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The sights and sounds of Mumbai

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Controversy's child
It is rather unfortunate that the South Indian Education Society (SIES), which was once known as one of the better educational institutions of the city, is mired in one controversy after another. Sometime ago, it was raided by income tax authorities, and now, it says it has been duped of Rs58 crore by an agent.
The question being asked by well wishers is why did its office-bearers find it necessary to place its funds in fixed deposits with nationalised banks through an agent. "Some of the office-bearers are chartered accountants and ought to have known better," many of these well wishers have written to the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai crime branch, which is probing the case. Interest rates are fixed and no bank offers a higher rate if the funds are placed through an agent. It is little comfort that the people who allegedly duped SIES had used a similar modus operandi to siphon out money from other institutions, such as MMRDA.
Incidentally, SIES school near King's Circle railway station was founded several decades ago by freedom fighters, who were only motivated by the desire to provide English medium education to middle-class students at reasonable fees. The initial corpus was raised by some of these founders by pawning their wives' jewellery.

Mayor's workplace woes
Mayor Sunil Prabhu is not to be blamed if the commissioner's office looks much grander than his own. The civic chief's office and meeting room has been relocated from the first floor of the iconic building to the second floor.
It has been done up in colonial style with a lot of love and care by the contractor. Oodles of attention has been showered on the minutest details, including the nameplate outside the cabin. The chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling and the stained glass on the arches above the doors, the brass hinges and other fittings all collectively make this place rather charming. It is a neat throwback to the colonial era and its 'koi hai' culture.
In comparison, the mayor's office on the first floor looks like a railway platform food stall with no personality. Prabhu is entirely right when he says that his office is an embarrassment, specially when foreign dignitaries come calling.
It will be interesting to see how this issue is resolved. It will be good if an office designed in the antique style is created for the mayor.
Actually, the mayor is only a figurehead with powers to only preside over the meetings of the general body. But, in the past, mayors have asserted their moral authority as the first citizen of the city.
Several decades ago, M Madhavan, a Malayalee migrant, became the mayor. He visited all civic hospitals regularly and ensured that they provide succour to the poor. Dr Shanti Patel, who was a trade unionist at heart, got a better deal for the staff, specially the Class IV ones. Datta Nalawade could be seen standing on the roads late at nights supervising the laying of bitumen on arterial roads. Chhagan Bhujbal, now the PWD minister, brought a lot of flamboyance to the post. He defied the state government and got a plaque renaming Bombay as Mumbai erected near the Gateway of India.
RT Kadam, a newspaper employee, connected himself seamlessly with the common man and used his office to help any number of people get admission in public hospitals. Manohar Joshi started life as a clerk in BMC. He quit his job to join Shiv Sena, which made him a corporator, mayor, MLA, chief minister and what have you. The first thing he did on being elected mayor was to visit the small and dingy room where he used to work as a clerk.

Ganesh fervour is in the air
Ganeshotsav is round the corner and the big mandals have already started their preparations. Members and volunteers of the Lalbaugcha Raja committee are working overtime to ensure that the festival is a grand success this year too. Next door, the Ganesh Gully festival panel is also leaving no stone unturned. Shiv Sena leader Jaywant Parab is busy for the Andhericha Raja pooja. And, of course, elusive don Chhota Rajan is readying to receive the blessings of the Lord from the Tilak Nagar mandap. Given the progress in technology, he can watch the celebrations from wherever he is located.
The late don, Varadaraj Mudaliar, used to sponsor the biggest Ganesh festival in the quadrangle in front of Matunga railway station on the Central Railway side. Set designers from Bollywood and even Kollywood used to convert the entire area into a dream palace. The Who's Who of the Hindi and Tamil film industries used to vie with each other to attend the festival here. Top-notch singers from the film world used to perform. However, 'bhai' was particular that no 'chalu' film songs were sung.
Once, the entire mandap mysteriously caught fire just the day before the festival was to start. The don ensured that an exact replica was built overnight. And, of course, no one knows till date about the whereabouts of the man who was suspected to have sabotaged the decorations.

Caring for the abandoned
Mother Teresa is no more. But the poor in the city continue to receive her blessings from wherever she is. Her institution, Asha Daan, tucked away among the bylanes of Byculla, continues to be an oasis of compassion and caring in a city which is busy worshiping the Mammon.
Daily the police pick up destitutes, many of them on the verge of death, from the streets and hand them over to the Missionaries of Charity, who run this home which was once a godown complex owned by Hindustan Lever. The destitutes are then given a thorough scrub under a jet of water to remove years of grime and dirt. After medically examining them, they are given necessary treatment and nutritious 'kanji' or some such thing.
They are looked after till such time they are fit to leave. But many of them are so deeply touched by the care given to them that they prefer to stay back and help the institution in whatever way they can.
The nuns never solicit funds, but help comes in cash and kind from perfect strangers. Well wishers donate sackfuls of rice, atta, cooking oil, etc. Many couples visit the home and donate money to mark their wedding anniversaries. But what most of the orphaned children want is someone to hold their hands, give them a hug or simply play with them. The mother had set up two other homes in the city and they too are rendering yeoman's service to the community.

Tailpiece: For some strange reason, the virtual world is targeting actress Alia Bhatt, the intelligent and talented daughter of Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan. A posting on WhatsApp said soon after the Union budget was presented, Alia called up Celina Jaitley to congratulate her. Really, some people can be very mean indeed.

—Compiled by S Balakrishnan

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