Tuesday Post

Some interesting news/developments on this first Tuesday of July 2019, which I would like to share with you.

1 Mumbai Rains  Today is the fifth day that Mumbai is reeling under heavy rains. The rains started on last Friday, luckily next two days being Saturday and Sunday the Mumbaikars did not feel, as most of the working people/students have holiday on these days. So yesterday was the first working day when rain fury was felt by Mumbaikars. As usual this year also both state govt and Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika (BMC) failed the citizens. You named the problem and it was there. Year after year; Trains cancelled/delayed, a sea of commuters jostling for space at the stations. Vehicles negotiating crater sized potholes on crammed roads, people wading through knee/waist deep water at the perennial flooding spot, Autoricksahaw/taxi driver refusing commuters. The authorities were seeking excuses to disown responsibility for citizen woes at the first monsoon of the season. What was excused offered by BMC Chief , he said that city received almost 500  mm rainfall in two days, the highest ever in 2 days during the decade, and attributed climate change and geographical conditions’ for the woes faced by Mumbaikars. ‘The water logging is due to high amount of built up area in Mumbai and the low proportion of water seepage into the earth.

In my opinion every year this is the standard reply given by the officials, and listening the same every year make me sick. Everybody  in govt/BMC knows the problem, but no one wants to own the responsibility about the prevailing situation in Mumbai and how it happened. It is a fact the one of the cause of the problem is concretisation and real estate. It was govt who decided to develop real estate without bothering about its implications in long run. As far as I remember Mumbai did not have these types of problems in 50s/60s/70s even when it used to rain continuously for 8/10 days. It all started from late 70s /early 80s, when the real estate boom started. One of the other main problem is storm water drainage system, as per my knowledge Mumbai’s storm water drainage system is designed for the rain intensity of 75 mm of rain per hour, but presently few mm of rain fall clog the drain lines. The reason being drains are not cleaned properly periodically and secondly due to road side vendors waste materials  goes into drains which results in clogging. BMC is the richest body in the country and still they can not maintain the drains. Main problem is rampant corruption prevailing in BMC, their employees do not take any action against the offenders who are choking the drains, in return of few  hundred rupees.

The list will be endless, I sometime feel that if this is happening to Mega city who is contributing more than 30% to govt exchequer and has this fate, then what is happening to other cities, because politicians are same all over the country.

2 MS Dhoni  it looks like Dhoni has become victim of his own fame, which is that he is a great finisher while chasing the target/or setting up the target. Ex Cricketers and so many cricket correspondent have criticised him for not playing fast  while India was chasing the target set up by England on last Sunday. The problem is Dhoni’s reputation of great finisher. The situation that day was such if India would have won the match, there would have been great chance for Pakistan and Bangladesh to qualify in the semi finals. So Pakistani and Bangladeshi fans are upset and are saying India has purposely lost the match and are blaming Dhoni for the same. The Pakistani side sees a conspiracy in India’s 31 run defeat to England, while Indian experts and fans are outraged because of a visible lack of intent. Formers captains such as  Sourav Ganguly and Waqar Younis have also criticised India’s lack of interest in winning the match. Waqar has posted a cryptic tweet questioning India’s approach against England ‘ it is not who you are. What you do in  life defines who  you are..Me not bothered if Pakistan goes to the semi finals or not but one thing is for sure Sportsmanship of few Champions got tested and they failed badly’. He was obviously referring to Dhoni’s refusal to go for runs in the end. His comments added fuel to fire in Pakistan and experts like basit Ali and Sikandar Bakht had said that India would go to any extent to keep Pakistan out of the world Cup. But Ramiz Raja, one of the thinking voice from Pakistan said ‘Pakistan are themselves to blame for the situation. Why should they be in need of favours from other team to progress’.

Meanwhile Dhoni’s refusal to play big shots in the last stages of the game came in for attack. When Hardik Pandya got out with score on 267, India needed 71 runs in 31 balls with 5 wickets in hand. But Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav did not show any urgency, they only took singles. This action of theirs forced Saurav Ganguly, Sanjay Manjrekar and Naseer Hussain to criticise Indian approach.

In my opinion it would have been better if India had lost 9 wickets or even all the wickets, but had shown their character in going for big hits for the win. In the end what ever happens in the world Cup, whether India win or fail, one thing should be made certain by BCCI that Dhoni should hang his boot and retire now. This world cup has proved that he is not, what he used to be , whether he is wicket keeping or batting, his days are getting over in international cricket.

What you say my friends.

Awaiting comments/feed backs/views.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

2^nd July 2019