The Thief's Market

Ironically,this glitzy market---Chor Bazar (literally meaning Thief's Market) is located in one of the most squalid areas in the city. Mutton Street is the name officially given because it was here that butchers, more than 100 years ago, set up shops. But to any taxi-driver its just plain Chor Bazar! Imagine asking one to drive you to Hutatma Chowk---it has always been Flora Fountain!

At one time Chor Bazar traders specialised in dealing in only stolen goods.The popular belief even today is that here you can end up buying spares from your own car!Nevertheless the devil must be given its due: even the fakes seem so original, it is difficult to tell them apart.You can buy furniture for a huge house,assemble a car or an air-conditioner, acquire beautiful antiques and chinaware.

The dealers travel all over the country to collect these special items from old palaces or ex-Maharajahs.Though they are  mostly illiterate, years of experience has taught them how to check and accurately price an item.

Essentially there are 3 kinds of buyers: the collector for whom money is no consideartion, the investor who buys an item keeping in mind its market value and the last---one who buys for personal pleasure. It is he who will keep the charm of  Chor Bazar going!

And thats not all, you can buy genuine leather goods, silverware,copperware and gold jewellery. There's Bhuleshwar known for its bangles and Mirchi Gulli  for its fresh spices.Every kind of chillis is available here and after the palate has been sated you can make room for pillow-talk because there is a pillow corner where you can pick your pillows and mattresses or have them made to order!

And thats not all, you can buy genuine leather goods, silverware,copperware and gold jewellery. There's Bhuleshwar known for its bangles and Mirchi Gulli  for its fresh spices.Every kind of chillis is available here and after the palate has been sated you can make room for pillow-talk because there is a pillow corner where you can pick your pillows and mattresses or have them made to order!

Nirbhaya and Gudiya

Switching and surfing through the various news channels, I find it appalling to hear them wax about Navratri and the girl child. How much pain she must have undergone and why no one heard her screams for help.

And ofcourse now we must all gear up to watch a series of debates over the weekend about the plight of rape victims. And sure enough we will see the same faces over and over, mouthing the same inanities about capital punishment....and wowwww! Bollywood ko bhi bohat gussa aaya hai!Some will shed copious tears and others will end up in candle marches!

The point is : A crime is a crime.An action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law. The laws of the land are supposed to punish criminals not provide loopholes from which they can slither out unscathed.

Nirbhaya's case sparked off countrywide anger and protests; Gudiya's is doing the same. But then public memory is short-lived which is why when such crimes come to light with enough evidence to prove that the victim has been violently attacked, justice should be meted out at lightening speed.

Talking about changing attitudes is a very vague approach and not one that can be easily achieved. All the more reason why once the perpetrator has been identified and interrogated, he has to be punished immediately as a deterrant to similar crimes.

Now, Manoj is flying from Muzaffarabad to Delhi, he will be clothed and fed, protected and provided psychiatric analysis as well as counsel!

If nothing else the girls who were violated have been christened with *meaningful* names !

No Room for the Living.....or the Dead!!

No Room For the Living.....or the Dead!

When buildings are constructed overnight and apartments let out at unbelievably low rents, it should ring alarm bells. But in a city where the living face acute housing problems, where a 
chunk of the population lives in shanty huts and slums every square foot makes a difference.
Most people who flock to Mumbai come here to make a living, leaving behind their families,while the slave and scrimp to make their dreams come true .More often than not they manage to make a living: no one in this city need to go to sleep hungry--not if he can help himself, not if he's hardworking and ingenious.

The recent mishap , involving a 7-storey newly constructed apartment complex, where over 80 people lost their lives and scores were injured, should be an eye-opener..for the buyer and a warning for corrupt dealers, officers and builders.  For many ,owning an apartment ,a home or a piece of land in this city will always remain a dream. This however is no deterrant to  the lakhs who  land in the dream city each day. With no ceiling on the influx of population,the number  of dead too is rising and they have nowhere to go. While birth rates have dropped death rates are rising steadily. A study has found that the average Mumbaikar is likely to die at least seven years before other Indians and about 12 years before people living in the rest of Maharashtra.The most common device being employed across faiths, however, is the reuse of graves. Some cemeteries reopen graves after 10 years, and in crammed cities like Mumbai, sooner still. In fact, there are no permanent graves available in Mumbai.

The civic body runs 56 cemetries while NGOs run around 50.With the number of cemetries falling far short of requirement, the question of laying the dead to rest is cause for concern.This problem is not peculiar just to Mumbai but to other heavy populated cities over the world. 

The dead can wait but Holi can’t. If you had dropped by at  two of the cities well known crematoriums recently you would have been surprised to see this. Piles of wood, meant to be given free of cost for last rites, were sold at a profit in these funeral homes, for Holika dahan the burning of evil on the night before Holi.  Incidentally, BMC pays contractors Rs 6 per kg of wood at the end of the month, based on the data of bodies cremated. On an average, every cremation requires about 300 kg of wood. 

Great Britain, for example faces  a similar problem. However the concept of freelance burying is emerging as a solution because the law there allows burial of the dead  in their own gardens or backyards provided they maintain a burial register and do not contaminate a water supply or its source. This may not be an ideal situation for a place like Mumbai  where the civic body maintains the open drainage system and common water supply outlets in many areas.

Saudi Arabia on the other hand has come up with an ideal alternative---graves are dug deep enough to bury a person in standing position so that less space is occupied.

While the Catholics and Muslims have no choice but to relinquish claims on a grave after 18 m months, the Parsis and Hindus are better off. The Parsis dispose their dead by Dokhmenashni ( feeding the body to vultures in the Tower of Silence). Nobody is allowed to witness these rites though.

 A number of scholars  also feel that burials contaminate Mother Eart for atleast a century. Their predictions are based on studies which have shown that microenzymes of those buried centuries ago are still active.!