Postcards From J

Someone forwarded these pictures of the deluge last year! No, this is not to depress you, but to serve as a reminder of what we Mumbaikars have had to deal with - crumbling infrastructure, insensitive governance and a beaten spirit. We can't blame Nature's wrath for everything, can we? Let's be sensitive to our surroundings now. Contribute to a clean and green Mumbai for us and our children. You don't have to join politics to make a difference. Just remembering NOT to spit out of the train/bus window, teaching your child (and adults too) NOT to throw that sweet wrapper carelessly on the streets, and by NOT being blind to our fellow citizens. Live and let Mumbai live!

Sunday mornings usually mean waking up late, followed by a leisurely breakfast and devouring the newspapers. Today also started off the same way. Until the newspapers happened. Suketu Mehta ’s guest column in Sunday Mid-Day moistened my eyes. I feel like weeping uncontrollably. The past two weeks have been hard for Bombay – my city, the city of dreams. But whose dreams are we talking about? Last night, my friend Minella delivered a healthy baby boy weighing 3.5 kilos. What kind of a future are we bequeathing him? Is this the city that he can be proud of living in? Will he grow up as a carefree kid playing gully cricket without the imminent fear of terrorism looming large? We haven’t mourned for our dead. We moved on, thanks to our famed ‘spirit’. I haven’t grieved at all; that’s why I have this sick feeling in my stomach and now I want everyone to really mourn not only for the 190-odd people who have died in the serial bomb blasts but also for the city of Bombay (or Mumbai). The peopl...