I never knew that jumping railway tracks is a crime. That’s what I did today at Andheri Station (Mumbai), only to get caught by the Railway Police who later put me into a small cell, over flowing with people who committed the same crime. The fine for such a ‘ghastly’ crime is Rs. 1200 only or 6 months in prison.
The way these Police guys came into the cell and used their hands on us was shocking and surprising. For such a small offence, there was no need to raise hands.

Apart from learning that Power is misused, especially on the common man (ironically it’s the common man that has given them the Power) there is another, more important, aspect that I learnt today. i.e,

As a youth we take a lot of risks but we don’t have much money; but
when we are old, we have the money but we don’t take the risks.

Popularity: 63% [?]

Mumbai witnessed it’s first “No Honking Day” yesterday and it was successful. The effect of the “No Honking day” also brought more discipline into the roads, from both the drivers and the pedestrians. There was no lane cutting, no rash driving, no unnecessary honking and no pesky pedestrians.

Mumbai has also seen another successful campaign. It was the “Mumbai Un-plug” campaign. Citizens were requested to switch off all electricity appliances for an hour on this particular day.

Seeing two successful awareness campaigns happening in the city, can trigger more awareness drives. I am listing a few down, which I believe will be as successful as the others.

• No ‘peeing’ day: There’s not a single wall in the city that can boast that ‘I haven’t been ‘pee-ed’ upon!‘
• No spitting day: ditto
• Walk on footpaths day: But for that, we need to get rid of all the hawkers, vendors, garbage who happily call these footpaths their homes.
• No Newspaper day: I am sure this will be a pain for so many people who rely on the newspaper first thing in the morning. It helps them drink their morning tea, finish with the loo, etc but above all it will help the environment. So many Trees will survive.
• No Smoking day: If this actually happens, many Mumbaikars will die of hypertension and stress!mu Many believe that Smoking is the best way to kill tension, stress, viz.
• No email day: If this happens (why should it?), it will be back to the “Morse Code” days.
• Say Hi with a smile day: Mumbai is one of the loneliest cities to live in. Saying Hi with a smile to a stranger will make so much of a difference to this reputation that Mumbai has earned.

Popularity: 74% [?]

Tweego and I have been going for early morning walks these days. It’s not that there is a park nearby, but because Tweego enjoys relieving himself on the roads and streets of Mumbai.

There is something in that look of his when he relieves himself. It’s a question he’s asking me. And each day he ventures into a new area.
On certain days it’s at the municipal plantations on roads, other days it’s on a heap of litter, sometimes the “nalla” (drain). It was today that I deciphered this dog language.

He chose the side of a wall, splattered with spit. Spit of paan (beetle leaf) and paan masala (chewable tobacco).
But today was different. Instead of one question, he had two!
I read the first,
“What’s taking you so long?”
But the second shook me off my feet.
“I am a dog, what’s your excuse?”

Popularity: 59% [?]

The Batti Bandh or the Mumbai Unplug campaign has been a success, even if 10-20% of the Mumbai population participated. I am sure that the figures will be different if this campaign is done again in the future. It only shows that people are interested and want to help in combating Global Warming, because agree or disagree we are causing it.

The remainder either weren’t aware of such a movement (where on the 15th of December, all electrical appliances and consumers had to be switched off from 7:30 pm IST for an hour) or they had this to say, “How Does it Matter?”

Such people are apprehensive because we humans are always pessimistic about a change or trying something new.

Humans believe that they always need a leader to perform a show, it talks about our dependency. It’s sad to say that they/we have forgotten the power of ‘I’
For the fight against Global Warming we don’t need leaders, we need ‘I’s. It has to be you, me and our contemporaries joining hands not to follow someone but working together to fight it.

You may be the one who said, “How does it Matter?” but remember it’s the thought that matters because a thought becomes a habit; a habit becomes your nature; a nature your character. And it’s this character that creates Revolutions.
So, don’t kill the thought by saying “How does it matter?”

Related Tags : mumbai unplug batti bandh global warming mumbai

This Post got featured in Mumbai Mirror on the 17th of December.
[To view the epaper of the article click here, to see the article on Mumbai Mirror.com, click here]
Thankyou

Popularity: 68% [?]