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Our extortionist public transportation

We can do without the monsoon in Mumbai – it’s only going to give an opportunity for taxi and auto strikes.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

The autorickshaws and taxis of Mumbai are a columnist’s delight and a commuter’s nightmare. Their rude and uncouth manner apart, there’s a new fear this species of drivers has instilled in Mumbaikars: that of dropping their hapless passenger wherever they want to, for a range of reasons; ‘Gaadi mein gas bharna hai‘ and ‘Main wahan nahin jaunga‘ are chief among them.

Several commuters are now scared of certain areas in the city, fearing this desertion. Like I pointed out in a recent column, it seems that striking work is what these unruly cabbies and autowallahs are best at.

Once again I hear them demanding a Rs 2 raise in tariff for autorickshaws and Rs 5 raise for taxis. And after whatever they’ve put the average Mumbaikar through, after all the hikes in tariffs in the recent past, it is strange that they want this demand not just to be heard, but also to be empathised with. Their union leaders try to halfheartedly fool the public by saying that services will improve once the hikes are in place, but that is just an eyewash. When was the last time services improved? And I see some heavy hinting happening here: taxi and auto unions have a ‘Brahma astra’ up their sleeve, with the monsoon almost knocking on Mumbai’s doors.

The monsoons are the best time to go on strike in Mumbai. These unions have already said that the monsoon is almost here and that they don’t want to ‘harass’ the public. Of course these words do not reflect concern, but are a threat.

It’s a proven fact that the powers that be in Mumbai have taken this city downhill over the years. And what can shame our city more if our administration cannot control the people who are a part of our public transport? The term ‘public transport’ is just a facade, as the ‘public’ is just not taken into consideration while plying on the roads.

The time to simply vent your anger against these extortionists is gone, and the time is ripe for positive suggestions. Since these unions are demanding a raise before the monsoon, there should be a special monsoon offer put in place for them. Autorickshaw unions say that the autos have to through a lot of maintenance during the monsoon, so a raise is justified. Fine! So how about we give you a raise, but only during the monsoon? Let’s have a dual rate for Mumbai autos, one during the monsoon and another during the rest of the months.

And once you’ve got your raise, dear unions – and you will, because that’s how we roll – be prepared to have stones pelted at your vehicles if you refuse a ride. Tempers run really high during the monsoons, and when you politely ask an auto that has condescended to slow down and you say the words ‘Andheri East’, and he rushes off as if he’s encountered a ghost asking for a lift, be prepared not just for abuses but also for stones and some good old-fashioned beating.

Dear Mumbaikar, admit it, you’ve felt like committing a crime whenever an auto or taxi has refused to take you on board. Or maybe your anger is not directed merely at the errant cabbie or auto driver, but also at the Government, which does nothing to regulate these thugs. You are right in demanding that you, the public, will be given due consideration as a passenger. So the next time a raise in tariffs is granted, let’s pledge to demand change. If the Government doesn’t pull these unions up, promise that you and many others will.

Till then, let’s keep trying to get an auto to Andheri East.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his weekly take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Picture courtesy www.stockpicturesforeveryone.com)

 

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Ab ki baar…kaam kar lo yaar!

A disturbing victory speech notwithstanding, there’s just one small request for PM Narendra Modi – don’t forget us non-Vadodara guys.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

Finally, the elections are over. The world’s biggest democracy has given its verdict and it has not come as a big surprise as we all knew that ‘Ab ki baar Modi sarkar‘ would hold true. The Congress has been beaten out of power, and how! Clearly India was fed up of talking to the hand.

However, there are some pretty interesting observations to make about this general election. According to me, people didn’t vote for the BJP, neither did they vote for Modi. This time, they voted for a leader, for a single name that they could rely on. The Congress was digging its grave all this time with the number of scams, controversies and irresponsible interviews and speeches showered by their PM-hopeful. There was no alternative for people till Modi came and sold his Gujarat success story. Modi, no doubt, is a mastermind when it campaign strategy, and has showed unusual panache when turning foes into friends.

This election has been historical as the country has shooed away all the big and corrupt players. Modi was a clear-cut winner in the backdrop of the chaos that the country was witnessing. I felt that Modi’s campaign was well-planned, and having stayed in Gujarat, I know that he has a great success story to share.

