HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS – KANDAGHAT IN SHIMLA HILLS

Photo Essay about my Hometown Kandaghat in Shimla Hills:Kandaghat in Shimla Hills is paradise for me. If you start from Chandigarh, after Kalka (Haryana), you enter Himachal or Shimla Hills at Parwanoo. My home station – Kandaghat – is 55 kms from Parwanoo and 14 kms from Solan. I was born in my Nanaji’s (maternal grandfather’s) house at Village Urapur, District Jalandhar, Punjab. I was just twenty days old when I was brought to Kandaghat (where my dad was posted) by my parents. The reason was that my mother’s younger sister (my mausi) also delivered a baby boy two weeks after my birthday and Nanaji felt that it would bring the evil eye (nazar) if the sisters continued being together with their babies. This is the house where I was brought to (my father was a horticulturist) and in-charge of this orchard. Presently, it is the office of an Agriculture Research Station of the Himachal Government.

Our present house is visible from this Research Station. My parents built it in 1976. The house and the land around it was named ‘Whispering Winds’ by us because of being in the Ghats with perpetual winds in the area, which tended to tell tales of far lands.

Whispering Winds is also visible as soon as you enter Kandaghat valley. The other house prominent to the right of it is Kissan Bhavan (Farmers Hostel) for the Agricultural Research Station.

Ours is a rare house with a drive-in road; a luxury in the hils. National Highway 22 leading from Ambala to Khab (near Indo-China border) and Shipkila and Namgial runs just above our house. The Kilometre Stone depicting Kandaghat 2 is very close to our house. The small gauge railway line between Kalka and Shimla (a World Heritage Railway Line) runs above. It has 103 tunnels in all. One of the tunnels is visible just above our house.

My father chose the pistachio colour for the house to jell with the surroundings. However, unlike houses in the hills he preferred not to have a sloping roof with slates. The view from the roof top is exquisite and we love to sit there and have sing-song sessions especially on moonlit nights.

Another view of the house from the orchard where I spent my early childhood. During those days all kinds of stone fruits: plums, apricots, peaches, and pahari almonds used to grow there besides persimmons. Even in Whispering Winds, until a few years ago, such stone fruits grew and the fruit season was in May-June every year, coinciding with my annual leave.
Now there is some habitation around. But, for a number of years, it was a lone house in the wilderness; my dad preferring to stay away from the milling crowds.
Even now, with all the traffic on the NH 22 (and it is maddening these days), it can still get very quiet at nights…and you can connect with mother nature at any time.

A typical day in Whispering Winds starts with the enchanting twilight reaching out from the hill across our house.

As it lights up the sky, one can see the silhouettes of the trees taking shape.

Finally, it is bright. But, rarely does the sun scorch; it is, on the other hand, inviting and welcome. One could, until just a few years ago go for a walk even after the sun rose. Nowadays, you can’t go for a walk anytime during the day and the night; not because of the sun, but because of the chaotic traffic on the highway that mirrors traffic anywhere in India.

The town of Kandaghat is visible from the next turn on the hill from our house.

Kandaghat is a small sleepy town and the first thing that you see is the Railway Station in the tall Eucalyptus trees.

When I took the picture below in 2007, an Air Force Naval Housing Board (AFNHB) colony had just been sanctioned on the hill where you can see some HP Housing Board houses. Why a Naval Colony in Kandaghat, so far away from the coast? Well, the verdict was that I had something to do with the selection. The truth was that I was as much surprised by the announcement as anyone else.

A closer look of the Housing Colony.

Still closer look. The AFNHB Colony finally came up to the right of it.

The Himachal government did everything to make the colony easily accessible and provided a road all the way there.

I visited the colony during its early stages and liked the site. Yipee, I was soon going to have friends from the Navy and the Air Force staying there.

A view of the Kandaghat Railway Station. It is so beautiful that when you arrive here waiting for a train you actually want the train to be late so that you can soak in the beauty. For many years after I joined the Indian Navy in 1973 my parents used to come to the station to see me off after my annual leave, rush back to our house and I would wave at them from the train as it passed for about a kilometre stretch above our house. Even now when I see trains from our house, it fills my eyes with tears remembering my dad who died of a jeep accident just 9 kms from our house, in the year 1984, when he was just 56 years old.

Here is a view of the complete Kandaghat town. The top-most building used to be the palace of the Maharaja of Patiala since Kandaghat, Solan, Chail all were areas under the reign of the Majaraja. Later they formed parts of PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab State Union); until 1967 when the reorganisation of Himachal took place and these areas came to be part of Himachal. Even today PEPSU buses run from Punjab to Chail, a town across Shimla that the Maharaja of Patiala made after he was banned by the British from entering Shimla after the alleged elopement of a British Lady with the Maharaja during the British Raj. Indeed, even till today, the part of the Mall at Shimla from where the Lady and the Maharaja eloped is called the Scandal Point. At the time of my birth, a part of the palace was converted into Officers’ Club and my father was the honorary secretary of the club.

Here is the pic of the Scandal Point at the Mall, Shimla. The guy in the pic is not the Maharaja though; it is me in my Navy cap:

If we look a little to the right of the Maharaja’s palace in Kandaghat, we start seeing the hills sloping down until they merge with the plains of Punjab.

The pic below shows the alignment of the road, NH 22 leading up to Kandaghat where the road crosses over from left hill to right hill of the ghat.

