OH MYSORE!

Credits-mysore,ind.in

Mumbai-Mangalore-Madikeri-Mysore-Madikeri-Mangalore-Mumbai or the other way round. We had gone to the last Industrial Visit of our college, I was thrilled about it because for me South-India was not much explored.

Out of all the destinations the one which was my favourite was Mysore, and I shall try to inform my readers as much I can about Mysore and its culture, people and lifestyle.

To start with Mysore is small city situated in Karnataka which is also known as Palace city of India.This was probably the last bus ride with my classmates I was able to complete from Madikeri, Karnataka to Mysore which is approximately 117 Kilometres via State Highway -88.

We started from Madikeri at around 10 a.m. and reached Mysore at around 1.30p.m. The climate was sticky and it felt like summer in December. After reaching our Hotel, We had lunch which was a mixture of North and South maybe because everyone cannot have only Rice,Sambhar & Rasam for lunch. (I’m not being racist).

Soon after lunch we were allotted rooms which was all surrounded by coconut trees. The Hotel in which we were staying is named Regalis which had well-maintained rooms with a swimming-pool view which seem was designed to welcome the travellers. The bathrooms were large enough for at least a toddler to play football.

 The rooms had the mandatory television, safety-lockers and intercom. The interiors of room were mixture of old and modern world. The lobby was dark and warm, with a balcony view of the garden inside the premises of hotel.

After getting fresh, we headed towards Brindavan Garden, which is across Kaveri River. While travelling on the streets of Mysore which had light traffic and also most of the signboards were only in Kannada which could be a barrier for an outsider driving on the streets of Mysore.

Brindavan Garden.

The habit of using of public transport which is usually practiced in cities like Mumbai and Delhi was missing in Mysore because everyone had their swanky cars and bikes and the Karnataka State Road Tansport Corporation (KSRTC) buses ran less crowded or maybe I have the habit of living in highly populated city which is why I tend to generalize every cities population with Mumbai.

Coming back to the garden which was 25 minutes’ drive from my HOTEL after  reaching visitors are supposed to pay a nominal amount as entry fees. The garden is full with water fountains and one should visit there for peaceful atmosphere. Every evening the garden has a music concert which is viewed by hundreds of tourists coming from around the world. Brindavan Garden is like you should not miss, if you’re in Mysore.

It was 7p.m. by which we started to get back to our buses in order to back to our hotel. The weather again in the evening time became pleasant when it started to rain. It was a tiring day after travelling all the way from Madikeri to Mysore and the visit to garden in the evening. It took me two small pegs of rum with hot dinner of chicken with tandoori roti’s to calm my nerves and sleep peacefully.

The next day we visited the Mysore palace for which the city is called the city of palace. It is situated in the centre of the city and was the official residence of the royal family of Mysore, and also had royal offices inside it.

Mysore Palace.

The place is open 365 days from nine in the morning to six in the evening which is surrounded by foreigners as well as Indian tourists.

The evening was kept for our industrial visit after which we went back to the hotel had our dinner with excitement of visiting the Mysore Zoo, the other day.

The next morning we all had typical South-Indian breakfast which had Idli, Dosa, Sambhar, Chutney and also Chole-Bhaturas for those who had a different taste

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Next destination was Mysore Zoo, which was half hour drive from Regalis and also located in the outskirts of Mysore city. It is one of the  oldest and popular zoos in India which was built during the royal paronage in 1892 which sounds one the oldest zoo in  India.

Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, also knownas Mysore Zoo.

After paying a nominal amount for the entry you’re free to enjoy looking at the types of wild-life species inside the zoo. Animals like Elephant, Zebras, Gorilla, Giraffe and Tiger are spread all around two kilometres of the zoo which is its total length.

After spending four hours at the zoo we headed straight to the hotel and were out for exploring the city in the evening. And after roaming around as much as possible I would not suggest you to buy silk because that’s something we all know.

Here is my observation after my visit there.

--- The people around are kind to help you guide the way but they always speak in Kannada and the only way to communicated with them is usage of broken English which even a auto-driver will understand.

---The city people live a lazy and calm life as their day starts around 10 am and almost everything is shut by 7-8 p.m.

---Every street corner has a stall selling  Dosa, Idli or Medu-Vada in green leafs.

--- Don’t just buy silk and sandalwood from there because there’s also cheap coconut water and alcohol to drink.

The Route

---The Madikeri route to Mysore via SH-88 is better because directly from Mangalore to Mysore may take more time so a visit to Madikeri also becomes must.

