Much ado about Ganpati

I remember shopping for Ganesha idols with my father when I was a kid. We used to buy a freshly made idol and carry it home carefully so that the wet clay didn't break off. For me, the primary thrill was weaseling a lump of clay from the idol maker's pile and making weird shapes. Dropping the figurine into the well at the back of house on the third day used to be exciting as well- we used to count the number of seconds it fell before we heard the big splash.

Over the years, the clay idols vanished to make way for paper mache and plaster of Paris, I moved out for college and have never been home for the festival since. And all the din in Mumbai for what used to be a fun-yet-peaceful day makes me wish that the government would just ban all the noise being made and make it obligatory for people to stay quiet about their religiousness. And the processions haven't even started. Sigh.

Outraged

A woman in her mid-30s was found naked and unconscious on a CST-Titwala train's first class ladies compartment on Saturday night.The unidentified woman travelled the entire 65-km distance between the two stations in that condition with no help forthcoming from a single commuter. - TOI

What can I say - I am appalled, outraged and frightened by the worsening security conditions for women in the city. And this happened on the 9:27pm local, not even late into the night. What's even more appalling is that nobody did anything to help the poor woman even after she was found. At least earlier, there were cops on ladies compartments (doesn't really help if you're the only woman and there is this male cop with a heavy old gun though). Now there's absolutely nothing. Women commandos? They only seem to be interested in harassing and shoving around hawkers on platforms. I've never seen one on a local train.

I don't know the reasons why dance bars were closed in the city, but I do know that crimes against women have risen sharply post the same. Whatever the moral police have to say about dance bars, it kept sexual predators off the streets and the streets were safer for women. How long before Mumbai gets to be as bad as Delhi?