This part of Kandaghat shows a government school for girls and boys (Himachal being No.1 state in the country for spread of primary education) and the court of SDJM (Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate), Tehsil and Patwari offices and office and residence of SDM (Sub Divisional Magistrate). SDJM’s court has now been shifted to the Mini Secretariat of the HP Govt near the Police Station.

A polytechnic college came up in Kandaghat for the last three decades or so.

Computers and Internet came to Kandaghat in the last decade.

Alright, lets get back to Whispering Winds as seen from the Agricultural Research Station, the best located house in Kandaghat:

Lets also look at the orchard of the Research Station. The plants as seen in the pic are the Kiwi fruits.

The others are stone fruits: plums, peaches, apricots.

Picture shows my younger son Arun in the orchard.

Kandaghat town has 120 villages. We are in the village Ded (One and a half! Since it is one and a half kms from Kandaghat. Earlier, the village was called Ded Gharat since at the village was an Atta Chakki (Flour grinding machine that ran with the flowing water of the stream)

My son with the ‘Chinese’ tractor at the Research Station.

Lets trace the journey of the train (called Toy Train) as it enters Kandaghat valley from Shimla (the glimpse of which is seen to the right of the train).

It looks so alluring as it winds its way through the hill. The road below the train track is the one that is leading from Kandaghat to Chail.

The train plays hide and seek as it takes turns and goes through tunnels.

The green building in the foreground is the office of the IPH (Irrigation and Public Health department). During my childhood we stayed here for a few years. The yellow building in front has apartments for the officers of the Agricultural Research Station.

The train when it passes over bridges like this brings out loud shrieks of joy from the passengers, most of which are tourists.

After the Station, that  have already described earlier, it crosses above our house and is to be seen on the hill across from the house.

I used to continue waving at my parents for about 200 metres…

…..until the train would take a turn and enter a tunnel and leave the Kandaghat valley.

Here is a view of Ghaghar river that flows all the way from Shimla to Panchkula.

That’s the East hill. The palace of the Raj Mata, mother of Maharaja of Patiala is on the hill. The palace is called Blossom and is accessible from Chail. Close to Blossom is a tourist spot.

Just across from Whispering Winds is Thada Moola. Himachal is a land of gods (Dev Bhoomi). The god of Thada Moola looks after the safety and prosperity of people in the area. Indeed, if there is a serious accident on the road, it is widely believed that Thada Moola is angry and need to be appeased. His mandir (temple) is just below the hill.

You have seen Whispering Winds from the Agri Research Station. Now, here is a view of the latter.

The tall hill to the right of the Research Station has a temple called Karol temple.

My village Ded has just five families….all the houses are visible in the picture below:

Some of the green-houses of the Research station.

The hill immediately above our house.

The road leading from Solan to Kandaghat……

……leads to Aab Shar, a place for the weary to take a break.

It even has a service station and guest rooms.

The train that I showed you earlier is just a few metres from Aab Shar.

It is now going towards Kandaghat.

The seasons change and now it is green.

Even the smoke of the train is alluring, though these are diesel fumes

Another train vanishes in the bend.

A view of the Mushroom Farm attached to our house. My father was a pioneer in cultivation of Button Mushrooms in this area. He was Project Director of the first UNDP Mushroom Project in Chambaghat about 12 kms from our house. This one he set on his own:

Look at the hills across, the Chail Hills:

Another Dhaba is about a km from our house towards Kandaghat.

A view of the Housing Colony during rains.

And the road that goes from Kandaghat to Chail

A close view of the Housing Colony:

My mother poses for me here. The town of Kandaghat is in the background.

An alluring site:

I just love to be here:

And here:

Mom poses for me at Whispering Winds. She ensures that there are flowers all through the year:

Flowers and greenery:

The river Ghaghar can be seen in the background:

Lets have a look at the flowers in Kandaghat both at Whispering Winds and in the surroundings:
The first ones are these on the rocks in front of our house. The climbers actually look like snakes. White flowers appear on these in the quiet of the night.
 The curious characteristic of this rare flower is that if you make loud noise, the petals close, protecting the flower from unwanted sounds:
 Mom (Read about her in ‘Seventy-Eight Not Out‘), as I told you ensures flowers are there all seasons. This, for example, is the driveway to our house:

I can go on and on and there are still about a few dozen varieties left. Lets have a quick look at the places close to Kandaghat. The first is a place called Kiarighat on the way to Shimla. It is just 13 kms from our house. There is a Himachal Tourism Rest House there. The food is good and I particularly like the impressive moustache of our favourite waiter Chaman Lal. Have a look at the following pics:

Chaman Lal stands next to my mom at the Rest House at Kiarighat
View from Kiarighat: My son (with his ‘Party Shirt’ with my wife). It is heavenly here.
If you prefer an up class place to stay and have food, then Destination is just nine kms from our house towards Shimla.
 