---Mysore is also well connected via road,rail and airways.

Where to Stay

--- There are many hotels in the city of palace but Hotel Regalis is something I would suggest to be best for families. For more information (www.HotelRegalis.com)

While I plan my next trip it’s time for you to explore Mysore.

Municipal bodies in Maharashtra will decide the quality of governance by BJP.

Enough of Modi chants like; ‘Chalo Chale Modi Ke Sath’ and Kuthe Neun Thevla Maharashtra Majha’ (Look where did they led My Maharashtra).

With the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) forming minority government in Maharashtra which is going to be challenging, as they will be governing the state which is highly aspirational and is urbanizing at a greater rate than any other state of India.

Maharashtra in the coming years is to become India’s ‘most urbanized state’.

All eyeballs, in Maharashtra set on the BJP which ruling at centre and now going to be in state as well and in-case of Mumbai the BMC too.

The expectations of the voters are obviously going to be high, which is going to be a shaky way ahead for the BJP, looking at the economic condition of the state, which is something we can safely assume to be ‘Agni-Pariksha’ for the BJP.

Over the last decade Maharashtra’s urban population increased nearly by 25%.

According to research reports, Maharashtra’s urban population is expected to grow from 50.8 million in2011, to 84.1 million by 2031, which is more than 50% of the state’s population looking for urbanization.

Looking at Maharashtra’s speedy urbanizing pattern the state government cannot afford to remain apathetic towards the municipal bodies governance unlike the previous government. The challenges are not only limited to municipal bodies of Mumbai (BMC) or Pune (PMC) but also municipal bodies that will emerge with the urbanization process.

Already with Mumbai taking more than half of the state sponsored revenue for the Urban Local Bodies (ULB’s) the state’s other ULB’s are short of adequate capital.

With the previous government failing in getting rid of the distress among state’s ULB’s and failure in collecting taxes; property tax which was collected only 37% and water charges which collection was only 46% out of the total. The new state government cannot afford to govern in the same manner.

The CAG report, also observed that municipal bodies in Maharashtra spends 42%-50% of their revenue on establishment salaries. Such inefficiencies and operational hurdles leave the municipal bodies in Maharashtra with little left for capital works and public service.

The practical problems are leakages within state government, inflation and delays in clearance of projects with extrapolating the requirement of urbanizing Maharashtra goes beyond calculations.

It’s clear that the municipal bodies are going to decide the fate on the quality of governance by the new state government. The new government has to make sure the revenues for municipal bodies increase and regular upgrades on accounting and management of funds is done.

This all will go long way in monitoring outcomes, attracting corporates and providing aspirational governance to citizens.

( The research data mentioned here is taken from Janaagraha a non-profit organization based in Bangalore.)

Chasing rains on the streets of Mumbai.

Mumbai city of dreams is something completely different during monsoon. It rains a lot and by lot, I mean - a lot. No place on earth can compare to Mumbai during the monsoons.

And guess what? I am sure nothing beats sipping on a cutting chai while sitting by the window and watching the raindrops fall with a rhythm of their own.

In many countries monsoon brings depression, however, in India which is a country completely dependent upon agriculture for its welfare such is not the case. Monsoons in India and especially in Mumbai are a ray of hope for the people. It is said that during monsoons farmers are the happiest people on earth as the seeds that they planted get water which then turn into crops, providing them with a means to earn their livelihood.

But are farmers the only people who have a lot to gain from the rainy season?

During monsoon while we are all busy having vada-pav and cutting-chai in our free time, there are hundreds of people who take up odd jobs to earn their livelihood and support their families back in their villages.

So what was the best way to find this unbelievable side-effect of monsoon which provides people with employment?  Going round the city for a week or two and getting to know these avenues of ‘seasonal employment’ seemed like the only option. And so, accompanied with nothing more than a pen, a note-pad and my trusty digital-camera I set out on my daunting task.

Getting drenched every day just to discover that smile on people’s faces was my task for the next few days.

Charni Road station

Zip-lock seller.

Passing by Charni Road station my eyes fell on a family sitting on the bridge with a basket full of Zip block cover; generally used by people during the monsoon to protect their phones from rain water. The male member of the family i.e. the father was busy making Gajra right next to the basket full of Zip block covers. The mother i.e. the female member was busy selling the covers with their infant sleeping on her lap.

