Last night, I was passing by Union Park at about 10 PM (lies between Pali Hill and Carter road), which has of late become the home to many an eatery, ranging from the famous upmarket Olive and Shatranj Napoli to a whole line of small eateries.

I saw this line of people, standing along the road side, holding placards , peacefully demonstrating their point.

The point they were trying to make was that since these eateries opened up their life has become hell - with the traffic congestion, people honking even after mid-night, boisterous youngsters, loud voices saying bye byes which last 15 minutes or more, the works.

 

I spoke to these demonstrators for a couple of minutes and realized that they reflect the most common & basic issues prevalent in most of neo modern urban India, where sheer economics has changed primary residential areas to semi commercial ones, where shops and eateries flood the ground floors of what used to be purely residential units.

 

Upon deeper reflection it struck me that there was no reason for the restaurants and the residents not to co-exist. There is only one thing in their path - the selfishness and arrogance of the average Mumbaiite.

 

The more educated and richer the modern Mumbaiite gets, the more they think nothing of squeezing in the extra 2 inches at a traffic signal, even if it means they are going nowhere and are killing the traffic flow. In their Honda Cities, Accents and Corrollas, they think nothing of breaking signals or honking for no rhyme or reason. After all, there could be more than one ailing senior citizen who is entitled to his / her sleep way past mid-night, wouldn’t you agree?

 

While I’m at it, I may as well even comment on the general tendency of motorists to use the horn as an announcement of their impending ‘arrival’. I seriously think Mumbai has lost the understanding of what a horn is for. It’s a warning device, to warn other drivers of impending danger, and not a tool to demonstrate one’s masculinity. Later that night, I drove from Bandra to Andheri at 1 am and found I did not even have to honk even once. On the other hand I heard several honks for no rhyme or reason - where there were no other cars to warn, just motorists filling their own emptiness at that hour of the morning.

 

These neo moneyed Mumbaiites are the same people who will drive in a European city and they know that God forbid, their hand even wanders near the centre of the steering, since this is just not done.

 

THEN WHY IS IT A DONE THING IN INDIA?

 

As for the demonstrators, I fully appreciate what they are doing. Protesting in a systematic manner, drawing peoples attention to their problem in a peaceful manner on a very cold night and not barging in to the restaurants behind the local politician swinging lathis and breaking things.

 

A better example of Gandhigiri I have not seen in this day and age.

The ideal solution to this situation would be to probably sit the restaurant owners down with the residents across the table and perhaps arrive at a middle ground and use the moving image of the baby (on the right) as a poster at the exit asking people to be quiet. (I know that image moved me more than any other words / image could have done)

Perhaps a gentle reminder from the steward when they are exiting with words like" Please do remember that a baby may be sleeping when you are leaving" or maybe some other little reminders on the parking tags, anything which helps. They can even have some foyer space kept aside for the goodbyes. There are a ton of ideas but they need co-operation and implementation.

 

If the restaurant owners and residents are co-operative I don't see why there cannot be a satisfactory end to this peacefully.

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We need more of these kind of judgments so that squatters (who have not paid anything for their land and are basically freeloaders) do not block the growth of Mumbai as a city and further, we need those judgments coming in faster so that squatters cannot use the courts to act as a stumbling block or blackmailing tactic like they do.

The courts are overburdened with cases like this one, where the litigants first claimed that they were eligible for SRA which was then thrown out, so they then did a volte face and said that since they were on private land they could not be evicted.

Put this in light of legal occupants who are thrown out of land just because it is required for "common good" as per a previous article (click here to see article) I wrote and we see the mockery they make of the law.

This is particularly important in the light of today’s newspaper article which talks about the 5th & 6th lines from Kurla to Thane being blocked by 15 fish vendors, 11 toilet blocks and 2 temples.

If we look at the pictures of the vendors and the toilets which I have included in this article, does they even remotely resemble authorized structures?

Would any of the "vendors" be paying BMC charges, water bills or even by a remote chance, income tax, professional tax or any of the myriad of taxes the average shopkeeper pays.

 

Doesn't it make our blood boil that the honest middle class

taxpayer is having to hang for his life in an overcrowded train just because, as one of the fish vendors says “They marked my shop for rehabilitation two years back. We are still clueless about our fate.”

This means that till they "get adequate compensation" they will not move, which means that we – the average tax payer, will still continue to hang outside risking life and limb, and continue to reach office 15 minutes late every day.

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I must say I am a bit sorry about the state of Maharashtra. I had seen Raj Thakeray as someone who was perhaps a leader who would lead Maharashtra and ergo Mumbai into a new tomorrow - young blood who would provide a fresh injection into the ailing, doddering grey areas of bureaucracy.

His tirade the last week has shown him as a someone who could be :

a) easily manipulated by shrewd players like Uddhav Thakeray who has wisely kept mum on this whole issue and let Balasaheb do the talking. (My respect for Uddhav has gone up 2 notches).

 

b) is capable of tearing Mumbai to bits just to further his ambitions.

 

If any politician worth his salt, would have been in Raj's place last week, he would have pulled back the moment he saw that the forces were aligning against him. Instead what does he do, he sticks his neck out even further, pushing the envelope. Must say I give him credit for the size of his B...s.

 

Now let us understand the dynamics, many years ago, when Balasaheb was a young man and Mumbai was a young city, Balasaheb played a card which struck the right base for many a Maharashtrian. He said that the South Indians were taking over Mumbai. He polarised the public and instantly the Maharashtrians who saw their lands taken over in staunch areas like Matunga rallied behind him.

Raj of course thinks he can do a Balasaheb, but it’s as futile as me thinking I can do a Jesus, Buddha or even a Hitler. We must learn from history, not ape it.

Raj has taken on the wrong segment. Even Margaret Thacher had to back off in the UK when she tried to polarise the public against the "brownies" ( people of the Indian subcontinent) who were overrunning the country.

 

There is a saying which was put forward by the British common public during that period which should summarise the idea properly "If the Indians were to leave , who would clean the toilets at Heathrow?"

The fact of the matter was, she backed off because Britain suddenly realised that any great economy is a patchwork of ethnicity and if the Indians were to leave and take their money with them, the British economy would nearly collapse.

 

Similarly, I think Raj and his ilk need to realise "if the Biharis were to leave Mumbai, who would do the carpentry". ( ask yourself, how many maharashtrian carpenters do you see ).

 

The fact is if the Biharis were to leave overnight, Mumbai would be up sh** creek without a paddle. Every metropolis is a living & growing orgamism and needs diverse cultures to make it so.

As for the police, they have shown themselves as the helpless straws in the wind which are afraid of even showing one ounce of strength. First they refused to arrest Balasaheb even though he has been indicted by the Srikrishna commission since it would "endanger law and order".

 

Now they are pulling the same excuse for Raj Thakeray. Does this mean that any common person tomorrow who can muster up support from 2000 odd people can do what he wishes and the police would be afraid to "endanger law and order".

 

When I think of the people who laid down their lives and paid in blood for the freedom of this country, I think of the song, "dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho gaye hai bagwan, kitna badal gaya hai insaan." (oh lord, see what has become of the world you created, see how much man has changed)