If you go further North, about thirty kms from our house in Kandaghat is the city of Shimla. It was the Summer Capital of India during the British rule. Every time I visit Kandaghat, I decide to visit Shimla for the sight of the Ridge, the Mall, Lakkar (Wood) Bazaar, excellent restaurants and just to soak in the sight of the lovely hills surrounding Shimla. Have a peep:

 Alright, lets now get back to Whispering Winds, Kandaghat. I must be really in love with the place that I keep clicking the same place time and time again:
Lets go south of Kandaghat after crossing Aab Shar:
We come across the town of Solan famous for its Brewery established by a collaboration between Kapil Mohan and Meakins and hence called Mohan Meakins. It is famous for the Golden Eagle beer, the only beer in India that I know of which is made with spring water, Solan No. 1 Whisky, and Old Monk Rum. Have a look at this quaint town:

The highest point between Chandigarh and Shimla is Barog. It is as many kms south of our place as Shimla is to the north. It affords a panoramic view of both north and south. The picture above is of an exquisitely placed hotel called Barog Heights where you really feel as if you are airborne. Below are some more pics of Barog:

Shimla Hills, as the whole of Himachal is called Dev Bhoomi (Land of the gods). This is how a day begins at our house:

We have gods virtually at every turn of the hill:

My temporary abode,therefore, can be anywhere. But in the twilight years of my life, I’d love to get back to where my heart is: Kandaghat; and more specifically Whispering Winds:

This is where I feel totally at home and will always feel; as serene as the moon that rises across from the hill and fills my heart with a strange desire to be part of the surroundings.

NAYA DAUR – STILL NEW, STILL NOT RESOLVED

Naya Daur was a 1957 Hindi movie with a story written by Akhtar Mirza and Kamil Rashid and starred Dilip Kumar, Vyjaynthimala, Jeevan and Ajit. The movie was produced and directed by BR Chopra. The focus of the story-line was on gradual industrialisation of India threatening the livelihood of people with traditional skills.

Horse cart winning race over motor bus
Photo courtesy: fmetalsreport.com

The son of a rich landlord starts a bus service in a town that doesn’t bode well for the tongawallahs since the intention is to first drive the tongawallahs out and then to make exclusive profits from potential passengers. This is seen as injustice and unfair competition. Dilip Kumar is their hero who, much like the movie Lagaan accepts a challenge to have a race between the motorised buses and the tongas. The farce of a horse-cart beating a  machine kept people on tothe edge of their seats in the ending scenes of the movie; because, on the outcome of the race was dependent whether the tongas would be  eased out or not. In the end, despite all the hardships, the tongawallahs win. Hindi movies, with an eye on their popularity and hence profits, have always let the traditional win our modernity, uncouth win our suave, simple-minded win over the clever.

Courtesy: peta.org

Naya Daur is translated into New Period, Age, Cycle or Round. Regrettably, 55 years after the movie, Naya Dauris still not a reality both in our infrastructure as also in our collective mindset. We have the penchant to live in the past and choose archaic over modernity in the name of nostalgia; in the name of traditions and heritage.

I brought it out in ‘How Proud Should We Be of the Indian Republic at 62’ on the Republic Day last year how the Indian Republic was meant to be “the greatest political venture” in the history of the world, the greatest “social movement” to uplift millions of the poor of the world into prosperity, safety and security; and how, the politicians and bureaucrats in India failed the people completely by being self-serving. At the time of independence we chose our own version of socialism as the answer to the problems of the impoverished. It failed not because Socialism as an ideology is bad and destined to fail. It failed because the netas and babus ensured that people were kept poor and un-empowered so that the rule or misrule of the babus and netas was perpetuated. These unworthy Indians were busy filling their coffers irrespective of the party affiliations.

India needed to rapidly industrialise so as to emerge a great nation and a world power. Here, the politicians’ and bureaucrats failure to usher in rule of equality made them extract their pound of flesh from the industrialists too. Last year, courtesy Radia tapes, the unholy nexus between the politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists and media was exposed. The fall-out of this nexus is that despite economic liberalisation ushered in by Manmohan Singh, rampant corruption and inefficiency have kept the average Indian mired in poverty.

The wily Indian politician, in a bid to exploit the emotional value of the poverty of the people (just as he exploits the emotional quotient of the caste and the religion) coined a phrase called ‘pro-poor policies’. Hence, whilst he has no real palns to get the people out of the morass of extreme indigence, he politicises pro-poor stance to garner votes and vote banks. Hence, he motivates the masses to extract the maximum from the industrialists; painting them as the culprits of keeping people poor whilst he himself is the real villain.

Take the case of West Bengal’s eviction of Tata’s Nano car factory from Singur. Tata’s promised One Lakh Rupees Nano car was to roll out of their factory in Singur, Hoogly District, West Bengal in the year 2008. The state government, even though a communist government, facilitated acquisition and transfer of about 1000 acres of land for the factory. But, the opposition, under Mamata Banerjee (the present Chief Minister) started the “Save Farmland” movement and drove Tatas’ project out of West Bengal and into the state of Gujarat. Surprisingly, whilst Didi, as Mamata is affectionately called by her supporters, did it for political purposes (as soon as she came to power in West Bengal she wanted Tatas to return), there were many Bengali intellectuals (Sens and Mitras) who supported her movement.

One of such activists that the communists in the country has nurtured is Arundhati Roy. She won the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel God of Small Things. She doesn’t mind being anti-national, seditious, and anti-Indian, in speech at least, as long as the fires of her idealism are fanned and bring in crowds and cheap popularity. Not having been satisfied with her strident support to Medha Patkar, another activist who spearheaded Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA for short; a people’s movement against the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the river Narmada in Gujarat), because of which the Indian Supreme Court issued her a Contempt of Court notice; she visualised the shock value of her support for the independence of Kashmir fetching her fame and popularity as an intellectual.