On talking further with the family, I discovered that the man usually sits at the Dadar market and sells gajras throughout the year. However, as it is the monsoon season people need to protect their swanky smart phones from rain-water, which is how he came up with the idea of selling zip block covers. It is only by selling Zip block covers in the morning and gajra in the evening that he can make ends meet. If it rains a lot on a particular day, his income goes up by fifty rupee for the day by selling Zip block covers. “The fifty rupees that I earn may sound too less for you, but for me it’s a day where my son gets sufficient milk and an extra piece of bread for me and my wife.” Says Kalpesh Sanjanwalla; your roadside Zip block cover seller.

Dahisar Station

Cobber outside Dahisar station.

Just after covering a distance of around 35 km from South Mumbai, I was now in other corner of the city in North Mumbai’s suburb called Dahisar. Getting down from the train I realize my sandals are torn and I am in need of a cobbler immediately. My search for one on the station went in vain. After which, I decided to look for one outside and to my surprise, there was one outside.

I approached him with my sandal and told him, to fix it as fast as possible. This earned me a rude, “Baarishke time pe chata kaa kaam jaldi hoga sandal ka nahi” (During monsoons only umbrellas are fixed in urgency and not sandals.) Waiting there patiently for almost another 20 minutes I started a conversation with him regarding his business getting more response during monsoons. On asking, he said, “I am here only till the month of September. Baarish mai chatri kaa taar tutte reheta hai, handle bhi repair karna hota hai.(In rainy seasons umbrellas tend to bring more business as they’ve to be repaired with new handles and oiling.) My uncle has his business nearby and it was he who gave me the idea to do have a business of my own during monsoons. I work in my village in Karnataka throughout the year. But the city is a much more profitable place, and monsoon is the peak season for this.” 

Dahisar Market

The next thing to do was to have a look at the market outside Dahisar station. Soon I found a hawker selling all types of plastics which people generally prefer buying during monsoons for obvious reasons. On speaking to, Rajesh Mishra, the hawker, I found that he is the kind of person who has all kinds of seasonal business ventures. Selling crackers during Diwali, colours during Holi and plastic during the monsoon. “People buy plastics during monsoon for their rooftops, vehicles and even for other hawkers to cover their stall. By doing all kinds of seasonal business I manage to earn something between 600-1000 on a daily basis for my two school going daughters, wife and ailing parents back in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh.”

Outside Churchgate Station

Plastic seller outside Churchgate station.

The next halt was at the stall of an umbrella seller. As we all know it has been pouring like mad from the last week and we all need an umbrella to protect ourselves from the rain. The next time you tend to forget your umbrella at your home or office and happen to be passing by Churchgate Station, don’t forget to buy an umbrella from Irfan Machiwallah, who has his stall right opposite Eros cinema. While talking to Irfan, I discovered that, he sells all types of plastic items throughout the year, but as monsoon arrives in city, he makes sure to have an extra plastic basket, in which he keeps all types of fancy umbrellas on sale. He earns 20-30 rupees as profit on each umbrella and makes it a point to at least sell ten umbrellas a day, which increases his income by Rs 200-300 a day.

Even with this increase in income he further goes on to explain that surviving in Mumbai is an extremely difficult task. Prices seem to go up every day making life increasingly difficult for him and his family.

Is Pothole a source of income?

Outside Hinduja College.

Do you remember the last time you had a bumpy ride on the Mumbai roads? Potholes rule the streets of Mumbai during monsoon. As painful as this may sound for commuters, for Parag Bang, garage worker, it brings happiness, as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is very lazy at filling potholes.

“Apne road itne bekkar hai, ki baarish ke time pe tyre fatt jata hai aksar.”(Our roads during monsoons are in horrible condition that, often tyres of the four-wheelers tend to burst.) He further goes on to explain that, “During monsoon I end up changing many more tyres than the norm. This earns me an extra sum of money depending on the number of tires changed.”

On days when it pours heavily for hours it is easy to predict that the next day’s newspaper would carry stories about flooding accompanied by photographs. It is obvious that the photographer earned a good sum of money for these pictures. A freelance photographer for a tabloid in Mumbai stated, “I get a good sum of money by clicking pictures related to monsoon, which generates extra income for me and helps me fund my post-graduation, which I am currently pursuing.”

Dhanda hai manda toh khao samosa!

APMC Market, Vashi.

