Have you eaten Khari biscuit? For those not in the know, it is that brittle biscuit which one can have with a steaming cup of tea. Yes, it’s the same one which crumbles on application of the slightest finger pressure. Google tells me that it is known as puff pastry in English.
But this write up is not about any food or snack, so hold back that drooling saliva.
The exquisite state of one Highway connecting Mumbai with Goa reminded me about the humble Khari biscuit.
Just like the biscuit which crumbles between our fingers, this highway crumbles between the tires of the lightest vehicles.
Perhaps the vibration of the Earth as it goes around the Sun is higher in this particular corner of the Earth, due to which the road layers become unsteady on an untimely basis. Maybe there is some unknown anomaly which prevents the tar from standing still in one place for respectable amount of time.
It is also possible that the Moon causes the slightest waves in this area, one can never know. Someone studying wave theory might be able to enlighten a layman, like me. After all, if the distant moon can cause tides in the vast ocean, what chance does a patch of Earth with the viscosity of a khari biscuit, stand?
While the entire universe may have conspired to make the highway an unsteady proposition, the Man who is part of the same universe, is hand-in-gloves with it. While the Earth and the Moon, ably supported by the Water element, make the highway a driving hell, the Man royally ignores his duties in its upkeep. Those drivers who courageously venture to drive on this highway are unofficially resigned to certain terms and conditions, namely, ‘Thou shalt travel on a surface with As is-Where is-However is constraints’.
If history of roads is written in future, this highway will be known as the only one which made a certain Superman, known for his road building prowess in India, eat the humble pie.
After gathering my thoughts in this write up, I will now retire to gather my bones, because you know I was traveling on this very Khari biscuit today.
Yatindra Tawde
Tag: Mumbai
A long commute
A long commute
A man in the capital city who left his job due to long commute from home to office and back, put his thoughts on social media which set me thinking.
If all people in Mumbai start thinking like this, more than half of them would quit their jobs. A Mumbai person, especially those living in distant suburbs, travels more than he works in his office or sleeps at home. So much so that some jugaadu people have comjured up contraptions which enable them to sleep in a standing position in exceptionally crowded trains. After all, it’s a question of the sinning stomach (paapi pet ka sawal hai).
In fact, life happens while traveling in Mumbai, especially in the local trains. While some working women are giving detailed last minute instructions to their lifeline, personified by their maid-Friday bais, the others use the travel time to sort out their pea-peeling or vegetable cutting skills.
Men, being comparatively laidback, either sing bhajans during morning peak hours or belt out film songs at full throttle accompanied by loud banging on the poor train walls. All this, if they are not catching up on those valuable 40 winks.
Youngsters are either lost in chatting on their phones or killing random people on mobile games or grooving to music fed to their aural cavities through wired or wireless contraptions.
But all these activities mentioned above are possible when traveling in trains at not-so-peak-hours. When traveling at peak hours, it’s just a question of survival. If one is well inside the train, your survival is dependent upon your height. If you are taller then you might be able to catch some oxygen from the air, which is at a premium. But God save you if you are shorter. Not only do you struggle for oxygen, your olfactory nerves would be assaulted by the assortment of bodily smells emanating from raised arm pits or pungent mixtures of deodorants.
And if one is on the footboard of the train, one needs humongous arm strength to hold on to the hand rails or whatever part of the train you can hold on to, for dear life.
Thus one travels daily in Mumbai, packed like sardines in roomy train coaches which are made to look match-box size by the mammoth crowds surging on most stations.
And once you enter this mad rush for survival, the thought of quitting jobs because of long traveling hours doesn’t get any opportunity to enter your muddled minds.
Yatindra Tawde
Photo credit- unsplash.com, ShamoilQ
Mumbai of the future
I am wandering through the lanes of my place of birth, Dadar, getting nostalgic about the days gone by. Hindu colony and my school, IES… Nearby are the iconic colleges, Ruia and Poddar.