With such movies and intellectual support, the poor in India got convinced that modernisation and industrialisation in the country are tools to subdue them. Upon independence, we had movies and songs on the socialist theme showing all rich people as tyrants and shameless exploiters and manipulators. In the 1962 movie Aarti, Meena Kumari sang thus:

“Bane ho ek khaak se to door kya kareeb kya,
Lahu ka rang ek hai, ameer kya gareeb kya?
Gareeb hai vo isliye ke tum ameer ho gaye,
Ke ek baadshah hua to sau fakeer ho gaye;
Khata hai ye samaaj ki, bhala bura naseeb kya?”

(All are made of same clay, who is far, who is near
Blood of same colour flows in everyone, both rich and poor.
Poor is so because you became rich,
When a king was crowned, hundreds became paupers,
It is a social evil, it is not in destiny to be Good or Evil.)

Such ‘socialism’, pro-poor policies only in name, and political activism have extracted a heavy price from our economy. It has promoted indiscipline to the extent that starting an industry in India is now fraught with not only warming the pockets of the netas and the babus but also to make peace with people, largely supported by the politicians (with their vested interests) extracting as much as they can from the rich industrialists; our own version of Robinhood.

On an offshore rig on the Andhra coast, recently, the fishermen felt that they were deprived of their traditional fishing ground and launched a demonstration to extract the maximum welfare money from the GSPC (Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation) rig. Just how the fish can be restricted to a few hundred square metres of area in the vast Bay of Bengal is not for anyone to guess. They boarded the rig with knives in a bid to extort the desired money. And who do you think spearheaded this lawlessness? The elected representatives in that are; two members of the legislative assembly.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi during a visit to GSPC Rig (pic courtesy: deshgujarat.com)

The case of Mumbai is a fine case of this unfinished Naya Daur. The slum-dwellers are the vote-banks of the politicians who vie to make them as indisciplined as possible. In every slum-colony, there are large hoardings of the politicians as a reminded to the people that they are pro-poor and hence their guardians in everything that they do; never mind the law, rules and regulations. Therefore, every now and then the encroachments are regularised. Every now and then new promises are made. The poor do not realise that the policies of these rogues are the ones keeping them poor. But, the Indian society – at least the lower strata – has come to accept the doles that are dished out to them before elections rather than enjoying the fruits of a true democracy.

pic courtesy: ibnlive.in.com

How long will the ‘Naya Daur‘ take to materialise under these conditions?

SORRY ABOUT NOT BEING SORRY

The year 2004 shook the world. In late April 2004 pictures of a Specialist Lynndie England subjecting Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib to sexual, physical and psychological abuse shocked the sensitivities of the whole world. Arguably, these pictures – with gory details of forced masturbation, extreme humiliation, forced to move around on  leash like dogs etc – turned the ‘Global War on Terror’ (GWOT) into an abject hatred for the America and Americans. Those few pictures made American lives unsafe in many parts of the world. How could they be proud of a civilisation that could produce such demented soldiers in uniform? Terrorism is bad, evil, with immoral and questionable methods to try to get what the terrorists feel should be theirs by right; but, wait a minute, what about the methods of the people belonging to the most liberal civilisation in the world?
One of the pics of Abu Ghraib with Lynddie England that shocked the world
Lynndie England was court-martialled in 2005 and awarded five years of imprisonment. On being released from prison she tried to convince the world that she is the one who suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. Two days ago she also gave an interview that she wasn’t sorry for her actions and didn’t feel like saying sorry to the enemy that was hell-bent on killing fellow Americans; thus giving vent to her own version of ‘everything is fair in love and war’.

Lynndie England being taken for her imprisonment (Pic courtesy: Wikipedia)
Why is it so hard to say sorry? What goads a person or a nation to justify its actions by bringing out that we/I did to them what they did to us/me? Is there no end to recriminations? Is there no way people and nations can move on by acknowledging remorse and contrition? The problem about historical narratives is always the same: ‘how far back in history one is prepared to go’? Today’s saints are yesterday’s rogues and vice-versa. Is it a fact that shorn of our current beliefs about our morality and ethics, we have all erred or sinned sometime or the other? If yes, then saying ‘sorry‘ may not be an act of weakness but of strength born out of the realisation that what the so called evil are doing today, each one of us (our predecessors and successors) is capable of the same. ‘Hate the evil and not the evil doer‘ then becomes a significant philosophy for all of us rather than a sermon only by the one seeped in religion.
The message of looking at all people as variations of ourselves was also lost on Brigadier General (a temporary rank he held) Reginald Edward Harry Dyer. He translated the need for law and order and desire to suppress any movement to overthrow British rule into an expression of his personal hatred towards the innocent men, women and children at Jalaianwalla Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab. On 13 Apr 1919 when these people assembled at the Bagh to celebrate Baisakhi (not really conscious of the martial law in force), Dyer took it upon himself to “teach them a lesson“. He directed the fire to the places where the crowds were the thickest and also barred all escape or exit gates. The official estimate was that about 379 people were massacred and over a 1000 injured. However, unofficial estimates make the deaths at more than a thousand. Did Dyer feel remorseful? Did people of England feel so? The Butcher of Amritsar, as he was called, was a celebrated hero on his return and even given a purse of 26000 pounds for his heroic deeds that saved Punjab. A few years back, exactly in the mould of Lynndie England, when the Queen of India visited India, it was suggested to her that she could apologise on behalf of a nation, thus bringing the wounds of the massacre to a closure. Exactly like Lynndie England, the Queen of England felt sorry about not being sorry.

