12Jul
Filed in Life etc | Mumbai
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Mumbai, what can I say about it. It’s been more than 6 years since I moved to Mumbai. I instantly fell in love with this city. I don’t know what I like about this maximum city, is it loving friends or ever helpful people or excellent public transport or good food ( a self confessed foodie that I am ) or good opportunities for career growth, frankly speaking I really don’t know. But there are few things that I wish were different/change in this wonderful city.
In this post I would like to bring everyone’s attention to the corruption/bribing issues at domestic airport. Besides buses, rickshaw is the most common mode of transport in Mumbai. So it seems like every time a rickshaw that goes to drop passengers at the airport has to pay 10-20 Rs. to traffic police officer at the exit. In fact now a days when you get in the rickshaw for airport, rickshaw driver will ask for meter reading + Rs. 20 extra which he need to give it to the cop. In my opinion this is ridiculous.
So basically at the exit of departure cop will stop the rickshaw and will ask for the license and other details. Eventually he will take 10-20 Rs. and let go rickshaw driver. This has happened to me atleast 2-3 times when I went to drop my friends at the airport. Everyone knows about it and nothing is done to stop it. It seems like now it is part of the system.
I am not sure if there will be any action taken against such corrupt cops/practices. But I just hope someday someone will stop this and make Mumbai even better place to live and to be proud of.
airport, bribe, corruption, Mumbai
29Nov
Filed in Goa | Life etc | Mumbai
7 Comments
This was a very interesting incident that happened during my recent travel from Goa to Mumbai. Alcohol is bit cheaper in Goa, so my friend requested to me get a bottle of “Feni” for him. If you have a permit you can legally bring in 2 bottles of alcohol in Mumbai ( this was told to me by a shopkeeper ). Our train was on time and arrived at 5.00 am at Thane station. Sometimes at the station there are railways officers to check bags for alcohol or any other non-importable goods.
I was stopped by two officers asking me if I was carrying any alcohol. So I promptly showed them the bottle along with the permit. In spite of this officer told me to wait on the side and they continued to check other passenger bags. Unfortunately for them they didn’t find anyone else carrying any alcohol. Finally it was me and those 2 officers left on the platform. One of the officers told me that it is illegal to bring any alcohol in Mumbai and I will have to pay a fine of Rs. 3000, followed by a court case. I will also have to appoint a lawyer and fight my case. They also tried to threaten me with jail sentence of 6 months. To by bad luck on the permit instead of travel to “Mumbai” it was written “Daman”. One of the officers read that and became more furious and started to threaten me with bullshit like your engineering degree will be confiscated, they will send a report to my employer and I will be fired from my job etc. By this time I knew that this officers wanted bribe from me. Indirectly they were asking a bribe of Rs. 3000.
I knew I had made a mistake of taking the wrong permit, so I was willing to pay the fine and refused to pay any bribe in a polite manner. In the meantime, one of the officers was checking my mobile phone. He asked me to remove memory card from my phone which he then inserted in his mobile and ( I think ) copied a few songs to his mobile. I wonder if this was a part of his duty 
I was then taken to another platform for further action. I quietly followed them. While we were walking, one of the officer was still convincing me to pay the bribe and advising me not to follow legal procedures. But I insisted on paying the fine if they could provide me correct receipt. Finally in about 30 min, I think they realized that I was not going to cave in and they told me to go. Before I left one of the officers said politely “Give us some money according to your convenience” to which I replied “no, thank you” and I walked away. I don’t know if it was a lucky day for me or unlucky day for those officers
To be frank I was a bit scared in the beginning, but then I made up my mind that I won’t give any bribe and was ready to face any consequences. I did my bit to decrease amount of corruption in our country, so say “NO” to bribery!!!
bribe, corruption, Mumbai, railways
28Aug
Filed in Mumbai | Random
1 Comment
WA Campions Cup is a football tournament held in my company, Web Access. Just imagine bunch of computer junkies in colorful jersey running after a football, sounds interesting? Believe me it’s great fun. It’s a day to show your footwork, may be curve in banana kick and of course have a wonderful time with your colleagues.
We were divided into 4 team: Konquerors, WA Invaders, Thunderbird, The Broncos
Everyone had to play against each other and top 2 teams makes it to final. So after all the matches final was between my team “Thunderbird” and “WA Invaders”. Lack of fitness and no pior match practice made everyone one of us very tied. I had cramps in both legs and could barely move but I had to push myself for the finals.
Unfortunately our team was no match to WA Invaders, they played really well and we lost 
Inspite of that I am very happy with my team’s performance. They showed a great deal of dedication and determination to reach final. At the end of the day, it was sprit of the game that was true winner.
football, WA Campions Cup, Web Access
08Feb
Filed in Life etc | Mumbai
2 Comments
Recently I had been to Pune to attend wedding of one of my closest friends. Considering it was Sunday I had done my reservation well in advanced. I had my booking for InterCity Express, which leaves Pune at around 5: 54 pm. Since I reached early I decided to board the train as soon as it arrived on the platform. I was the only person in my compartment.