The main road in Hindu colony, running parallel to the now defunct railway line, was once lined with huge rain trees… Alas! These trees died off due to some life consuming meallybugs, some 15-20 years back, around 2005-2015.
During my school days and upto 2005, these trees were the cause of envy of my friends, who were not lucky enough to stay in Hindu colony. So many birds species, from the common crow to the pretty parrots, had their home in these very trees. Lots of squirrels bounded along from one branch to another and from one tree to another, chirruping along with gay abondon. During my childhood, I remember a few monkeys too, in these very trees.
Especially from 2010 onwards and by 2020, must of these gentle giants were reduced to stumps. Turned into canvasses for the artists… Grotesquely coloured…
Now there are no ground floor flats in Hindu colony. And this is the state of affairs everywhere in Mumbai, the change started happening since the great flood of July 2005, when most of such flats got flooded and residents had to bear losses worth crores of rupees.
For some, the loss was irreplaceable, what with many of them losing their loved ones. Lot of redevelopment took place, and many such buildings were brought down to be replaced by high rises, having stilt parking. Even my sisters family , who lived in the ground floor flat had to shift to a higher floor.
But the final nail in the coffin for the old way of life of Mumbai, was the year 2018. The month was July… Day was Sunday… As is normal on any Sunday, the day had started lazily. People were reading their Sunday Times, their Sunday DNA.
When suddenly a loud siren went off all across Mumbai. For a few moments the entire city went pin drop silent. From the airport, a few helicopters were flying off in all corners of the city.And huge loudspeakers on the choppers gave out the dreaded warning to the denizens of Mumbai…TSUNAMI!!
Yes, the fear of most Mumbaikars , was finally at their doorsteps. And the citizens living with a view of the Arabian sea were the first to witness the wave. First the waters of the ocean suddenly withdrew far back from even the Bandra-Worli sea link. The skies became dark… And in the distance these citizens could make out a huge wave coming at them.
As it rushed in towards the land, it devoured the sea link, washing it away, as if it were made of Lego bricks. The buildings and koliwadas lining the sea, were the next target of this huge wave, the koliwadas just disappearing in the waters and the buildings, initially acting as a barrier, but then crumbling under the huge weight generated by the water wall.
The waters then rushed into far inland, the cars, buses and other sundry vehicles becoming a party of the debris, causing a loud groaning sound reverberating all across the lovely city, interspersed with the shrieks of the people getting washed away. But by the time, the waters jumped over the lifeline of the city, the railways, it had lost its force, and did not cause much life damage beyond.
Thus my friends and relatives and family , staying in Hindu colony, were spared, but had to bear a huge economic loss. Mumbai lost many lives in this deluge.
And the waters stayed back, it did not withdraw back to the previous boundary between land and sea. Thus the resilient citizens of Mumbai had to learn living in the water, which was touching almost the ceiling of some ground floor flats, still existing in 2018.
So here I am, in 2025, visiting my relatives and friends living in Hindu colony. I came from my current residence in Thane, which, to my good fortune, still on land , but I had to park my car, near the Bhandup creek, and then catch the Uber water taxi.
Yes, now the only way to commute to Mumbai, is through the waters, either by a water taxi like Uber, Meru, etc… Or by the BEST motor boats, which are usually overflowing with people. The wandering, through the lanes of Dadar, is now done in these water taxis.
The long defunct railways, have ceased to exist within Mumbai, and now operate beyond Thane. The bullet trains, introduced in 2016, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, now operate from Thane.
But hats off to the people of Mumbai, who have converted their city, into Venice of the east. The previous big playgrounds like Shivaji Park, are now huge salt water bodies where people now go for joy rides on the small motor boats, introduced by some entrepreneurs. The city of Mumbai, which was known for its cricketers, is now equally well known for Olympic medal winning swimmers.
Folks did I scare you with my story? But we need to think and plan, otherwise our Mumbai will see such a day, not because of any tsunami, but it could be due to totally man made reasons.
Yatin
Itsmylife 