General Dyer: Sorry About Not Being Sorry at the massacre of the innocent
He died of a series of strokes in his later years, speechless and paralytic. He, at that time showed remorse only for himself: “Thank you, but I don’t want to get better. So many people who knew the condition of Amritsar say I did right…but so many others say I did wrong. I only want to die and know from my Maker whether I did right or wrong.

Another historical massacre took place from Dec 1937 to Jan 1938 when the Imperial Japanese Army subjected the innocent at Nanjing, China to torture, deaths, rapes and humiliations. The story of Nanjing Massacre is also known as the story of Nanjing Rape; replete with mass murders, rapes etc over a period of six weeks in the Second Sino-Japanese War. I visited the place two years ago and saw how painstakingly the Chinese have maintained the records that would perhaps escape the scrutiny of the Western world and the Japanese.

At the Nanjing Massacre museum
The description of the Massacre at the Entrance

More than 200, 000 people were victims of these massacres. The most horrible was the Contest between two Japanese officers about who would be the first one to behead 100 innocents with his sword. Photographs of these beheadings are displayed in the Museum including that of the sword, which is now held in another museum. The Chinese have kept records of all those butchered and these are on display in the Nanjing Museum as below:

Painstaking Records of all those who died in Nanjing Massacre
What did the Japanese do? They formally apologised  on 15 Aug 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the Surrender of Japan, to countries like Korea in Asia for war crimes but refused to acknowledge that Nanjing Massacres ever took place. Remorse? Ha, it is easier to perpetrate than to apologise.
The history of occupation of Diego Garcia by United States by evicting the original inhabitants and then lying to the whole world that the island was uninhabited is another case of lack of remorse. Though not so horrible as massacre, a forcible eviction causes considerable trauma. I visited Mauritius and found that some of them and their successors are still fighting case in International Court of Justice for such wrongful eviction. No remorse, no saying sorry; everything is fair for the powerful.Recently, the smiling pictures of Staff Sgt Robert Bales of the US made rounds after having killed 17 innocent civilians in a mad spree of vengeful killings. To give credit to the US, Bales is now on trial for the killings. However, he and his lawyer haven’t displayed even an iota of contrition.

What makes men and women to do horrible things to fellow men and women is not the subject of this article. What makes them to be unapologetic even after years of such acts of monstrosity is, however, worthy of introspection. Could it be that each one of us – people and nations – have a philosophy of convenience that makes us call ourselves virtuous, moral and good and find reasons for our own wrongs in the acts of others.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. Will we ever regain our individual and collective blindness and see ourselves as what all of us really are. For all the wrongs done, for all the carnage, looting, rapes, massacres, deception, betrayal, cheating, loot, lies and evil, an apology wouldn’t totally heal the wounds. But, we ain’t even apologetic. “They too did to us”, “It was a war necessity” and “They deserved worse” is all we can say, whilst being adamant that there is no point in being sorry.

To end, an atomic bomb called Little Boy was dropped over Hiroshima on 6th Aug 1945 and Fat Boy over Nagasaki on 9th Aug 1945. Nearly 250,000 perished and people still suffer of the atomic fall-out but we are Sorry about not being Sorry.

Pic Courtesy: tangibleinfo.blogspot.com

CAN MUMBAI BECOME ANOTHER SHANGHAI?

Indians are great ones at comparisons and at imitating, in their own characteristic style, what people abroad have discovered or invented or made. We are also good at making words that never existed originally in the ‘foreign’ language. For example, if the English have a word called postpone, we feel that pone must be a word by itself and can be used with both post and pre. (Thank God, we don’t have a Preman to deliver mails that we are about to write). So, if they have a Hollywood, we must have a Bollywood. If they have a great city in Shanghai, we must have aamchi Mumbai equally great.


Hence, irrespective of where we are currently (Mumbai placed 116th in world cities for liveability ahead of only Dhaka, Tripoli, Jakarta etc) we have come up with a comparison between Mumbai and Shanghai; believing, as with everything else, that if it rhymes, it must also appeal to reason. We feel that simply by hoping and wishing, some magic wand will be waved and, lo and behold, Mumbai would become Shanghai. The fact is that despite the Western propaganda to forever denigrate China, Shanghai now ranks amongst the best in the world and Mumbai amongst the worst. Foreigners come to Mumabi to transact business as our corporate honchos have headquarters in Mumbai. However, rarely does anyone visit Mumbai to look at anything beautiful here.

Two years ago, in January, I visited China with the Naval Higher Command Course of the Indian Navy (I was the Director of the College of Naval Warfare). The first Chinese city that we touched down at was Shanghai, straight from Mumbai. Here is what we saw.

An elevated way goes across the city

We found the city spic and span; with no comaprison with Mumbai whatsover. There are no ubiquitous slums, filth, traffic chaos, dust and confusion. As far as traffic is concerned, they have an elevated way that goes across the length of the city. At least I didn’t come across the kind of perpetual traffic jams that are so common in Mumbai.

The old existing with the new

What Shanghai is all about can be seen on Wikipedia or Wikitours and other sites. But, I am giving the pics and description to show my impressions of the city.

