acclaimed Hindi Poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan (who has several famous works to his credit, though Madhushala outshines everything else he wrote) and Teji Bachchan, a flamboyant lady having several attributes, Amitabh had a normal childhood. While he got talented genes from his parents his tall height, lanky physique and rather deep tenor did not aid his ambition to pursue a career in Bollywood, though later on all these features became his strength. Disinterested in the sales job that took him to Kolkata, he came to Mumbai and struggled. Khwaja Ahmed Abbas launched him in Saat Hindustani, though he hit big time only with Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer after series of forgettable outings. How Zanjeer ended up in his lap is a different story altogether and a recipe for full fledged blog, though it is enough to mention here that he was lucky to be picked up for that role originally offered to Dev Anand and Raj Kumar. He never looked back after that. He became the biggest superstar attaining unexpected heights and his feats were neither seen before him nor after his superstardom ended in late 1990s. He married Jaya, worked with top heroines, had two lovely kids, got embroiled in the controversy of alleged affairs with Pravin Babi and Rekha, faced financial crunch and fought back in the first decade of 21st Century to become a star TV host and character superstar.

All the above are hallmarks of the great personality that Amitabh is, but what makes him unique is his struggle between life and death in which he defeated death. During the shooting of Coolie, in a daring stunt with his co-star Punit Issar, Amitabh got seriously injured that kept him in Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital for more than 6 months during which he frequently stared at death in its face! There were frequent rumours of his demise that had to be denied by his family and friends. However, I read somewhere that Amitabh was actually clinically dead for a few seconds and it was a sheer miracle that a team of doctor’s attending to him could resuscitate him back to life. While he attributed his miraculous revival to the prayers of his fans, our mythology has a story about Maarkandeya who was destined to die on his 16th birthday but a boon by Lord Shiva made him immortal and ever youthful. Amitabh is a real life Maarkandeya of modern age – conqueror of death and eternally youthful! Happy birthday Sadi Ke Mahanayak!

By my own standards, which are generally progressive and liberal, this blog may read slightly regressive! Having given this caveat in the beginning itself, let me start by saying that if age is nothing but a mere number, then it’s one helluva number! Today, we all ( and I dare not single out women because I find men equally touchy in this matter, if not more) become very conscious when people query us on our age! We all want to look fitter and younger, sound youthful and naughty and behave like a teenager to try and hide our age to the extent possible. Nothing wrong with that! Everyone has the right to dress up or look as he or she wishes and there’s no real bar associated with the age! To that extent, we can say that it’s just a number. However, the problem begins when we either encounter a person younger to us or elder to us. Except for Kolkata, where people still use quaint old sweet addresses as Bodhi, Didi, Dada, Kaku, etc, in other places, we get terribly upset on being called uncle or Aunty by our junior, though we leave no opportunity in calling a person, even if few months our elder, “Uncle” or “Aunty”. I have seen ladies (including my wifey dear) getting terribly upset when called Aunty by not so young person! In fact, the fast changing culture is the one of addressing each other irrespective of relationship ( blood, official, informal) by the first name! So a boss doesn’t mind being called by his first name by his juniors and the question of minding the same when his boss calls him by his first name doesn’t arise at all ! Gone are the days, when children will address their elder siblings as didi or bhaiya, their uncles as chacha or mama, aunts as bua, mousi, mami or chachi! In advanced families, it’s the first name basis and not so advanced its plain uncle or aunty, which is also, strictly speaking, not relished by the elders!

So far nothing wrong with all this! If the world is changing and if we don’t keep pace with the changes, we shall be losing out in life! The problem starts when this desire to look, feel and experience youthfulness assumes a proportion where one loses sense of propriety in respect of relationships! The affectionate feeling for a younger sibling or a relative, when addressed bhaiya, mama or chacha by her or him and that empathy and respect when being called Sir or madam by your juniors and when you respectfully address your boss somehow goes amiss and the feeling triggered is more of camaraderie or friendship or companionship! Even nothing particularly wrong with this, which is still acceptable. It becomes a social problem when this obsession overpowers our maternal or paternal instincts (filial feelings) and we try to sizzle with our youngsters that’s leading to lots of current social issues such as child rape, molestation and incest- all very serious issues in today’s milieu!

The fact is that there could be need for each one of us to reconcile with the issue of aging and age gracefully! After all, when our junior calls us respectfully or when we address our youngster affectionately, it should have no change if we treat the age is mere number! It’s not only about feeling youthful by defying age – we can feel youthful even at 80 and beyond if we have an active routine and interests to pursue! Mere address by name may not be a sign of modernism or liberalism but more of jingoism that could be one of the factors responsible for aforesaid social issues!

My readers are largely aligned to my thoughts expressed in my blogs; but if the reason attributed to some of the social malaise highlighted by me reads or appears regressive I would welcome reactions.

Blondie is one of my favourite comic strips and I make it sure to go through the antics of Bumstead each morning. I came across an earlier strip where Bumstead goes to his boss and says, ” I want to talk to you about a summer vacation.” Boss asks in surprise, ” Summer vacation? What about it?” Bumstead says with aplomb, ” Well Sir, everybody in the office wants you to take one.”

Each one of us has a child in us and this child in us that gets familiarised with the realities of the world in our school days, refuses to subside till the very fag end. Remember the glee and joy, when our class or subject teacher was absent and we would get a free period! That indescribable joy stays with us in college as well as work place. The boss could be easy to get along or a tough nut! His or her proceeding on vacation gives us far more joy than our own vacation, as disguised vacation with unlimited freedom is more palatable than our own vacation, when we could be on leave, but our boss is in office making our vacation difficult if not altogether miserable!

All of us are bosses in our right or become bosses as we muster vintage in the system. This feeling is not unique or exclusive to any individual or grade, but universal and as aforesaid, it stays with us throughout (remember the feeling of freedom when wife , who is no less a boss albeit of the house, goes on a short sojourn to her parents! ). There’s an old saying in Hindi that can be loosely translated as “when boss of the house is away, there’s nothing to fear anyway” or an old English adage, ” when the cat’s away, the mice will play” and these sayings clearly express this feeling! Just wonder, whose vacation makes Premier Modi, the biggest boss of the country, happy? May be Amit Shah’s, for his absence for once may give PM some respite from election related politicking ?