mum-bye to shang-high

sadhuji

Normally, the distance between two fixed points remains constant, come what may. But, in the case of Mumbai and Shanghai, we observe that the distance keeps on increasing. Doubts are being raised in certain quarters as to whether the crown of the Financial Capital will look better on another head. No one can recollect wastage of so many days of activities in any other metropolitan city due to rains. Schools are forced to declare holidays, employees are compelled to remain night long prisoners in the office, and commuters have no other alternative but to wade through knee deep and sometimes waist deep waters to reach safety. It is natural that it rains during the monsoons; if the rains are delayed it spells doom for farmers and city folks alike. Farmers - because they are unable to till the soil and plant seeds and raise crops to feed the hungry populace the following year. City folks - because if the reservoirs do not get their quota of water, the effect will be felt only the following summer.

City fathers are meant to ensure that, when it rains, the rain water has a smooth journey down the drains and sewers to its final resting place and does stop midway to clog the gutters with discarded polythene bags, waste paper, leaves and an assortment of garbage from orange and banana peels to empty packets of pan masala.. If the passage is not smooth, it results in accumulation of dirty, filthy water that carry hundreds of thousands of germs. These cannot be wished away as natural phenomena and vagaries of nature. They are lame excuses. Shanghai also faces the rainy season, has it ever been reported that excess rainfall leads to chaotic conditions there, that power supply remains cut off for days, that anti social elements take advantage of the situation and cry ‘tsunami is coming, run for your lives’ resulting in death of innocents?

Obviously, there are certain actions that need to be planned in advance and executed before the onset of the rainy season. A leading tyre manufacturer gives advance notice of the probable date of the strike (of the monsoons!) Others can take the initiative and repeatedly keep telling the city fathers that – you have so many days to get your things in order else you will lose out in the race for supremacy.

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mooning over a moon journey

Ravibagal

It will be another 20+ years b4 India catches up to Shanghai or Beijing and by then these cities will be 40 years ahead.

It was annoying to see the BMC head constantly commenting on how he thought Mumbai will be the next Shanghai. One news reporter made an interesting comment to him" You people have done more than making Mumbai into a Shanghai. You have done even better. You have made Mumbai into Venice instead!"

Bigzero

I agree with most of your points there sadhuji - we have this hype going on for some time on mumbai going the shanghai way etc. The rains have caused the city to stop for a moment and think about where it actually is.

I differ on one aspect though - while mumbai like most other cities is underprepared for the rainy season ( most cities have this dreadful digging spree just before the rainy season and sometimes extending into the rainy season causing more agony ), the rains that fell on July 26th is far too heavy to be considered for any sort of planning. 94 cm is not a joke ( 20 cm in a day, in my view is very heavy rain ) - the city was simply overwhelmed. And added to this is the timing of it. i guess it was high tide that prevented to some extent the free flow of water. If i understand there are some gates in and around bandra creek that are closed on high tide - these could not be opened to let the water out to the sea. ( a mumbaikar told me, i cant confirm this. ).

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miles to go....

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eater

I have to agree here .....the heavy, heavy, rainfall would be considered a national disaster in USA or Canada......

In 1998 in Eastern Ontario, Canada AN ICE-STORM HIT EASTERN ONTARIO/QUEBEC AREA

How did the storm affect EASTERN CANADA, QUEBEC:

at least 25 deaths, many from hypothermia.

about 900,000 households without power in Quebec; 100,000 in Ontario.

about 100,000 people took refuge in shelters

residents were urged to boil water for 24 to 48 hours.

airlines and railway discouraged travel into the area

14,000 troops (including 2,300 reservists) deployed to help with clean up, evacuation and security.

millions of residents forced into mobile living, visiting family to shower and share a meal or moving in temporarily with a friend or into a shelter.

prolonged freezing rain brought down millions of trees, 120,000 km of power lines and telephone cables, 130 major transmission towers each worth $100,000 and about 30,000 wooden utility poles costing $3000 each.

The damage in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec was so severe that major rebuilding, not repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken. What it took human beings a half century to construct took nature a matter of hours to knock down.


Canada govt. treated this as a national disaster and residents received "generous" (relative to Mumbai) compensations .....would be interesting to compare the death rate/1000 ....

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Just happy to be here.........

SHIMLA

Sometime back we had a politician who wanted to turn Mumbai into Singapore !! Now there's comparison with Shanghai! I wouldn't be surprised if some a***hole comes up with New York next !

It will be more than enough if Mumbai becomes a better Mumbai and this will happen only if each citizen consciously strives to become a better citizen.

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Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop !

sadhuji

'....Facing criticism for mishandling relief work soon after terrible Tuesday, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Sunday went on a PR overdrive distributing ration to rain-affected slum-dwellers in the Nirmal Nagar area in Khar (East).....'

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...ow/1194153.cms