Lets start our visit from Xintiandi. It is an affluent, car-free shopping district of Shanghai. Seeing it at night is an exquisite experience. Even though it is the site of the first congress of the Communist Party of China, the narrow streets are marked by restaurants, cafes, shopping malls and theatres. Have a look at the following pictures:

My wife and I at the Xintiandi

Nanjing Road is the main shopping street of Shanghai and is one of the world’s busiest shopping streets. The first thing that occurs to you here is that it appears as grand, if not better, than the Times Square in New York. Except for the toy trains, which don’t come in your way, it is a pedestrian’s delight. Have a look at the following pictures and see if Mumbai would ever have something similar:

Nanjing Street at Night is a Visual Delight
Night or day, it is meant for pedestrians only
One of the toy trains for the shoppers
Despite all the population of China….
….people dont bump into one another as they do in Mumbai
The orderly behaviour of the people is commendable
It is a shopper’s paradise

Shanghai glitters at night and is spic n span by day. One reason why day-dreamers in India and Mumbai ike to compare with Shanghai is because the re-development of the city into one of the top financial capitals of the world began only about two decades back. It is now ranked fifth in the 2011 edition of Global Financial Centres Index published by the city of London. However, even in the beginning of the last century Shanghai was the most prosperous and largest city in the Far East. Three years back, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was ranked third amongst the stock exchanges of he world in terms of trading volumes and sixth in terms of total capitalisation of listed companies.

Central Business District of Shanghai is Pudong. Compare it with Colaba and also compare it with the efforts in last two decades to have a brand new CBD in Belapur, Mumbai:

Pudong at night
Pudong in the daytime

The sky tower to the left of the picture above is the TV tower in Shanghai called the Oriental Pearl Tower or simply the Pearl Tower. Even though I was not a very senior Indian Navy officer, but, being the head of the College of Naval Warfare (Now Naval War College) from where most flag officers in the Navy graduate, the Chinese accorded me a grand welcome. We, in India, reserve this kind of welcome for the political big wigs only; having no respect for the armed forces, except when we require them.

The Pearl Tower is 438 m high and was completed in four years between 1990 and 1994. For 13 years stood as the tallest structure in Shanghai until it was overtaken by the Shanghai World Financial Center. Even though a symbol of modernity,  the design of the building is said to be based on a verse of the Tang Dynasty poem Pipa Song. The poem by Bai Juyi reminds one about the sound of pipa instrument, which is like pearls falling on a jade plate.
The following pictures give the views of the tower, the viewing gallery and of the areas around the tower. Even though it is a tourist place and tourist district (people throng here in thousands), please notice that there are no ubiquitous garbage dumps, litter and filth unlike Mumbai.

The Oriental Pearl Tower at Pudong, Shanghai
My wife with the PLA (Navy) officer Guide ‘Maria’
Ferries at the Huangpu river

All that you see from the tower is marked on the glass consoles at the gallery. In addition, one can listen to the commentary on an audio-video device. And then, of course, there are guides:

A view of the Viewing Gallery

Have a look at the Oriental Pearl Tower in comparison to other TV Towers in the world:

At the ground floor of the Tower is the Shanghai Urban History and Development Musuem. It is really equisitely laid out showing the history of the city of Shanghai, its culture, traditions etc. I found it is better laid out and more imaginatively displayed than Madame Tussaud’s at London. Have a look: the first three pictures are of displays just outside the museum:

Entrance to the museaum
Perserving history; Shanghai style
More realistic than Madame Tussaud’s

There is a display on every aspect of city history and development:

This is not a picture in the musuem but a large court room with wax figures
Ballroom with life-size figures

Shanghai Expo was going to be held from 1st of May 2010 to 31 Oct 2010. Even though we visited Shanghai in the month of January 2010, everything about the Expo was ready and there was no last minute rush as could be seen at New Delhi Commonwealth Games etc. Picture below is the entrance of the Expo Gallery:

The large real-life displays in the Gallery had visitors see the city, its sights and greatness:

The displays could be lit too to show the city in all its glory at night:

Signing the Visitors Book at the Gallery

The Gallery also had a 3D description of the city and the various Expo pavillions.

Back to the entrance

Chinese are very fond of pets and these can be seen everywhere. Like people, these too are very well behaved. Mumbai is not the city for pets but for stray dogs:

This is how spic n span Shanghai looks:

Even the old quarters are clean:

Before I end about Shanghai and show Mumbai in comparison, let me take you to the Yuyuan Garden in the heart of the old city, showing taditional Shanghai in the midst of modernity. Here is a description of it from Wilipedia: The garden was first established in 1559 as a private garden created by Pan Yunduan, who spent almost 20 years building a garden to please his father Pan En, a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, during his father’s old age. Over the years, the gardens fell into disrepair until about 1760 when bought by merchants, before suffering extensive damage in the 19th century. In 1842, during the Opium Wars, the British army occupied the City God Temple for five days. During the Taiping Rebellion the gardens were occupied by imperial troops, and damaged again by the Japanese in 1942. They were repaired by the Shanghai government from 1956–1961, opened to the public in 1961, and declared a national monument in 1982.

Views of the old city just outside the Yuyuan Garden:

Modernity with the tradition
Entrance to the Yuyuan Garden

No photo-essay about Shanghai can be complete without a mention of the famous Sahnghai Acrobatics. The acrobatic performances are held each night and last for about 2 hours. The Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, established in 1951 is one of the best in China. It frequently tours internationally and perform routinely at Shanghai and other cities in China. An acrobatic show has become one of the most popular evening entertainments for tourists in Shanghai. You can enjoy gravity-defying contortionism, juggling, unicycling, chair-stacking, and plate-spinning acts. It is simply breath-taking and with clockwork precision; two hours without a break and you never know how the time flies.

The trees and the buildings are beautifully lit at night
Entrance to the Acrobatics Theatre
It is simply breath-taking
In addition to acrobatics skills, items are presented very imaginatively

With this, lets now turn to Aamchi Mumbai. There are some heritage buildings in Mumabi like the World Heritage Victoria Terminus, belatedly having changed its name to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Bombay in Dec 1911.

