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Tuesday’s rains gave the city a shudder of horror. As water flooded the streets, the official explanation seeped into media channels; apparently, a block in one of the Mithi outlets caused a blowback of water.
Although 26/7 has become a trite contraction of an unquantifiable disaster, memories of that day seem to be as real and as un-clichéd as a freshly suffered blow on the stomach. It normally takes me two-and-a-half hours to travel between Powai and Lower Parel. On Wednesday, it took me only 25 minutes, despite the slush. People, it appeared, were too petrified to venture out.
The authorities, however, were exemplarily calm. Look at the self-assured clarity with which they issued the explanation for Tuesday: a block in the Mithi.
While all of you stayed at home, the authorities worked strenuously to discover what went wrong. A block in the Mithi. That was swift diagnosis; I am sure the means of prevention will be developed in time for the next monsoon.
Monsoons, after all, visit us just once a year and a year is a long time in civic administration. That is why civic honchos forgot to unblock the passage that made the Mithi choke.
Streets are flooded just once a year; we are marooned by sewer water on perhaps as few as 10 to 15 fifteen occasions during the rains; the traffic jams are no worse between July and September than they are in other months.
Can we not, as the MMRDA exhorts us to, just bear with the mess for a better tomorrow?
Instead of focusing on silly puddles and petty inconveniences, reflect on the ingenuity of Mumbaikars.
Forget resilience, that applies only to animals which survive despite the lack of water and mating partners.
Let us talk about the resourcefulness that makes our city tick. Word has emerged that mastic sheets lining the Eastern Express highway have contributed to monsoon casualties. Rumours abound that loads of sub-standard mastic material were used on the highway. That may be a slanderous lie. The contractor, some reports suggest, used eight mastic sheets where 10 were necessary. So whatever is causing the skidding and the crashes, it cannot be an abundance of sub-standard material.
Frankly, I don’t believe the scurrilous rumours about the contractors. Would not our civic custodians supervised the work from start to finish? Would not the contractors’ books been examined? Would not have the road quality been tested after the mastic lining was installed?
I have visions of hundreds of babus doing nothing but ensuring that the work was carried out efficiently and honestly. I fantasise about the babus prowling the road in hard-hats while the work went on, I see them scouring every inch of mastic with magnifying glasses.
And then raiding the premises of the contractor’s suppliers and sub-suppliers to make sure only the best was being offered to Mumbai. If they were not doing all of that, I don’t know what they were up to. They certainly were not down by the Mithi trying to unclog its outlets.