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The Joker

I took the Bandra Worli Sea Link to work a few times before today.

I was quite sold on it. It cut the time to reach my first stop, Kainaz's office by more than ten minutes. And, for those interested, the taxi fare of black and yellow and Meru's is exactly the same on the Sea Link and on Tulsi Pipe. The fifty Re entry fee being the difference.

Then, as Bertie Wooster would say, the scales fell.

We set off by the Sea Link this morning. The sea looked very mysterious and grey. It was wet, cloudy and seemed cool and surreal. I could see the peak of the skyscrapers at the Worli Side through the mist. Smog actually but mist seems more poetic. It seemed straight out of Batman's Gotham City... dark, menacing and yet, exciting.

We got off at the Worli Sea face and saw that the U turn to Worli Naka was closed as usual. I don't know why they can't be flexible and keep it open when traffic is low. The city planners don't care for the energy crisis apparently. Today was particularly crazy as the U Turns were closed later too and one had to hit the main road, get stuck in terrible traffic. Batmobile to reality in ten minutes.

So we limped forward, struggling to gain every inch, while we could have easily taken a U Turn after the Sea Link and hit Worli Naka in a jiffy.

But then what would the guy at BMC who thinks of new ways to test the tenacity of Mumbaikars do if we could do that?

I am sure such a department exists. After all why would they concretise roads, break them, put palaver stones, break them, concretise them, and then block the road wondering whether to make a fly over, or demolish the existing one?

Without them, as T would say, 'where are the hardships?'.

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