Victoria Terminus, now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Apollo Bunder showing the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Gateway of India

However, what hits you hard about Mumbai is the filth everywhere, the open defecation and urination, the lack of any beautiful or well maintained buildings, pot holed roads, slums, squalor and lakhs of people giving you no space at all.

All water bodies in Mumbai, without exception, are filthy
Slums right next to the airport

Let alone a foreigner driving in Mumbai, the city’s overcrowded and rickety trains are not at all safe for anyone at all:

Mumbai roads and railways are notorious for their breakdowns; anything more than the smallest rains brings the city to a stand-still.

Mithi river cleaning is going on for quite sometime but in Mumbai, the politics gets into everything and the authorities just don’t have the determination to finish any project:

The last census showed that in Dharavi, there is a toilet to about 750 people and hence open defecation is a norm. Similarly, people living in extreme filthy conditions is a common sight.

The buildings perpetually look black and ugly and people crossing the railway lines is a common sight. Indeed, the authorities shy away from bringing any sort of discipline in civic life.

During the rains, people are virtually by themselves battling against the ravages of nature. (Read Mumbai Rains in the same blog)

Traffic in Mumbai is totally chaotic and one feels grateful to God if one reaches the destination without injury or death (Read ‘Why Must We Love Indian Roads?‘). In addition, Mumbai is amongst the noisiest cities in the world. The general noise is increased manifold during the religious festivals (Read ‘A Quieter Mumbai – Is It A Pipe Dream?)

What Needs to be Done? I can go on and on. However, here is a quick list of things to accomplish the make-over of Mumbai into Shanghai:

  • The first thing to do is to get rid of the misplaced notion that Mumbai is livable and a great city. It is really at the bottom of the world’s big cities. With this realisation should come the sobering thought that something needs to be done urgently before people die of plague and other epidemics and of unsafe transportation conditions.
  • The second thing to do is to bring some discipline in Mumbai’s civic life. At the present juncture all political parties revel in promoting indiscipline, pandering to such “pro poor policies” as those that do nothing to make the lives of poor better but use them as vote banks.
  • BMC or Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations is the richest municipal corporation in Asia; there is, therefore, no shortage of funds. However, large scale corruption and inefficiency are endemic. Surprisingly, even after the repeated criticism of the people against failure of BMC to maintain even a modicum of civic life, it was recently voted back into power. This shows the hold of the politicians on the vote banks (mostly in slums; after independence, the areas under slums have almost doubled in percentage) and the apathy of the well-meaning people in participating in elections that can change their lot. After 26/11 Terror Attacks in Colaba, when the people vented their anger at the authorities for not doing anything to make their lives safer, Colaba recorded the lowest percentage of voters in the elections.
  • Roads in the city are in pathetic state due to rampant corruption in which both the authorities and the contractors participate. This has to be put a stop to and people at large must demand this of the authorities. One method is to display the pictures and names of the concerned contractor and the councillor on every road maintained by them.
  • We need to ensure that infrastructural projects don’t keep pace with the past demand but with the future projections. These are to be made corruption free, with transparent implementation.
  • There has to be more coordination between various givernment departments so that telephones department, for example, doesn’t routinely dig those roads that have just been re-surfaced.
  • The city urgently needs an efficient garbage disposal system.
  • Monitoring of traffic and booking of defaulters has to be more efficient rather than based on ad-hoc fining, bribes etc.
  • Decongestion of some parts of the city can only be done by providing alternatives. For example, the reason why Mumbai trains are overcrowded is because millions of people commute to South Mumabi everyday where majority of business and government offices are situated. Strong political and corporate will is required to move out some of these to the suburbs and Navi Mumbai.
  • Harvesting of rainwater is one of the means to get over Mumbai’s perennial water shortages. Once again, it has to be done with greater sense of urgency.
  • Meausres like air-conditioned trains will greatly reduce the car traffic in the city.
  • Housing laws need to made more stringent. At the present juncture taking liberities with the laws is more of a rule than exception. The politician-builder link also needs to be breached.

A new dawn for Mumbai to realise its dream of becoming another Shanghai awaits us only if we have the will to bring about changes that may be in conflict with our habitual way of doing things. It is better to do these things now rather than after a number of disasters.

“Young Child with Dreams – Dream Ev’ry Dream on Your Own”

Is it a milestone? Sunbyanynameis all of two on the First of March. Is it a milestone, after all? It should be only if one considers that I work my bottom off, as a Senior Vice President at Reliance (which has got nothing to do with this blog and views expressed in the blog are entirely my own), six days a week; and the seventh day, my day – the Sun Day – is all I have to think and write, write and think; and yet make my wife and sons feel that I am a good husband and a father too.

 

Illusion of fame. A little child in a Tiny Tots nursery was asked his name by the teacher.
He replied, “William Shakespeare”.
The teacher was taken aback and asked, “But don’t you think it is a famous name?”
And the boy replied, “It should be; I’ve been around for two years now.”

