Monsoon…the season I used to always look forward to. Those amazing dark clouds, the feeling of waking up in the morning and feeling that its already evening, the experience of sitting in the balcony with a huge mug of coffee and hot pakodas/samosas. Unfortunately, all my memories of monsoon have been in Mumbai. The very place where the monsoons are dreaded.
Probably bcoz of the fact that I have never really experienced the proper monsoons in the north. Proper- as in at least 1 hour of consistent heavy downpour. A very rare site. The only time that I have seen heavy rains here is during the month of February. And the worst part about rains during that time is that it is already freezing cold. You can’t even think of getting wet in that water.
Back to Mumbai rains-
“Mumbai- in deep waters”
“City flounders in downpour”
“Mumbai sinks again”
“Mumbai-the next Shanghai??”
“Weekend washout”
Come july, and the alarms start ringing. Headlines are all over the news channels. Masala like this is what the news channels have always thrived on. So if it rains for one hour in Mumbai, we get a live coverage. And where do the channel people rush to- the obvious milan subway! The first place to get flooded. So never mind if the rest of Mumbai is totally normal.
Having said that, I love watching these coverages. Watching the journalist talk about the inconvenience caused to every mumbaiite. About how the life has been disrupted. And what we see is kids jumping in the water, totally enjoying the monsoons. Probably that is the “famous” spirit of Mumbai.
The one thing I really hate is when people start comparing the infrastructure of Mumbai and Delhi. It is not fair at all. Mumbai gets 100 cm rainfall couple that with the high tides during the monsoon season- and you have a difficult task to handle. The reason there are amazing roads in delhi, is because there are no rains to spoil the construction. So, not much maintenance. Flyovers work because you don’t have water accumulated on both sides. I remember times when there used to be 18 cm of rain which would lead to water logging and extremely pathetic traffic jams.
Speaking of construction, this February we shifted to our new office-a DLF construction (top floor). One entire night of consistent rain, and we are greeted with ankle deep water in our office. The false ceiling had given way due to the water accumulated on the terrace. There were buckets full of water that were thrown out. Our working life was totally “disrupted” for that day. I mean, it was just one night of consistent rain. What Mumbai received during July 2005 was 3 full days of consistent rains. Where is the comparison??? I don’t know what would happen to the amazing roads and “infrastructure” if the north gets 3 days of consistent rains!
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4 comments:
Well put, I think one cannot compare the infrastructure of the two cities. And no, I do not like Mumbai too much, but my feelings for Delhi as a city are equally bad. But Milan Subway or otherwise, people here do suffer becoz of rains. And till about 3-4 years back, I wouldnt use the word suffer. It is the Government's prerogative to do something, if not then, now. So far, they have not done anything. Unfortunate, but true.
hey.. i think its a biased view.. i mean, if mumbai gets d worst out of nature, de also get a huge chunk of money for 'disaster mgmt' and 'infrastructure devp' rite?.. we can't change the rains partiality to mumbai, but if d rains r worse, all the more reasons that the infra shd be built better.. it doesnt' change d fact dat infrastructure sucks here n dere's nothin d govt is doin 2 make things better..
@Prisoneordpast- Well, I never said that the infrastructure in Mumbai doesn't suck. My only point was that it is not fair to compare the 2 cities. Coz given the same weather conditions, the Delhi infra would suck big time too! and much more than Mumbai for sure, despite the HUGE roads!!!
Hi Peeya - Got your page when you left a comment on my blog ! Read your articles and found them very lucid, I think its going to be in league of one of my favorite blogs ! Keep it up !
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