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.!

save theplanet

Of Mills........and Boons!

In the mid-90s the Maharashtra government  gave the green signal to several textile mills to sell of their surplus land.1854 - Mumbai got its first mill called ‘Bombay Spinning Mill’ famous for producing Cotton textiles to be exported to Britain.By 1870 there were about 13 mills and by 1875 total count of mills in Mumbai was about 70 which still went up to 83 by 1915. Famous mill locations were Lower Parel, Parel, Lalbaug, Byculla.

It's a whole new experience now...just walking around Parel.Earlier the narrow lanes filled with children playing gilli-danda or flying kites, voluptuous women draped in 9-yard saris, their foreheads smeared with vermillon sold vegetables and the strong  pungent aroma of spices, masalas and pickles tickled the nostrils..The millworkers lived in chawls with hardly any amenities, but the area was centrally located and connected by road and railways with other parts,schools and markets were near by and above all it was safe!

In 1982 Mumbai's Textiles Mill workers waged a historic and long battle under the leadership of militant leader Dr. Datta Samant. 28 years later, the mill workers are back on the path of struggle on the demand of rehabilitation. The struggle was brutally crushed by the ruling  party in collaboration with mill owners which resulted into forced unemployment- 80 thousand to 1 lakh workers were sacked ruthlessly,those mill workers who re-joined mill after the strike were humiliated, forced to work in inhuman conditions .                

In 1991 Sharad Pawar declared that Mumbai would be built on the lines of Hong Kong and Singapore: accordingly mill owners adopted a new strategy. They closed the mills and started redeveloping the mill-land for huge profits. Even profit-making mills like Bombay Dyeing, Mafatlal, Morarjee, Birla's Century, Thakarsey group and Piramal group mills were all closed down. The mill owners started re-development on their mills land for constructing residential complexes, hotels, malls and commercial complexes. The gigantic looms which had clanked tirelessly for over a century ground to a halt!

Construction actvity was booming with over 2 crore square feet of land up for sale! Luxurious residential complexes,  gleaming  glass-faceted commercial areas and malls now dot Lower Parel.Smartly dressed executives zoom in and out of the bylanes in their Zens and Benzes and the smoke and dust have long been replaced by exotic fragrances of  Ralph Lauren's Notorious and 24 Faubourg!

  

  

Unique Angadias

While thieves were busy looting diamonds worth Rs 250 crore from inside the high security zone of theBrussels airport on February 19, it was business as usual in the world's biggest diamond cutting centre - Surat. 

It is believed that at least 90 per cent of the stolen sparklers were meant for polishing units in Surat. These units, known for putting the shine on nine out of 10 diamonds in the world, enjoy an annual turnover pegged at Rs 80,000 crore. Yet, Surat has never seen a Brussels-type heist. The secret perhaps lies in its unbelievably simple trade system founded entirely on trust. It is a system that could give corporate lawyers and executives a nightmare because of its informal nature, but it works perfectly well for Surat's businessmen. The Brussels incident has rattled some of Surat's top diamond merchants into rethinking its loose security system . But it is unlikely that this will lead to any alterations in how crores change hands in this city. Here is why. Surat has more than 3,500 large and small diamond manufacturing units employing around 4.5 lakh workers. If this sees like a story from the Panchatantra don't be fazed....more than 150 years ago,2 brothers-Jairam and Ambalal Patel came to Bombay from Gujarat to earn a livelihood.The Patels consider themselves superior to the Vaniyas ( traders from Gujarat).
Struggling to make a livin the brothers  began running errands---delivering parcels  to Gujarat--- for a modest fee.The oldest industrial belt ---- the textile belt-----at the time extended from Bombay to Gujarat.This set the brothers thinking--they realised speed, regularilty and reliability were  of utmost importance. Railways were in their embryonic stage and postal services not as speedy, so they hired couriers from among the commuinity.

The first service was between Bombay and Surat ( where the East India company was located).Today, a vast network of angadias deliver anything from small parcels, cash to valuables and precious diamonds!

Historic VT

Historic Heritage

For a newcomer arriving in Mumbai or a young student landing in the city to pursue his dreams,alighting for the first time at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-CST ( erstwhile Victoria Terminus) can be an interesting and confusing experience..getting familiar with the signs on indicators,maze of platforms and jostling crowds.As a sea of people disgorge themselves and scamper hurriedly,you may feel you are in a cold,unfriendly place.Far from true! 

CST retains the charm of the British Raj--viewed from the outside it appears like a grand museum.An architectural landmark it is one of the busiest and most crowded terminals in the country. The country's first ever train was flagged off from here in 1853,the modern building took 10 years to build (1878-1888).

The dome is reported to be the first octagonal ribbed masonry adapted from the Italian Gothic style.A torch-bearing  lady's statue dominates the western facade along with gargoyles, grotesques and figures  positioned strategically.