Had enough?

I am rapidly tiring of this city! Oh wait, I said that already!

Where's the humanity?

How do you feel about living in a city where traffic doesn't make way for an ambulance? I think I am beginning to tire of this city!

Monsoon

The monsoon has started with a bang this time, flooding the entire city on the first day itself. Obligatory noises about the ineffectiveness of the government, who will get away with doing nothing and eating away tax payer money as usual. Still, its better than the sweltering heat of the summer. Envy the kids who play with abandon in the rain.

Mumbai taxi driver==Unscrupulous?

While auto rickshaw fares are simple enough to calculate, I have never been able to decipher the meter reading in Mumbai taxis. To be honest, I haven't paid much attention to the math. Till recently, when I learnt that the fare card for taxis was revised in 2007 with lower rates. However, most taxi drivers still have the old cards, which are about 10% more expensive on an average. Most taxi drivers keep a copy of both the old and new rate cards. New - for when a cop catches them and old - for conning unaware passengers! If you insist on the new card, they will grudgingly pull it out, wave it quickly in front of your eyes and declare it is only 2-3 rupees lower. 2-3 rupees my foot, I don't hear that when they are at the receiving end! And act as if you are this rich miser who would grudge a poor man a few pennies!

Its not just about the money. I have a problem with paying people who trying to con me so blatantly. And it isn't just the "bhaiyyas" who do it. Everybody does, including Maharashtrian drivers and the odd sardars. Maybe Raj and his cronies would do well to focus their energies on correcting such wrongs, which would actually help the citizens of Bombay, oops, Mumbai.

What inspires the violence?

I first became aware of the contempt with which UP/Bihar is treated when I thought my Bengali friend back to college was Bihari. He practically recoiled at the implied insult (unintentional) in the question. The first time I heard the word "bhaiyyas" used in a derogatory sense was when the watchman in the building killed a big fat lizard we wanted to chase out (not kill) and demanded a 100 rupee payment. The reason - he was a Brahman and had sinned by killing a living creature. I was like 'wtf'. My roommate (who was from UP herself) told him to take a hike. We then found our laundry guy who did it for less than half the price and muttered, "these bhaiyyas" before he left.

Over the last four years, I have sat in many taxis and rickshaws driven by members of the said states. For the most part, I've had no trouble. But whenever I was overcharged (a rare occurrence in Mumbai by itself), its inevitably been by a member of the same group. A classic case of a few rotten apples spoiling the lot? I guess so. But that doesn't give anyone the right to resort to violence. Rhetoric apart, its a fact that Mumbai wouldn't run for a single day if the UP and Bihar folks weren't in the city. People who are hasty with the brick bats, kindly stop and think about it!