I was fortunate enough to visit the Agricultural Produce Marketing Corporation (APMC) situated in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. Trying to look around for that smile which the season brings about in the form of employment seemed impossible as the whole-seller said, “During rainy seasons, our business is the worst. Fruits and vegetables are perishable items and transportation becomes a daunting task. This results in heavy losses for the business.”

After roaming for almost three hours I found a person selling samosa there who was very busy selling them. On speaking with him, he said, “I have been selling samosas here for the past fourteen years, and during monsoon my business increases up to 20%. People at the APMC simply have nothing to do as their business is down; they end up eating a lot of samosas, which gives me income when they’re out of business.” said, Satyandra Mishra, Samosa-seller.

Monsoon does not merely generate seasonal employment for hundreds of people on the streets of Mumbai it also creates smiles. I am certain when we visit rural or semi-urban places in India we will find many more interesting ways through which people earn their livelihood. For Mumbai, it was by selling samosas and fitting tires, by selling, Zip block covers for your brand new android or apple. People can always find new and innovative means to earn their livelihood and survive.

Monsoon brings happiness and smiles for hundreds of Mumbaikars every year. But you know what? As I finish writing this sitting at a ‘chai tapri’ and waiting for my chai to arrive, you should already be heading to your kitchen to make one for yourself.

( You can mail your feeback @mehulthakkar29@gmail.com or tweet @Mehul_Thakkar_ )

Threatened on Twitter by Right wing.

Representational Pic.

It was June 18, 2014 when I experienced the fear of getting attacked or arrested only for   Re-tweeting a  post of Times Now  news channel, which said, “Did you make me a minister?” asks Union Minister  Nihalchand after TIMES NOW reporter asked him questions”.

It was the case of Union Minister, in the cabinet from Rajasthan being accused by woman of raping her and threatening her to take back the case.

It was my favourite  Aditya Raj Kaul, Correspondent at Times Now, reporting live from Ganganagar  in Rajasthan. It was morning time I was busy with my Twitter account which soon after channel reported live, tweeted the incident. The next thing I did was to re-tweet it.

I was shocked after two minutes of  re-tweeting, my account was full with  notifications of random people, having common initials as their usernames, which had  ‘#HDL’ in it. I thought it was spam looking at the amount of replies at first look.

After reading them I found that there was a group of people, who claimed, themselves to be member of, ‘Hindu Defense League’ and that  was the reason of their username with common initials of having ‘#HDL’ in the end. It’s not the end the real story starts here,  I got around 27 replies from  members of HDL, in which everyone had their opinion in favour of the Union Minister and they mentioned my username & that of Times Now, in their reply for around 27 times.

But this was not the end they criticised Times Now of being a paid channel and being anti-national and also mentioned me in different tweet, threatening me by calling me, anti-national element, who wants to keep Modi, busy with all such non-sense. That was not enough for them, few went replying me, “You seculars & agents of Congress, should be taught a proper lesson. I don’t know what they meant by saying,” to teach me a lesson”. It soon made me remember the attacks & arrests in Maharashtra, where people had posted their views on social media forum, and they were attacked and also arrested in one such instance.

I was thinking on it for around ten minutes, after which I found the tweet in which I was mentioned and which said, ‘To teach me a lesson’ was in the list of favourites and re-tweeted by other members of the same group. Quickly reacting to the sudden attack on my account by a group of members called ‘Hindu Defense League’. I thought of finding on Google about them.  I visited their website which was saffron in colour, and informed about Hinduism, and increasing threat on Hinduism. It had articles written against political parties. It was actually looking like a mouth-piece of the ruling government. After which, I went back to my Twitter account which had a reply from the member of the same group, saying, “Saffron dragon is ruling the country and not the secular”.

By this time, I was scared because all this happened in fraction of 15-20 minutes. I thought of not replying back them. Normally, I don’t miss my chance to reply back to people on Twitter but this was something I felt as dangerous and threat. Maybe, I was stupid to be scared by such replies, but the fact remains, there is a strong valid reason of being scared, after the BJP has come into power.

I thought of not tweeting further for the day and also I removed my location information displayed on my account. Should I delete what I have re-tweeted or should I not? The questions still remains the same. Irony, here is in all of it, Times Now news channel was several times mentioned while posting such threatening post. I think the channel’s   social-media team didn’t take it seriously. But I knew I had to stop it here. For the next 24 hours, I never logged into my Twitter account of fear. After, which I logged in and found out nothing other than around 40 re-tweets of the Tweet which said, “Saffron dragon is ruling".

