I would like to applaud the Mumbai spirit following the rains that saved many lives. What happened on Tuesday was unprecendented and completely unexpected. I am very proud to be a Bombayite and the spirit shown on Tuesday/Wednesday makes my love for this great city grow even more.
Reading some of the posts on rediff really appalled me. I do not understand how one can get embarassed. What happened on Tuesday was not something to be embarassed about. It was a time to be sympathetic to people who have lost their loved ones and the damage this has caused, to be proud of the selfless help given to people all over Bombay. How does one plan for 37inches of rain in a day? I also agree that this is not the time to lash out at politicians or whoever else for not doing their bit.
That said, it is fair to say that the current drainage system is not the best and breaks down as is evident by the floods that happens atleast once every monsoon. The demands on the drainage system are known from every monsoon. The current system needs to be investigated to figure out what is needed to fix this recurring issue. Hopefully now steps will be taken to improve the situation.
No matter what one has to say... I hate Mumbai big time.... I hate the filled up local trains, I hate the garbage lying all around, I hate the untidiness of its people, I hate the weather, I hate the dirty dirty sea beaches.. I can just go on and on... I salute the Mumbairkar's spirit and resolve to stay in such a city...
It is high time that we learn how other Big countries contruct strong buildings, roads, drainage systems. When we compare ourselves to Big countries like US, our buildings collapses easily, roads turn into pools,normal life is affected during such natural calamities. The death count could have been definitely decreased if we had proper infrastructures & planning. Can\'t we build good underground drainages atleast in big cities. what are these politicians doing. Are we taking any measures to contruct Good roads, Buildings, Good Drainage systems etc., ?
I can't even imagine what people went through over the past few days. Sitting here in New York, I am overwhelmed by some of the accounts. I admire the strength, courage and the single-minded solidarity shown by all Mumbaikars (or as it was known in my time Bombayittes). I love Mumbai more than any other place in the world. Of all the major cities that I have seen there is no place like Mumbai. It's heart warming to know that the otherwise 'I am going to mind my own business' spirit for which a Mumbaikar is infamously known was shrugged off with residents offering help to stranded commuters. I can't imagine the plight of people stuck in buses with water rising till the windows. Though there is some truth in what Swapnali says, I must point out that rainfall of this magnitude would bring any city to a standstill. Considering transmission and subway systems in New York are dated back to 1960s and not having forgotten the long ordeal of getting out of the city during it's major blackout, I wouldn't set a store by what New York Times has to say. Neither will I join the bandwagon, sitting on a high horse and lambasting authorities in India. Question is what are you doing for your country before pointing fingers east, west and in any random direction. Mumbai has a long way to go but we are getting there. The pace may be slow but a start has been made. While I do agree that Mumbai has become overcrowded, do even well educated people think twice before littering around. And these are the very same people who will fall all over themselves to say "Hello" and "Thank you" to a sweeper abroad. Maybe we need to shed off our servile attitude. Sitting here I don't think we have any idea what people went through in Mumbai. All we can do is hope that people got home safe to their families. Beyond that I think we in the US need a reality check.
i have been following the havoc in mumbai thru news papers ,rediff and television.i live in visakhapatnam,another port city. i only want to tell those people who are criticising the infrastructure ext in our country(most happen to be NRIS) that instead of criticising what is absent here,if we can appreciate what is present,it will contribute more to the societyin terms of moral support. if we cannot create anything we dont have the right to destory.we need to remember when we compare with US,UK and all other developed countiesthe fact that they bacame independent long back while we are just 50 +yrs old. we need to appreciate all those ppl who left the comforts of their home to help those who were in trouble-not only with moral support but also by spending money-after all biscuits ,tea,bananas etc dont come for free-those ppl are the real heroes-just having good infrastructure is not enough if ppl dont have good hearts- i can bet that not every city in the world can boast of this kind of humanity which comes into action without being asked for help and thats what matters .
Hi, I'm Srini from Richmond, VA. First let me salute to the spirit of Mumbaikars for their courage to handle the situation of 26/7 without leaving smile on their face.Also let me offer my gratitude to all those who extended their noble hands to help the people by offering them water, coffee, biscuits..... You are GREAT. Please keep the good work going when ever you get a chance to serve. Though I was not in Mumbai, i was following every moment there through my offshore VOIP or rediff news. All are complaining just about the communication problem they were facing. There are many MNC telecommunication providers whose network follows where ever we go.... but only on a good day. What the hell is the phone for, when we cannot communicate with our loved ones when we ought to. They are earning billions of Rupees every year from our payments(in some cases where the calls were not made even by us). But when we really need them they are DOWN. Is this what they call as Customer Service. It is the time for them to realise the realiability of their networks. And also it is worthy to mention the mumbai power supply company who earned billions of Rupees from us. What all these people were doing..
Its good to see the improvement in the service of MTNL. A few year back a shower or 2 was enough to send the servie for a toss. Then it started improving and this is the their greatest achievement ...to be functioning in such extreme conditions. Some of the readers have made a perfect point, this is a wakeup call, we need to work towards a better infrastructure/factilities and planning and bear a little pain in the near future to avoid such or greater pain in the future. To mumbai i have only one thing to say ...Salam Mumbai!!
Having read all the peoples traumatic experience on that fateful day compelled me also to write a few lines about my place where i live,PANVEL the city is almost submerged its chaos everywhere,water level was uptil the first floor in some areas the whole of the town is without electricity,without water and god alone knows how many people are without food also, almost all the people have lost their belongings, most of them have lost their loved ones also the dead bodies are all lined up for cremation, i just dont know what else to write, even we have moved from our place and are in mumbai.My only request is to REDIFF or any NGO is that please come to panvel and just have a look its bad or one should say worse than what mumbai has suffered .