And then I heard his first address to the media post his win, and realised how self-obsessed the man is.

Narendra Modi delivered his victory speech in Vadodara, and he thanked Vadodara for his win. But then he also said that he couldn’t give a lot of time to Varanasi, “Aur unhone Narendra Modi flashes the victory signtoh Modi ke maun par hi mohar laga di.” I declared in my head that my new PM was pompous, that the support of the nation had gone to his head. He is accused of dividing the country and has always been looked upon as a monster. But with his success in Gujarat, people have chosen to forget his past ills and have trusted him with the country, because everyone wants success.

The biggest challenge for Narendra Modi is to realise that although he is the biggest face in India when it comes to leadership, he is there to serve people. He may have turned things around in Gujarat, but he cannot forget that the Gujaratis’ entrepreneurial skills are also at work. While the credit can be given to the CM, let’s not forget that the people have made his vision come true. Now Modi has to widen his vision and think of all of India. He needs to move on to the bigger game now, and for that, he has to stop being a leader obsessed with his own name and talents.

Modi came on stage and delivered a speech that very much looked like a film set, with him playing the hero. He delivered dialogues with punchlines, but very few of his words said anything about India. For the first 10 minutes he couldnt get over Vadodara, while the whole nation was expecting their New PM (who could speak very well, or at least could speak) to address them all. Instead, they got a speech that thanked just one region for his stupendous success. The thousands of speeches he made while campaigning all over the country were set aside, and all one heard from the man were epithets about his own glory.

The new PM will have to grow up fast and recreate his Gujarat success on a much bigger platform. There is no place for complacency at all – people have voted out the Congress in the past too, but have gone back to them because they have realised that all other parties are even bigger jokes than the nation’s oldest party. Narendra Modi now needs to focus more on everyone’s development, not just his own. The time for dialoguebaazi has come to an end.

Instead of harping on the developed roads in Gujarat, the terrible roads of Mumbai need to find a place in his speeches. Instead of talking endlessly about Gujarat’s development, he must come out with a plan to develop all of India. We are seriously tired of windbags, and for now, we have placed our collective faith in Modi. If he does anything to dent that faith, he should be prepared for what will come his way. After all, the country just wants a strong leadership that doesn’t cheat.

Ab ki baar, kaam kar lo yaar!

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his weekly take on people’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy indiatoday.intoday.in)

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An accident and a learning

What happens when somebody jaywalks, rams into your car and then proceeds to play both abuser and victim? Read on.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

It was night. I was driving my car. Ironically, I was listening to the song ‘Zinda hoon yaar kaafi hai’ from Lootera. I was driving at a speed of 60 kmph and it was 12:40 am, much past the signal timing of the city.

In the distance, I noticed a group of guys coming towards the junction that I was going to cross in another 40 seconds. I started applying my brakes. I expected the group of boys to look in the direction of the incoming cars, but they probably believed that ‘Mere baap ka road hai.’

As I got closer to the junction, I started honking and did not much notice my car speed, as I expected them to stop, like any normal person would. They didn’t. And while my car speed was reduced to a 5 kmph, one of the guys bumped into the front bumper as he lost his balance.

By this time, I realised that the boys were drunk and hence not interested in watching out for incoming traffic. The second my car touched that guy, another guy let out a volley of abuse and kicked my car window, smashing the glass and leaving me open to further abuse and even a beating. There were about 10 of them, drunk out of their wits, and I was to know an hour later, related to a known gangster and who had the support of a local politician.

The moment my car window was smashed, I put the car in first gear and swerved to look for a cop. This was Mahim junction, and the police is normally on patrolling duty there. I found them at another 200 meters. I took them to the spot, where people had gathered by now and the 10 boys were still there, too. They came over to me as they realised I was back – and started accusing me of a hit-and-run. To which I responded by getting the cops to take them all into custody.

I reached the police station; the police van took an extra 15 minutes. The number of people taken into custody had reduced from seven to three. Before I could forward my case, the first words came from the accused. “Haan, aap ameer ho aur hum gareeb, aapka hi chalega na“, they said. “Humare jaat walon ki koi nahin suntan,” they added. I was amazed at how these hooligans spoke so convincingly like future politicians.

