Ok, this is extremely loose talk...if you hang on too long, you may find yourself suspended from your senses! Don't say you weren't warned. You're of course welcome to crib your heart out later!

The first rains of the season pulverised Mumbai, reduced the sprawling megapolis to a crumbling, stumbling sea of people stuck at the predictable bottlenecks dotting the city.
And, typically, the media came down heavily on the usual suspects: the municipal commissioner -- whose own office had to go without power, the traffic police, and of course the `State Government', that unwieldy monolith conjured up by voters to bear their share of responsibilities as well.
Suddenly, we found ourselves back to square one. After all those endless trips to Mithi river-- you got the feeling that the river by itself would cure the city of its flooding woes -- by everyone who was any kind of authority, we had been comforted into believing 26/7 was the climax of our waterlogging history. And that this time, we would all be singing, rim jhim gire saawan....all four months.
But alas, nature had other plans. So, we are back to doing what we do best. We throw garbage out of our window-- check out the railway tracks ALL ALONG the harbour line and piles of debris on EVERY road we walk on ---and curse the BMC for not clearing it up.
Where else would you find citizen apathy of this level? The city is like a vacuum cleaner that never gets cleaned. It keeps sucking in people in thousands every day. Where they live and what they do cannot be important because this is after all a democratic country and we all have the right to live where we please. Even if we are not Indian.
The last time I wrote on the subject, intelligence agencies pegged the number of Bangladeshis alone at one million. Do you know how many people this means? The city has a census population of 12 million.
And this is the official count. There are any number lurking in places like Navi Mumbai-- there has been a surfeit of beards, sherwanis and fez caps in places like Sanpada in the past ten years and Thane, not to speak of the rest of the country.
They invent a ration card and become citizens of the country. Have you noticed of late how many crimes and accidents seem to involve people with strangely un-Indian names. That bit also gives you an idea about the kind of occupation that earns them their rozi roti.
But mention the B- word to some of our dyed-in-the-wool `socialist' (which kind, I wonder) friends and they see red: look, they argue, these Bangladeshis provide cheap labour in the construction industry, powerlooms, etc. So in effect, they are subsidising you and your economy. what's your problem if they earn some poor pennies and live on the roads in the bargain.
What indeed is my problem? My problem is that these construction labour types, who make up less than half of THEIR population, are eating into my fellow countryment's rights. Because they come cheap, some needy Indian has been deprived of his right to occupation.
Next, they are extremely unclean-- litter and shit all over, come in a package deal-- two-three wives, countless children follow in the fortnight they arrive -- and are susceptible to violence.
The most important question of them all: why should i have to put up with these illegal immigrants on my land, even if they are angels from Paradise?
There are enough of my own countrymen bothering me anyway. Look at the daily influx into Mumbai: about 300 families - that is 300 x 4 = 1200. Consider a year's collection -- 1200 x 365 = 4,38,000. In 10 years, this would be an addition of 43.8 lakh people feeding off the same supply of power, roads and water, among other things. For a measure, Singapore, the city-state is 40 lakh.
I have lived in Sion all my life. It was a beautiful place with lots of trees, neat gardens, acres of clean pavements, and PEACE. Today, you have to watch your step if you set foot there. Chickens, yes actually, crow away on festering mounds of garbage; rowdy youths spit and storm past you along the sidewalks, and scrawny children in soiled clothes bawl their lungs out outside your door.
What other than a serious population explosion could have caused this nightmare to be heaped upon us in broad daylight? Yet, when someone proposes an entry restriction for the city, we oppose it immediately, partly because it comes from an autocratic saffron leader with whom we are loathe to share even the air we are breathing, let alone our views on the city.
The best way out then is to curse the BMC and its corrupt ways for letting the city go to the dogs. We have no involvement in our own future, other than fighting for the rights of all our global brethren to come and live here and live irresponsibly in the true spirit of Vasudaiv Kutumbhakam.

Next post on why things are sooo bad in our cities. (promise to keep it shorter!)