What is it going to take to have a Clean Bombay?

I`m sorry, you can`t blame outsiders for the mess or expect a cleanliness clode! One thing I noticed in Bombay was how many people coughed and spat and just spat for no reason, more than Calcutta or Delhi.
Bombay is filthy and can never be clean because people think they should be grateful that they live there and that they should not complain. If anyone does, the response is ``go back where you came from``. Atif is right for once, most people are perfectly happy to live in filth.

Re: # 16

Devkant and Folio

Nice to see fellow Bombayites here. The biggest problem in the city is the apathy of the middle class. It is inexcusable when a well-dressed man driving a Honda City spits out of his car.. I wanted to kill that sorry SOB.. Don`t people like that realise that this is the way viruses spread?

Another thing.. When the middle class realise that the Shiv Sena has done nothing good for the city, why didn`t they go and vote against them in the municipal elections? Many considered it below their dignity to vote in these elections...

Finally.. on local area management, it has worked in some parts of the suburbs. Unfortunately middle class suburban Bombayites, as a rule, only tend to bother about their own homes and the streets don`t seem to matter for them..

I remember bombay, when the riff-raff were not there. going to Chembur or dadar was like a full day`s outing. Colaba was spick and span, Back Bay area was just being reclaimed. Yes those days, Bombay was extremely civilised.

These days its a mad house. To go from IIT Powaii, to Worli sea face took almost 3 hours last year which is ridiculous. In juhu, one day walking was quicker than by car.

These days in Bombay it is not civilised behaviour that counts. It is the money you have that matters. When this happens all, of what the author recounts happens. Money drives the people, civic sense and a consideration for the environment is secondary.

Yes, Bombay has become the most uncooth, uncivilised, uncultured city in India (delhi is a close rival to this city). And I say this with sadness.

Ajay & others,

I am not a Bombayite but lived there once (abt six months and transited thru the city from Gujarat to AP).

When I came to Bombay in it was all excitement. Walking out of VT station was like a dream.....impessive Victorian architecture of the Terminus (I think it`s a World Heritage bldg now), Bombay Corporation bldg, Time of India bldg, Crawford market, Bombay Uni bldg......people queuing for buses...wah it`s an eye feast. Walking in Fort area was no less...like medieval Surat, we have people of many cultures.....Marathis with thier black topis, Parsis, Muslims, Goan women in their frocks, free moving, backpack goras, dark skinned southies like me....it`s like God`s place......everybody has a place......a symbol of harmony and hope.

But moved to the area of Mazagoan docks....pavement dwellers. Moved to Vikhroli- Kanjurmarg belt saw some real slums. It`s all confusing. Rich and poor coexist. I think anybody can see the whole city in a week`s time! Now we have New Bombay, a very very good city.

But as a visitor I see these probs:

Flying dust on some roads,

Unhygeinic roadside eateries,

Misbehaviour of uncouth, new Bombayites,

Near impossible peak hour rides on local trains.

What we dont see is the faulty electoral politics of the city government. We can add more if we like.

As an aside I wanyt to add this: there`s a similarity btw Bombay and Karachi. Both are ruled by thokshahis....Thakre and Altaf. People complain abt the downfall on Bhayyas in Bombay and Karachi. The truth may be slightly different. NB can add here.

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#21 by atif2

Yaar Atif, that was hilarious.

I love filthy Bombay. The martini on the roof top bar is much more agreeable given the damp stink of unadultrated shit. The history of the Taj is much more appreciated when you see a big rat scramble across the lawn. Time is much more appreciated when it takes three hours to make it from Goregaon to Bombay Central, because of a rally in Shivaji park, and you miss the train. Globalization sinks in when your gay friend from Madrid finds a Spanish speaking lover from Dharavi and both of them squat on the streets after a fulfilling night. Pure unbridled capitalism spouts out empirical evidence when on one hand you see a disaster in public services and on the other hear Mohan Majhi, the guy who delivers your groceries on a bike, talk about his future prospects on his motorolla cell phone. You see your values crumble when the autorickshaw guy asks you to keep the change because he has no time. You realize that culture has passed you by when the demure nineteen year old at the garba asks you to sleep with her. What can I say ...... I will take the shit ....

I think moving railway tracks out of the city might help.

Give MHADA chance. Demolish all illegal construction, raze slums and convert the sale it to commercial interests and with that income settle the existing residents in new apartment buildings (this offer should one time opportunity and any later illegal construction should be deemed criminal activity) Stop rampant immigration of poor and destitute from other parts to come to Mumbai and over burden the limited resources. This is not an asylum for the homeless it is a functioning city and has its limits.

bombay should be made a state (like dilli)..

#26, Nope. Amchi Mumbai hum kabhi nahin chhodenge. :)

payee cobra its like this. apropriations are done for states. bmc does an ok job of sweeping the streets but is unable to embark on infrastructure projects like shit-processing plants for all the new bhaiyyas without proper infra funds. now MMsingh promised some targeted earmarks for shanghaiaification but that is only recent and anyhoo out of grabs for bmc. similarly, the suburban railway sys should be made an autonomous corp out of lallus hands. bombay cannot even widen a simple pedestrian bridge without approval from dilli.

its all for the good of the bhaiyya

Chutif2 has a point..it has to do with individual responsibility and economic status. A guy would walk around the street spitting his paan on the walls of an apartment building but will search out the spitoon or toilet in a 5 star hotel..why? peolpe act accroding to their surroundings. It was the same here in the US, to some degree it still exists. walk around Burnside ave in the bronx or Maryville, tenn...the smell of Urine is overwhelming, garabage littered all over the place. i

Here is a good example of organic, home grown hygienic activity. Instead of using toxic shampoos and conditioners, the lady uses India`s plentiful bounty for healthy hygienic hair.

cobra #25

{{Stop rampant immigration of poor and destitute from other parts to come to Mumbai and over burden the limited resources.}}

How do you plan to do this?

Authoritarian Stalinist countries like PRC have a system of residence permits (hukou in China). Former USSR used to have a system of internal passports. Internal migration cannot be disallowed without such a system - which is a non-starter in a democracy, and the will to to enforce it – not evident in India. The Indian setup cannot or will not even prevent illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from migrating to all parts of India and getting ration cards …

Are there market-based mechanisms that could work in the short term and also pass tests of equity? The sure long-term route – if you can figure out a way to do it - is to make life more livable in the places where the migrants come from.

Re: # 30

that`s as mainstream as jinnah being a (pork eater) muslim!

norm is diff from exception.