I insisted on filing an FIR, I didn’t care whether the hooligans were history sheeters or not. But all that I got for my effort was an NC. Of course, this also happened because I was handed over a Marathi document that had something mentioning the word ‘pratham’ in it. And then I realised where most of our troubles with the police stem from – this business of all written communication in Marathi. There is no way that a person not well-versed with the language will follow half of the proceedings in the police station.

That aside, the policemen should have filed an FIR to discourage those hooligans. All I got out of the episode was a little satisfaction when they were beaten up by a policemen dressed in civil clothes, but I also ended by feeling like a fool. Such people are often used to beatings, and their well-built bodies could probably take the punches better than you or I can.

I ended up feeling unsafe and vulnerable, in a city that is supposed to be the frontrunner when it comes to safety and discipline in the country. I confess my city’s future looks a little dark and bleak to me right now.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his weekly take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy

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How about you Google your brain?

Most of us need to scan the contents of our brains. How about we use Google to help us out?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

Looking for an ideal spot for a mini-vacation? Let’s go to Google.
Looking for some info on a celebrity? Let’s go to Google.
Looking for some dope on history? Oh yes, let’s go to Google.

Our obsession with this search engine is a strong one. No matter what, we are always ready to appeal to it for help with just a click of our mouse. Of course, there is no harm in easing your pain and looking for information that comes by so easily, and on a million topics (and counting). But have we considered that with all our click-happy search behaviour, we have actually switched off our brains?

Think about it. In the pre-Google days, we had to find our information from each other, from books and from information sources like dictionaries and encyclopaedias. When we were young, if we were set out-of-syllabus class projects, we normally turned to our school and college libraries, or to parents and teachers for help. There was simply no option, especially in fields like journalism and research, to track information to its source – and these sources were persons and libraries, most of the time.

And now, with Google, all of us know everything at once. Or, so we think.

It scares me to think that we actually believe that whatever we need is on the Internet, and so it shocks us on the rare occasions when whatever we’re looking for throws up no Using your brainsearches on Google. What’s more, we think that all the information on the Internet is reliable and can be used without cross-checks. Even worse, we are passing on these habits to our children, whose primary source of information on most things are TV and the Internet.

I can already see that our excessive reliance on gadgets and the Great Big Internet World is slowly killing our ability to think, process and analyse information. Research proves that human evolution is a result of our adaptability, and all the things that the human body stops using stops developing further. This means that we may be actively contributing to the shrinking of our own brains.

We’ve become so lazy with our brains, we don’t entrust it with remembering anything. We have online calenders to remind us of people’s birthdays or our own milestones. If we want to learn how to make a presentation, we don’t learn about it from an expert, we just copy a likely-looking project from the Internet and put in our own words and images (which are also sourced from the Internet). School children these days are not burning the midnight oil to complete their projects – they are heading to Google to copy and paste somebody else’s efforts.

And we don’t feel any remorse, either over our brainless behaviour or our blatant copying of information, and using it elsewhere.

Even as I write this, all the knowledge we need is being turned in to sevearl MBs and GBs on crores of servers in the world. None of it is inside your head, but inside your computer or smartphone. And while on the subject of phones, the next time you lose your phone, do try looking for it on Google. If you find it, you can put the information on the Internet for others to use. If you don’t, you can come and tell me all about it.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his weekly take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy science.howstuffworks.com, www.comediva.com)

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Because Mumbai likes to sleep

What happened after we found our names missing from voter lists? Did we remedy the situation or just keep talking?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

By now, we have heard it a million times. ‘Mumbai is a city that never sleeps’.

But the truth is, we do sleep, at least most of the time. Whether it is a terror blast in the city or a girl being stabbed at the Gateway of India in front of hundreds of onlookers, we like to sleep our way through most events.

Our tongues are way stronger than our legs. We like to discuss every thing and condemn and crib, but seldom do we have the time or the strength to cause a change. Being the financial capital of the country, we like to think that the taxes we pay will automatically deal with most of the problems that the country faces. 54 per cent voting figures in the recent general elections seem like a big victory to us. Newspapers touted this figure as a record-breaking percentage.

Seriously? We’re not okay with our children getting 54 per cent marks in their exams. 54 per cent is neither here nor there – it means the Names missing from voter listschild has not failed but not done well either.

