BMC bashing is our favourite sport.

But have you noticed a very pleasant sight, courtesy the BMC, walking or driving around Bandra?

I am talking about the many roads and by lanes in Bandra that are now sporting brand new footpaths?

We Indians are used to walking on the roads as footpaths are mainly non-existent. Even if they do exist, they are broken, dilapilated and encroached upon.

But lately, in Bandra, the BMC has repaired and concretized the footpaths. And thankfully, for once, these footpaths are free of squatters.

Now my complaint, as a motorist, is with the pedestrians. I have observed that despite having perfectly good footpaths, people still walk on the roads? And not in single file, but in twos and threes, abreast. I am forever crawling or honking at ambling backsides of people who insist on walking on the road instead of using the footpaths. I roll down my window and scream, “Footpath par chalo, footpath par!!”

Thank you BMC for the footpaths.

Hey people, I know old habits die hard, but let’s use these new footpaths before the bhel puri walla and the bhaji wallah encroaches them.

Sangeeta Almeida

For some more interesting Bandra Blogs click here : Clean up your act, Flowers in Bandra, Vegetables in Bandra

Last evening I was driving down Pali Hill, on my way to Carter Road, the hottest hang-out place in Bandra. Ahead of me was a black, swanky, stylish BMW. I was admiring the sleek car and imagining its owner, when out popped a lady’s hand from the car window. It was a heavily bejewelled hand with big rocks on the fingers and a big sparkly bracelet on the wrist. This fair maiden’s hand was holding an empty, blue colour packet of Lay’s chips. Without much ado, the hand let go of the packet and the blue packet of Lay’s fluttered for a second and then lay there, right in the middle of the road.                                

I was incensed and I quickly swerved to the side of the car, honked and peered into the back window, giving my dirtiest look. Alas, to no avail. The lady was busy talking on her cell phone and did not even glance at me.

In my mind, I always associate littering with illiteracy, lack of education and poverty. But obviously it is not so. The lady ahead in the BMW is definitely an educated, aware and well-traveled person. She will be the first one, who will wrinkle her nose and say “India is so dirty.”  But she doesn’t think twice before tossing an empty packet of Lays out of her car, on the road. These same people are highly civic minded when they travel abroad, especially to the Western world.

I know a number of people, who when stopped from throwing rubbish out of car windows or when told not to throw garbage on the road, will say, “But it is already so dirty.” Is that an excuse to add more litter to the already littered road?

I think we have become desensitized and reconciled to dirt, litter and smelling, stinking garbage piles. We collectively take no responsibility of our contribution to this filth on our roads. It is always someone else who is littering and someone else who has to clean it up.

My appeal to fellow Bandraites is STOP LITTERING. Don’t throw that paper of your Bhel Puri, the empty packet of Kurkure and the crumpled packet of Marlboro on the road. Stop using our roads and footpaths as refuse receptacles. Find a dustbin. If you can’t, bring it home and throw it in your own dustbin.  

          Sangeeta Almeida

I want to send the following bill to BMC.

1) Bill for the tyres of my car ruined driving around in Bandra Rs 16,000

2) Cost of the axel and silencer of my car Rs 25,000

3) Price of three perfectly beautiful shoes that are now consigned to the bin with their heels and straps broken -  Rs 5,000

4) Fees paid to the orthopedic doc because the rattling of the car over bumps dislocated parts of my vertebrae - Rs 3,000

5) Dry-cleaning bill for clothes splattered with mud by cars driving through pot-holes filled with mucky water - Rs 2,000       

6) Petrol wasted stuck in jams and driving in 1^st gear behind crawling cars that are negotiating the craters on the roads -  5,000

7) Mental anguish and trauma caused year after year due to the broken, pot-holed  mud tracks that are passed-off as roads in Bandra- Rs 5,00,000

Total owed by BMC Rs 5,56,000

Of course, I should also thank the BMC for saving me money as well. I don’t have to drive all the way to Esselworld for a roller-coaster ride. I have many roller-coaster rides all around Bandra, Apart from the mountain-like speed-breakers, driving into and out of the huge, gaping holes on our roads can give a similar thrill.

Or maybe, instead of suing BMC, I should ask CM Mr Deshmukh to enact his scheme of paying Rs 1,000 for spotting each pot-hole. I will be laughing all the way to my bank. 

Sangeeta Almeida

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