On Sunday 09 July 2006 16:10, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
Here's the infrastructure in Mumbai as I know it:
- Road network. Not the best but they're still there.
the one filled with potholes after a single day of rains? you call those roads? I dont.
- Rail network. One of the best around the world
Oh yeah I forgot about our excellent rail services which like stop after normal 12 hour Bombay rain. Oh and not to mention we cram about 4000 people per coach where only 1000 can fit. Excellent. Is it Gzip or bz2 compression?
- Internet Services. Multiple providers, competition among atleast
two players in every area at all times (Triband and another cable operator run service at the least)
Yes, the kind that fry your motherboard in every rainy season or the ones where you need to quarrel with them for excessive billing. And lets not forget those who go down after a little shower...
- Electricity. We have decent uptimes; not as good as US yet, but
good enough
Yes, well, probably you live in some affluent location of Mumbai thats why. Many parts of Mumbai are facing load shedding.
- Water Supply
Same situation as electricity. For affluent areas its pretty good while not so good situation in other areas. People have to actually wake up at 4.30AM and fill buckets and vessels you know...
- Security. We have one of the best police forces in India. Sadly,
this point comes in the wake of riots caused by the Sena
Might I remind you the rape charges that officers of this "excellent" police force are facing? Might I mention corruption?
- Public transport (BEST, ST)
Ooh right. Sadly, I dont travel by the AC buses. I travel in highly crowded buses such as 266, 79, 38.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. A majority of places in India (and the world) do not have many of the above facilities, so consider yourself lucky.
Should I compare Mumbai to world class financial capitals of countries such as Japan, China, USA? Mumbai stands nowhere. Infact where are the public libraries? Where are the medical facilities? We have the largest slums in Asia. Do you wish to gloat on these sides of Mumbai as well?
There are discrepancies in all these services but we do not have much of a moral right to sit & complain about these discrepancies as we share responsibility for these discrepancies (littering, wasting water/electricity, condone vandalism, etc)
So you mean to say, as a citizen of this great city, I have no right to complain? I should just shut my mouth and bear with whatever substandard services I get? Look buddy, I dont have the habit of settling for less. I will whine and criticise all I want until someone takes notice of it. And the constitution of this country gives us the right to criticise anything we want and we will exercise it whether anybody likes it or not.
Quoting a TV show from yesterday....
As a part of Mumbai disaster recovery plan, the city has purchased 12 inflatable boats for a population of 14million.
Infrastructure... ROTFLMAO
I believe the Indian mentality has become to settle for whatever we have. Sure the citizens are at fault. I do feel strongly when people spit / litter on the road or when people double park on a crowded street or when people open the doors of their AC cars just to spit out. But they surely can't be blamed for the influx of people that are coming in or for a 100 year old drainage system or for the corruption amongst their officials.
Now this thread is going waaay off topic...