To be Free

To be free, has nothing to do with external chains at least in todays world. It is now dependent entirley on ones own idea of what being free is. further, it is again for you to decide how much more freedom you want. Rather than fighting against others for your freedom, often one has to fight against ones own perceptions, fears, and supersitions.

Interestingly, fighting against external forces is much easier; it is the fight within which is difficult.

Happy Friendship Day

To all my dear friends spread all over the world, wish you all a happy friendship day.
"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." -- Bernard Meltzer.

musings after

Its after a week since rains disrupted the life of mumbaikers; for some of us who have been fortunate, only the daily life had been disturbed, but for some, its going to be starting life all over again as they have lost most of their belongings. The worst affected are those who have lost some of their family members. Almost everybody has been affected. As usual, we have criticised the governments- Local, state and central- for pushing us into this. The local government has not carried out its duty of cleaning the drainage system; the state government for neglecting the developmental needs of the city. The biggest grouse is against the centre- Mumbai pays the highest tax, but it receives very little in return for rebuilding its infrastructure.

The government on its part states that the calamity has been very large not witnessed for many many years, so it is not fair to expect that the system to have disaster management system to such an extent.

This episode has raised many questions: who is responsible for the present state of affairs?
Huge influx of people into the city is continuing now for decades which is in excess of existing infrastructure, as a result, there is scramble for and pressure on the existing resources. At one point of time, one could travel in the trains which would be relatively empty at particular hours of the day. Nowadays, at any point of time, the trains are getting more and more crowded.

Houses are becoming smaller and smaller. Buildings becoming are taller and taller. Slums are growing larger and larger.

Despite innumerous problems, the influx continues. As a result, the norms guiding the development of city are ignored as the demand has long exceeded the supply. This supports the haphazard development of the city.
Such a fragile state is liable to crumble under such natural calamities. But, the city has been known to ignore such setbacks and again rise. This time also the city was back to work.


I don’t know how much the situation is going to change in coming days.