Of course, we are very quick to say that our voting percentage would have been higher if there hadn’t been so many missing names in the voters’ lists. Nobody will own up to a simple fact – we’ve had months to check if our names figure in the list or not, but we chose not to check. Instead, Mumbai just likes to wield its tongue more than actually do the things it should do.

It is time to shake off the slumber and take responsibility.

Mumbai has to realise that every time a road caves in at Peddar Road or a part of the Metro falls and kills a person, every Mumbaikar is responsible for it. Mumbai needs to wake up from the dream of being a money spinner whose problems will automatically vanish because it has so much money to throw – steadily, the money will disappear if the city doesn’t take responsibility of nurturing itself first, and then the country.

Being inked and posting your pic on Instagram is a cool fashion statement, but being an Indian is never going to go out of fashion. All of us need to stop sleeping. Let’s start with a small step – Mumbai, stand up and reclaim the missing names from the voter lists. It isn’t enough to make a racket about your name not being in the list. You should be seriously offended at being denied your democratic right to vote.

If we can burn a million candles when a single’s person right is taken away, isn’t it the right time to burn a million candles for the rights of lakhs who were shooed away from the polling booths?

But again, I stand here and see that Mumbai is already back to its old ways of not caring and not doing enough. The city has already gone back to its pre-voting slumber.

Sweet dreams.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is Jatin’s take on Mumbai quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy dnaindia.com, livebharat.com)

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Mumbai’s unruly taxiwallahs

The city’s taxis refuse to ply more than they agree to drop you at your destination. What can be done?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma | @jatiin_sharma on Twitter

In the 1990s, the Mumbai Regional Transport Office (RTO) had a rule. Every day, before they started plying on the roads of Mumbai, all rickshawwallahs and taxiwallahs had to go to the RTO and get their cards signed. Again, at the end of that day’s business, they would have to go to the RTO and sign to close the day’s register. This rule was kept a check on autos and taxis plying on the roads daily, but was later done away with due to the inconvenience that was caused to the auto and taxiwallahs.

But this rule resulted in one very positive thing: it became the reason that the city’s passengers received some good service from these men who ran part of the transport network. The drivers of the city’s taxis and autos had a higher authority they were directly answerable to, and this helped check errant behaviour.

Cut to the present day. Recently, I saw a woman at Bandra East asked a cabbie to take her to Bandra West. Now, since most of the city’s autos and taxis believe in a long distance relationship with their customers, this guy refused to ply. To add to her ire, he also gave her a bit of gyaan when she asked why he refused to ply. “Jao kanoon padh kar aao, hum aapke naukar nahin hain (Go study the rule. We are not your servants),” he said.

Naturally, I called up the taxi union and asked them to take action against this particular rascal, supplying details of his cab number. But even while doing so, I realised that the city is constantly reeling under the atrocious attitude of these hooligans behind the wheels, who are only increasing in number. Most of us will fondly recall the Mumbai of yesteryears, when such blatant violation of rules was never seen – was it because taxi and rickshawallahs were constantly reminded that they formed a part of the public transport system, and that they were, essentially, public servants?

These days, too, these auto and taxi drivers wear badges and uniforms designated for their type of vehicle, just like old times. But on a daily basis, there are several unregistered asking for cabauto and taxi drivers who take the vehicles out for business without the required uniform, badge and registration papers in place. Most people are , to this day, unaware that they can turn a cabbie or autowallah over to the cops for the slightest violation of rules. Astoundingly, a lot of people are content letting unruly behaviour from auto and taxi drivers slide, if it means that the driver will deign to ferry customers to a certain spot.

What is needed is immediate intervention from the Government and the RTO, which should put in place a system of swift penalty and punishment to auto and taxi drivers who refuse to ply. It is not enough to merely supply a helpline number (that citizens can complain on – all calls must be received and immediate assistance provided. If traffic cops do take action, it is days after the actual offence has been committed – and auto and taxi drivers know this. No wonder then, that their brazenness increases by the day, and they feel it is their birthright to hold Mumbaikars hostage. And this, despite the steep fares the city shells out just to travel from Spot A to Spot B.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else. ‘Overdose’ is his take on Mumbai’s quirks and quibbles.

(Pictures courtesy www.stockpicturesforeveryone.com, news.rediff.com. Images are used for representational purposes only)

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