The beginning. Sunbyanyname toddled along not knowing where to go on the 1st of March 2010, just a day after I retired from the Navy on 28th Feb 2010. Having a blog whilst in active service in the Navy is sacrilegious and against all sorts of rules, regulations and norms. We are not cleared to publish anything. We are supposed to take three steps backwards, two to the left and four to the right when the Press or the Media asks us a question. The reason is that the people in the armed forces really know their stuff; and hence, if the Press or the Media were to publish what they utter, it would be utter disdain of the Official Secrets Act, which is nearly nine decades old, and can be justifiably called archaic as well as arcane. No such danger exists from the politicians or the bureaucrats as their utterances can never be construed as flouting the OSA. In their case, the country tries hard to keep their ignorance a secret.

This ‘n That. Anyway, let me get back to this two years old baby called ‘Sunbyanyname‘. Initially, in search for a name for my blog, I scratched my head, pulled my hair (a habit I had until very few of the grey matter was actually left) and came up with the name ‘This ‘n That‘. Aha, it sounded best to hide my confusion whilst sounding intellectual. I didn’t know what subject to have the blog on. So, I selected a secion called Humour, another called Poems and Limericks, yet another called ‘Stories’ and another two called ‘Navy – No One Asked Me But…’ and ‘Navy – Nostalgia’. All my serious writing I put under ‘Opinions’ and all that the four letter word called ‘Life’ has conveyed to me under ‘Life is like that’. Later on, I felt that I needed to write about ‘Philosophy’ too to spread my confusion about the ‘truth’ of life amongst all those who can be duped to read it. Finally, I added ‘In Lighter Vein’ for funny anecdotes and ‘Music and Cinema’ to express my love for both these. I also added a section on Travel. The only thing left for me to do is to add Plays in ‘Music and Cinema’. It was a little of This and a little of That.

Change of name. No, it was nothing to do with police and the authorities being after me or a trick learnt from the Pakistani Jehadi organisations. I had to change the name after I realised that the world has lost count of the number of blogs and other artefacts simply called ‘This ‘n That’. It lacked individuality and character. I know that those of you who have read William Shakespeare – not the two year old infant in Tiny Tots nursery, but the bard who regaled the world by anything from Comedy to History to Tragedy to Sonnets – will testify the truth of Juliet’s saying in Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) , “”What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But, I somehow didn’t let Shakespeare interfere with my plan and changed the name of the blog to ‘Sunbyanyname‘. Initially, people thought it was the south Indian Subramaniam spelled wrongly but later people got used to it.

Making the rose smell sweet. This was the difficult part; I had ideas but no time. For more than a year after the blog was born (until end May 2011 to be precise), it lay atrophied like any other public project in India whose foundation stone is laid by a minister with great fanfare, but, whose f stone resembles a tombstone a few years later. Suddenly, one fine day, a Sun Day to be precise, an idea stuck me. It wasn’t as earthshaking as Newton discovering an apple falling from a tree; but, nevertheless its pull was as strong as that of gravity. I reckoned that I was a tad too harsh with myself; thinking that I should write only if it could be published under the ‘World’s Best Dissertations’. Why not just write as it came to me with no frills and repeated editing to make it sound the work of a great intellectual. And the darned rose, the subject of Juliet’s assertion, started to smell if not totally sweet, at least not pungent too.

Joining indiblogger. It is at this stage that I joined ‘indiblogger‘. I heaved a sigh of relief when I realised that there were any number of these prolific writers whose blogposts would take as much space as half of what Juliet said in the quote above. I was reminded of a pair of rabbits being chased by the foxes; the male rabbit told the female, “Shall we out run them or wait here for a while and out number them?” Alright, Sunbyanyname, I addressed the blog, “Go for it, boy; write a blogpost a day and keep the doctor away.” After a few days ‘Sunbyanyname‘ found me, like WW, in vacant and in pensive mood, and rattled out without preamble, “Why do you want to keep the doctor away? She is a Pretty Young Thing (PYT) and worth having better than an apple or a blogpost a day.” “Brilliant” I told Sunbyanyname, “It is ideas like these that have changed the world. Lead on and let them know you are unique and original as the Sun. Don’t worry even if you write a few times a month when the idea strikes you rather than breaking the world record with ‘I breathe in and breathe out blogposts’.”

Miles to go before I sleep.  “Are you and that blasted ‘Sunbyanyname‘ of yours happy?” you may ask. Well, ladies and gentleman, now you are getting me into deeper waters than I have been during my Navy career. I admit that I am unhappy about the following:

  • I have visited several places in India and abroad but I haven’t got adequate time to recount these.
  • The darned pictures take a long time to be inserted and yet they never appear where I want them to appear. From the available time, much precious percentage of it is lost on this.
  • When I write Humour and In Lighter Vein people lap it up readily but the number of people who read ‘Opinions’ can be inscribed on the back of a five paise stamp, leaving enough space there for inscribing the number of people who died in both the world wars.
  • Sometimes, when original ideas strike me, I am busy in some official meeting or so; and hence, before I can jot them down somewhere, they vanish like snowflakes.
  • Existential pangs; that is, what is it all leading to? Is it just This ‘n That?

Light across the tunnel. Still, there is some light across the tunnel. I believe that if a certain political party in India comes to power in the next general elections, they have promised to make days, by an act of parliament, as long as fifty hours and Sun Days as long as hundred. Sunbyanyname and I will have all the time in the world to write some really good stuff. Even at that, on the second birthday of my child, I sing like Waheeda Rehman in 1963 Hindi movie ‘Mujhe Jeene Do‘ (Let Me Live):

“Tere bachpan ko jawani ki dua deti hoon,
Aur dua deke preshaan si ho jaati hoon”
 (I wish your childhood would blossom into youth,
But, after wishing, I become nervous (about you future))
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