Then suddenly I heard someone shouting Shoe Polish, Shoe Polish… This is very typical of Indian trains you almost get everything inside train. Since my shoes were dirty I asked price, he replied 5 Rs Sir. I said ok and gave him my shoes. Boy was decently dressed and was very clean unlike most of the hawkers that come in the train. Shoe Boy started to tell me his story. He told me he stays at the Station and he is very particular about cleanliness. He regularly takes bath at paid bathroom and makes sure his cloths are clean. He left his house 1 year back due to some family problems.
It was a very interesting conversation with this shoe polish boy, I think he was around 12 years old. He manages to shine 9-10 shoes daily which makes his livelihood.
I am looking forward for my next Pune trip, just hopping to meet this Shoe Polish Boy !!!
Mumbai, People
03Feb
Filed in Mumbai
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My house is very close to a famous school. There is a clear Traffic Sign for “No horn”, but in spite of that every morning I wake up with loud noise of car / rickshaw horns. On a narrow road when there is complete block everyone just loves to honk. I can’t understand this. You can clearly see vehicle next to you can’t move a inch, but still people keep honking impatiently.
Another such case is at Traffic Signals. When you can see Red Signal, vehicle drivers just love to honk. I can’t understand what pleasure one gets by this. I know everyone is in a hurry, but one also needs to obey basic traffic rules. I usually commute by bus and I can’t tell you how irritating it is at traffic signals. Traveling in crowded buses, you have conductor shouting to move forward and the honk is just perfect to spoil the beginning of the day.
Why can’t we be more responsible. I think while driving we should be careful when to honk and most important when not to. We don’t understand the amount of noise pollution caused by our careless attitude or should I say our ignorance.
I just plea to people who drive/ride, No Horn Please !!!!!!
People, traffic
17Nov
Filed in Mumbai | Technology
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CodeCampMumbai was officially sponsored by CiviCRM.
And it all begins like normal barcamp. As we all know most of the developers are nocturnal, yet again this CodeCamp will start off schedule.
I am here with one of my colleague to work on Facebook plugin for CiviCRM. Other projects include lighting up bulb using web interface(PHP), mapping and adding events on Google Map and many more….
At around 12.00 pm we kicked off with the event. We will try to do some magic in next 20 hours or so.
I had several problems with net connectivity, which slowed down my progress. After lunch we had a good coding session and we were able get most of the data from Facebook in CiviCRM.
At around 6.00 we were able get most the CiviCRM related stuff working like Facebook tab in Contact Summary and were also able to generate permanent session key for facebook so that everytime user need not login to their Facebook account.
Since everyone was busy with their projects, we had late dinner along with a good all topic discussion as a dessert
At around 1.30 am we were able to get Contact Summary with Facebook profile and also Contact Dashboard with Friend list. We are hoping to do more work done in next few hours.
Complete how to on this feature will be posted on CiviCRM blog.
After trying for around 2 hours we gave up on CiviCRM plugin for WordPress. It was fun working with Akshay on this.
At around 6.30 am we were almost done with Facebook stuff. We were able to get data from Facebook and display it in CiviCRM.
Finally at around 7.00 am we headed for our homes. It was fun working together with everyone @ CodeCamp.
For more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barkha/sets/72157603221321385/
CiviCRM, codecampMumbai, Web Access
03Mar
Filed in Life etc | Mumbai | Random
3 Comments
Today i was bit late, so instead of waiting for next bus i jumped into crowded 523 (Bus to Vashi). Somehow i managed to make space for myself so that i can stand properly. I quickly analyzed the bus and found an old man seating on Ladies Seat. He looked very weak. Personally I avoid seating on Ladies Seats. After few Bus Stops, a lady (my be in her 30′s) got in the bus. After paying for her ticket, she directly went and told old man to vacate the seat for her. Poor fellow got up quietly. I felt very bad for him. Quickly another guy got up and gave seat to him. I don’t know whether this lady did right or wrong, but looking at the old man it was bit harsh.
…….
ladies seat, reservation
10Feb
Filed in Life etc | Mumbai | Random
2 Comments
Today I saw movie “Traffic Signal” by Madhur Bhandarkar. Movie showed how people earn their living on traffic signals. Although this movie is a fiction but, it makes me think.. what if all this was real and at every traffic signal people earn their living, the way it is shown in this movie.
Are this beggars doing something wrong? They earn their living by pleading and gaining sympathy people on signals, stations, temple etc. What this people will do if they don’t beg? Most of the beggars are illiterate, with no skills other then begging. Will they be able to survive without begging?
Another question that come to my mind is should we give money to beggars? We find small kids saying “Bhook lagi hai, khane ke liye paise dedo”, but when you offer them food they hardly accept. Also now few beggars have raised their standard, they don’t accept “chootta” .
Is there is more then what we see at railways stations, traffic signals, temples??? So next time when you give any money to old sick man, a lady with kid, a handicap man etc. think twice.
life, Music/Movies, traffic
