The Mumbai Policewallah

The Mumbai Police, considered second only to the Scotland Yard Police by some and I find that highly amusing. We have a dedicated and a hard-working police force but their efficacy and efficiency need a lot of refinement. This not to say that they are completely inept.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the traffic arrangements made by the police during the recent Ganesh Festival for the 'visarjan' processions. But, at the same time I also came across loud speakers blaring loud music into the late night with completely inappropriate songs that desecrate the occasion. I don't think telling Ganpati, the General of the Gods, 'main hoon Don' serves any purpose nor does telling the 'God of Wisdom', 'Munni Badnam Hui'. And it is completely beyond my realms of wildest imagination why someone would play 'beedi jalaai le' and 'humka peeni hai' in that procession. Is there no thought that goes into this? 

Now in Mumbai we also have the Moral Police to deal with to add to the Mumbai Police, who go around telling people what fits into the Bharatiya Sanskriti (Indian Culture) and what does not. Mind you, this includes members from almost all varieties - politicians, Police, NGO's, cultural groups, religious groups, common citizens of Mumbai, bhaajiwallahs, taxiwallahs, grandparents, parents, etc. everyone. Everyone has gone outside of the Indian Cultural norms in one way or another at some point and most times, knowingly. This is not to say that the actual act or behavior or the nature was wrong; I am just saying that we all do this when some need arises or if our conscience allows it. So there is no point in blaming one particular group when every single person in involved in the so-called destruction of the Indian Culture and the Values that we hold in such high esteem. 

Please forgive me if I appear too negative or against Indian Culture, but I am not and I love them. I just don't want to be a hypocrite. I would like to ask the Moral Police of Mumbai where they are and why do they not say anything in such situations as the 'visarjan' processions when there is such a brazen disrespect shown to a deity? The Moral Police of Mumbai only has the guts to stand up to  couples who are in love and are having a few moments alone (amidst a crowd) at Band Stand, Carter Road or other such places. It is understandable if there is indecent exposure and complete lack of social etiquette shown but in most cases it is just somebody hugging or holding hands. Is that really so bad? The Mumbai Police will never offer any protection to you when there is a crowd against you. They themselves are scared. 

Yesterday, I was at my Gym and outside of it was a huge van of the State Reserve Police Force with one person standing guard. He was one of the fittest policemen I have seen in India. The usual sight is that of a beaten down, weary cop or one that has a paunch putting Sumo wrestlers to shame. That reminded me of a time when I was at Heathrow airport in London going through the security screening process and there were a couple of Police Officers standing guard. Their mere presence there was intimidating. They both had on proper gear and their guns were at the ready with their finger on the trigger keeping a watchful eye over the entire area. As against that, we have the security personnel at our high-risk, high-security establishments whose only objective of being there is to have a nice chat with their buddies - mind you, chaai, beedi and tambakhu as accompaniments. 

Like I said before, I don't think that the Mumbai Police is completely inept and whatever its shortcomings are, are not entirely without reason. They just lack the proper resources and facilities. They don't even have enough time to put in a few hours of exercise or shooting practice every week. Their meager salaries do not support their households and they resort to corruption. The shoddiness and the lack of training and weaponry was clearly evident during the 26/11 attacks.  And in spite of these shortcomings we have policemen who are trying to protect the city of Mumbai everyday. I applaud the Mumbai Police, not because they just do what they have to; I applaud them because they put in whatever they can with whatever they have (mostly). 

Until there is a system overhaul, we need to deal with the Mumbai Policewallah.....

The Blog

This is my first post and I had to start with something so I thought I would just start out with how I came to starting my own blog.

If my memory serves me well, the first I ever was introduced to the word 'blog' was about 6 years ago through a classmate at my CAT classes. I think his name was Ram and when he was telling me about what a blog is, I remember thinking as to why would someone write a blog and why would someone else read it. Remember now, this was before Orkut and Facebook; before the world was so social network savvy. Chatting and E-mail were the only two popularly known forms of text communication over the internet; rather when social networks did not have any popularity whatsoever or were, I believe non-existent.

I think that the popularity of a blog and the popularity of social networks is very much related. Social Networks enabled common people to express their feelings, their thoughts, their views, their opinions, etc. in a public domain. It fostered discussions and debates; sometimes extremely fiery ones but nonetheless it made people comfortable with the internet more so than ever before. I think it has made me so and that is I guess one of the reasons, I don't feel so apprehensive about starting my own blog.

It is interesting for me to see the change in my own attitude towards a blog; not that it was negative but I started to find it very interesting. The credit, however I cannot claim for my own. It has to go to first and foremost, my brother Samir (http://samirgovilkar.blogspot.com/) whose blog is the first one I read and understood the concept. This was followed by blogs from my friends Suraj Shetty and Aamir Ayubi (http://aamirayubi.blogspot.com/) which prompted me further to take the first step in starting my blog. (My friends, I am giving you free marketing here by putting up your blogs; I need some fees either in cash or in kind)

I know it sounds very naive and ignorant that I did not find a blog to be an interesting idea. I don't apologize for it but I just didn't and now I do. I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a long time and like many others, I am sure, didn't actually go ahead. I wanted to but didn't do it. Now, all of a sudden, one night I felt like I should do it and I created it.

One day later, I have my first pot....