Sensex and Sensibility

Two years ago

http://mettakau.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html : Titled "Amchi Mumbai"

I drove to the Gateway of India with two of my closest friends Leanne and Mir. We parked at a spot right in front of the Taj intending to go into the hotel and walk around. As I approached the parking kiosk - I inwardly thought to myself ..wow..I'm going to shell out a bomb for this spot. There was a young boy manning it - who cut me a receipt and said in a quiet voice - 17 Rupees and 50 paise. I didnt know whether to laugh or cry. Here I was - about to walk into a 7 star luxury hotel - about to potentially spend several 100 times as much on a cup of coffee dishing out a 20 rupee note for a prime parking spot. I handed him the note and said I didnt want change back. He said " Change ka hum kya karega Madam - yeh humara job hai. Satra rupey bolo to utna hi leneka" . Gave me precisie change 2.50 paise back.

Frankly - if I was in his place - I would have pocketed the change. But I'm not. I'm neither as hardworking nor as honest.

And that dusty parking kiosk guy outside the Taj who refused to keep the change - is who represents the average hardworking mumbaikar. And thats who you should keep in mind while reading this.

Wednesday Nov19th 2008

Nithya was in town on her way home and decided to stay in Mumbai for 2 days. She had never seen the Gateway of India. We drove to town and spent the entire morning strolling Appollo Bunder - clicking pictures of the Gateway, the boats, each other and the Taj. Then we went walking through colaba causeway. We made our way through antique sellers, fake bag stores, shoe stalls, silver jewllery kiosks and channawallas and frankiwallas and headed to Leopolds for lunch. A couple of yummy sandwiches later we headed over to the Taj - where we strolled the insides. Saw the pool and the massive horse statues guarding its front entrance, the saffron garlands they welcomes guests with.. the who's who of international luxury brands housed on the ground level and made our way to the Sea Lounge to check out the view.

It was the kind of afternoon you can only spend in South Bombay when you are young and restless and carefree.

Wednesday Nov 26th 2008 1 pm

At lunch time -

kaumudi bhide to Ushma show details Nov 26 (5 days ago) Reply
How about I come to town on Friday night and we do some totally pointless street shopping at Colaba Causeway and dinner at Leopolds .. very college girl types ,...Love, Kau

Needless to say - we didnt go to that part of town on Friday.

Wednesday Nov 26th 2008 9 pm to Saturday Nov 29th 8 am

Militant terrorists took control of the Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House after indiscriminately opening fire on people at CST, Leopolds and Cama Hospital.

Army and Navy commandos, Police officers, ATS members and Firefighters fought with the high voltage hostage situation where hand grenades were hurled, bombs diffused, hostages rescued, infernos placated and countless people lost and injured to overpower the terrorists after a 60 hour standoff.

Circa present day:

There was a time when there were only two big time hotels in the city of Mumbai.

Taj Mahal hotel is one of them.

Apart from being a visually stunning beautiful structure - once the playground of the rajas and maharajas - this 100 years old hotel - survived two world wars, british colonization, indian independence, the hindu growth rate of the economy, communal riots in mumbai and weathered storms aplenty to become the iconic city landmark that it now is.

But back in the day, it was a luxury that few could afford. And whenever anyone went to it - everyone would talk about how someone went to a "Five star hotel". The swimming pool, AC rooms, wall to wall carpet and room service in uniforms. It was something that the average mumbaikar had never even imagined - leave alone witnessed and experienced.

I remember someone who descibed it when I was a little kid.. and I pretended to be cool and said "ooohh and aaahh" at the all the appropriate moments ..only to ask my brother when everyone was asleep .."whats a bathtub" ? ... and remember him confessing that he had never seen one too.

Years later - I called him from the US and was all smiles when I told him that I now lived in a house that had a "bathtub"

Thats the beauty of a dream.

Thats what makes it so painful when the dream shatters.

In a country of a billion strong - we're so worried about the GDP and the sensex. We pay so little attention to the kind of society that we are building. We teach our kids about India before independence - but not about what comes after that.

We should start History lessons in the 1st grade. Believe me - we've a lot to cover.

Enough of the world wars - our text books should have chapters dedicated to the wars India has fought - where Indian soldiers have laid their lives down fearlessly. We should teach our kids about Kargil and the refusal of the consolidated worlds governements to back India's war against the Pakistani army led insurgency and government supported agression.

We should have a chapter dedicated to Dawood Ibrahim - mastermind of the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai - who now resides in a palatial mansion in Karachi with sattellite images to show his each and every movemment - yet their governement refusing to asknowledge his existence leave alone extradite him.

We should have another chapter dedicated to the Kandahar hijacking where LK Advani and gang neogtiated with terrorists and let go a crucial militant the Indian army had caught after losing tens of soldiers. And also show a video of him driving across the border into Pakistan.

Unless we do this - how can we explain to our children whats happening today.. where it all began ..and how it will end all of us before we decide to end it.

Everyday - the news papers should have one page dedicated to army operations in Kashmir on a day to day basis - so people and media dont ask stupid questions like "Is the NSG capable of dealing with this" ..and "why is it taking so long"

And the security cover for the politicians should be removed completely. Those extra security men should be allocated to protecting civilians instead.

Any government that sits and watches while its citizens run amock holding terrorist making camps and make a mockery of civilian rights for people everywhere in the world needs to wake up and smell the coffee or be woken up.

We should do away with governments like our own that sit on their hunches while thousands burn and spend sleepless nights in agony due to a neighbours complacency and incompetence in dealing with what happens in their own country.

I amuse myself thinking about what Gandhiji would have had to say if he was addressing the press today. Would he have turned his other cheek ? ...orchestrated a salt satyagraha?

Times change and philosophies need to keep up.

Else the clock is ticking for all of us.

We're all to blame for this - I myself dont hold a voting identity card. Then how can I sit back and expect things to change. Getting that will be the first step for this week.

I dont think India needs anyones blessings on what to do next.

We are the worlds 12th largest economy. 4th in terms of Purchasing Power.

We are the worlds most populated democratic nation.

We house 1/6th of the worlds population.

And in a few years time - 50% of our population will be under 25 years of age.

This will be a generation of indians who will represent majority of the market for any product - be it electronic, food, apparel, service and who will also represent majority of the workforce for countries all across the globe.

This is what is at stake. Not just for India - but for the rest of the world.

Its their future that we need to secure.

We need to be careful and assertive.

We should severe diplomatic ties with any nation that allows extreme factions to breed militants that time and again target our cities and citizens.

By no means I am recommending an act of external aggression. We havent initiated any of those in the esteemed history of our country and should not.

However - its time to stop pretending.

You cant be all things to all people and so we have to be very careful about who we as a country are friends with. Its not the time to play cricket or exchange titbits on arts and crafts. All that can wait. And can continue with every single other country in the world. Believe me - our lives will be no less entertaining.

Instead we should focus on making our security airtight, elect leaders who have a spinal cord, invest in human resources, infrastructure, sanitation, green energy and grow a soul for this city of ours. Continue to be the cosmopolitan, life loving country that we have always been. Thankfully we have seen the merits of a democratic free society and I gurantee that the average mumbaikar will board a raft only for pleasure - leave alone to be a part of a dark henious plot. Beacause he has a strong refernce point to how rewarding life can be on this side of the fence - even when he refuses to pocket extra change offered by a foolhardy few.

Tough times dont last - Tough people do.

And its time to show that we as a country can be just that.