The painful memories
26th july 2005 will go down in the annals of history becauce it rained so hard and so fast that the administration was paralysed.So many people lost their lives and many more lost all their belongings and life was a one big struggle trying to get back to normalcy.help came in from unexpected quarters as people divided by leaders on caste, creed and religion, at other times , all came together to help the unfortunate,showing acts of kindness , brotherhood and exemplary courage in risking their lives to save other strangers ,some of them lost ther lives in the bargain.
A sum of rs.5000 was given to people poor and rich alike some of them suffered huge losses and the amount so given was more an insult to the injury caused.For some it was better than nothing ,for others it was disbursing the money without proper verification of documents to the wrong people and the affected getting nothing.I thought in India the value of life is worth just rs.5000minimum to rs.50000.maximum on an average about $1200/-a cost of a cockatel in the states would maybe cost more.If life is valued so cheaply than why not allow people to end it if they so desire,why not allow guys to ride bikes and travel in comfort without wearing cumbersome helmets,let them zoom and just go boom.But then it does not happen that way laws are necessary so that we get an opportunity to break them and the dishonest officials get to line their pockets while the honest ones fill up the government coffers (which are empty for the purpose of election funding) by diligently implementing them. I dont know how so many police inclusive of officers can be recruited in the force if their eye sight is weak.i remember an incidentthere was a check for guys without helmets,i was not wearing mine but had it on the bike, the guy stopped me and fined rs.100/- and guess what instead of giving me a receipt saying not wearing a helmet the charges were w/o helmet,he just could not see the helmet and said he has to charge because of cameras installed,what does the cameras see i wonder.
Coming back to the floods, every one blamed the poor mithi river for being narrowed over the years while the police,bmc and other concerned authorities were snoring during duty hours,dont be surprised its part of their job to sleep on duty or have some eye sight problem as i mentioned earlier in the helmet issue.Some times they are overly enthusiastic in doing their duty and catch couples at bandstand on the rocks or the promenade, without any complaints,moral policing you know at other times they simply say without a formal complaint we cant do a thing and the best part is even their top bosses say the same., which means no complaints no official policing.
There was a big shake up as the administration, the babus, the politicians made all sorts of promises to see that such an incident like the floods never occurs again.Then came 2007 and the same thing happened all over again,only the severity was less as the rains decided to give us a respite.but the fear was in the minds of the people and voiced openly no trust in the administration, mumbaikars live in fear yet the PM sitting in the safety of his office surround by security calls mumbaikars a brave lot ,because with all that happens the floods,the bombings,we still dare to venture out, do we have a choice