Mumbai Coffee House

Pali Hill is considered to be one of the poshest addresses in Mumbai . This is in Bandra . Considered to be the poshest and most expensive suburb in Mumbai . You have all the Khans and Kapoors living here. I suspect that the tax collections from this suburb is amongst the highest in Mumbai . Yet it took me close to twenty five minutes to drive down from the base of Pali Hill to Bandra P O which is less than a kilometre away on Saturday morning. Chaotic traffic. Cars tottering like battered prize fighters. Autos whizzing past like mosquitoes. Pedestrians crawling all over except on the footpath. And people dragging handcarts oblivious to all. Not a policeman in sight. What really livened up the madness was the fact that roads had been dug up. There was no advance notice. So you reached your turning and realised that you could no go further as the road was dug up. You had to turn back into the snaking traffic. You would be really lucky if the person opposite you had the sense, p...

This happened on the drive down North Goa yesterday. We were heading to the airport to catch our flight back to Mumbai . A nice air conditioned Wagon R (Rs 50 more for AC) and a very sweet, young Goan driver. A local Hindu, nicknamed Sam. I slowly woke up midway and began to stretch after the coconut tree induced snooze. Suddenly Sam spoke out of the blue. Sam: Sir, where are you from? Me: Bombay (I normally use the M word on the blog) Sam: Oh. Er what is happening to the new Shah Rukh Khan film? Will it get released? (I am used to this. Years back on hearing I am from Mumbai , folks in Bangladesh had asked me when the then new SRK film, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain was going to release!) Me: Well from the news it seems so. Sam: The Sena is opposing, no? What is the problem? Me: Well from what I know they are protesting because he wanted Pakistani players in his IPL team Sam: So the Pakistanis won't play now Me: No, I don't think so. Plus they can't hire more players now Sam...

It took me close to two hours to drive the twelve odd kilometres from Chinchpokli to Bandra after work at Mumbai this evening. I took to the wheels of my new car for the first time after I returned from a weekend in KL and its regulated traffic and empty roads. I am without a driver again. My spanking new expensive car with ergonomic seats and super suspension couldn't prevent my back from giving in today after the drive. I was so disoriented when I returned from my drive from hell that I almost put my socks in the garbage bin instead of in the laundry basket. So why am I writing instead of resting my back? I am writing because I am angry. Very angry. And the pain doesn't let me forget my anger. Angry at the fact that I live in a city where I have to pay the highest road taxes, the highest for fuel, highest for rent and then have to go through this. Roads broken everywhere. Multiple constructions going on in every road of this cursed city. Metro, Monorail, flyovers, concreti...