I don’t whether they were joking around with me or not? But I was scared, I also thought of complaining it to the cyber-crime cell, but I thought of just ignoring, as I didn’t know whether they were from that organization or not? The tweets were from their personal account with #HDL in  the end of their usernames.

The only thing that comes to my mind, do we really need to monitor the use of social media? Are they all pocket organization of the ruling government, to spread the message of Hinduism by such means?

Don’t know what it may be? I am now scared to tweet or re-tweet any political post. I couldn’t stop myself from doing it yesterday, when Railway Minister, announced to increase fare hike for Railways.

I have the screen-shots of the tweets, which I don’t feel like posting here. Is social media given a colour of saffron? One thing I am sure about is,by the time I write here they must be busy threatening some other Twitter user. 

Note- In no way I am blaming or alleging the Hindu  Defense League, as it was not the official account tweeting. But yes, who are these elements on Twitter in the name of HDL?

(I can be contacted on mehulthakkar29@gmail.com for grammatical errors.).)

Even Mumbai Metro uploads selfie on Instagram.

Mumbai Metro Phase-1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mumbai Metro is now open to the Mumbaikar , a full eight years since Manmohan Singh, then a much admired Prime Minister, laid the foundation stone. The fate of the Mumbai Metro is surely one reason why Mumbai voters punished Singh and the Congress.

Mumbai infrastructure is created in world record speed. But unlike what that may normally mean, world record here is for the slowest projects in the world.

So after all the 11km metro line was ready for Mumbai to travel from Versova to Ghatkopar which is connecting Eastern and Western Mumbai.

Social Media- Mumbai metro with the change in time is already active on social media. Seems like they are influenced from the BJP’s election campaign 2014.

Facebook- Mumbai Metro has a Facebook page with almost 29k like at the time of writing this.

Here is the link to it- www.facebook.com/MumbaiMetroOfficial

Twitter- Mumbai Metro following the Modi style has not missed the microblogging website Twitter. It has a swanky twitter account with  805 followers and following 17 at the time of writing this.

Here is the link to it-  https://twitter.com/MumMetro

Instagram- Mumbai Metro will also click selfies and upload like we all do it on Instagram.  It has 145 followers with 41 posts at the time of writing this.

Here is the link to it- http://instagram.com/mumbaimetro

Blog- Like all those boosting their views and opinions on their blogs, now even  Mumbai Metro will have a blog of its own.

Here is the link to it- http://mumbaimetroofficial.blogspot.in

The Mumbai Metro is late, but we can it is using social media as medium of information which the Delhi, Kolkata Metro and Indian Railways have not thought.

I hope they realize it soon because it’s 2014 too and not 1970.

Political Earthquake in Britain.

Party Symbol of UKIP.

The European Parliament went to polls and the results are shocking when we look at Britain. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is leading all the way.

UKIP has changed the face of politics in Britain with its historic victory at home in the European elections. But it's so much bigger than that. All across the democratic world a revolution is underway.

UKIP's incredible victory in Britain, against all the odds and in the face of a mainstream smear campaign that would have shamed Goebbels will cheer its own supporters. It will frighten the Conservatives and Labour, and it will send shock waves across Europe.

It is over 100 years since a national election has been won by a party other than the Conservatives and Labour. 




What's more the UKIP did it by winning seats not just in every region of England but in Wales and Scotland too. 

This revolution is like tectonic plates which have moved. And that thing, that gigantic wave that you see on the horizon is not a bad weather event, whatever the establishment may have persuaded it to believe. It is a historic shift which the politics is witnessing world-wide.  It's got momentum. And there's nothing you can do to stop it.

All over the democratic world in what we used to call The West we are witnessing nothing less than a revolution. From the United States, through Britain, through Western Europe and central and eastern Europe, to the democracies from India to South Africa, the people have had enough of being patronised. They want to take power back into their own hands. The kind of "dominated democracy" we have become used to will no longer do.

In terms of the European elections, Europe has reverted to type. In Britain, with UKIP, the breakout from the old establishment has moved in a democratic direction. UKIP isn't perfect; it's rough round the edges; it requires, and will get, required skills. But it is fundamentally democratic: it is of the people and for the people, and it is quintessentially and classically liberal.

And by all this I mean a revolution that is changing everything. We need to think about the "low trust society". We need to think about the "digital revolution". We need to rip up the old assumptions. 

The time is changing. Are we changing too? If we think of ourselves as being serious, it’s a question we’d better be able to answer.