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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My daughter is in love with Bandra. She has lived here since birth and now, as a teenager, she can’t imagine living anywhere else in Bombay, not even at Napean Sea, Malabar Hill or Altamount Road. For her, Bandra is a little city in itself, with the sea, the restaurants, the night life, the parks, the shopping and the theaters.

So yesterday, I decided to test her knowledge on her beloved her Bandra. I named certain roads and crossroads in Bandra and asked her to identify them. I am sharing below these as a little quiz for die-hard Bandraites. These are roads and chowks around Bandra West that we pass every day. Some we know by there traditional, old names and some we know by descriptions… Let’s see how many you can recognize:

1. Ramdas Naik Marg
2. R K Patkar Marg
3. Guru Nanak Road
4. Master Vinayak Road
5. Nargis Dutt Road
6. Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg
7. Mummy Ena Pereira Chowk
8. Arun Podwal Chowk
9. Smt. Sunita Nanda Chowk
10. Amjad Khan Chowk
11. Freedom Fighter Harsh Chandra Goyal Chowk

Of course, she could name only two of the above ten. How many did you identify? As I said, we use these roads so often, but are unable to recognize them by their current names. It is the same as we still say Fort or Fountain and not Hutatma Chowk or VT rather than Chtrapati Shivaji Terminus and call our city Bombay and not Mumbai.

See how well you know Bandra and were you able to come up with these answers:

1.   Ramdas Naik Marg - Hill Road

2.   R K Patkar Marg - Waterfield Road

3.   Guru Nanak Road - Turner Road

4.   Master Vinayak Road - Perry Road

5.   Nargis Dutt Road -  Pali Hill

6.   Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg -  Carter Road

7.   Mummy Ena Pereira Chowk  -  Pali Naka

8.   Arun Podwal Chowk - The Camy Wafer Crossroad                  

9    Smt Sunita Nanda Chowk  - The old Candies Crossroad

10. Amjad Khan Chowk  - Opposite Shatranj Restaurant

11. Freedom Fighter Harsh Chandra Goyal Chowk - The crossroad opposite China Gate

Of course, I know my daughter will never be caught dead saying, “Mum, I am going for a walk to Sangeet Samrat Naushad Ali Marg”, or “Dad, can I have some money. I am going shopping on Ramdas Naik Road with my friends”.

Sangeeta Almeida

It is impossible to find parking in Bandra. Most building residents are forced to park their cars on the road as buildings don’t have enough parking spots for all their residents. And if your heart leaps with delight if you perchance see an empty spot, be sure there will be a blue lollipop sign with a cross on it declaring NO PARKING…

I look with dismay whenever I see aluminum sheets surrounding a plot of land. Another new building!!! More residents moving in!!! More cars to be parked!!!  And so many families these days have more than one car..

New malls and swanky shops are coming up every day on Linking Road and Hill Road and all around this Queen of suburbs. For a casual shopper or a person dashing to the ATM of her bank, the chances are very high that you will be forced to double park and run the risk of your car being towed away by the ever vigilant traffic cops.

We already pay crores for a flat in Bandra. Why can builders not provide for basement parking? BMC should make it mandatory for the builders to provide at least one parking per flat in the building. Maybe BMC can also sell parking spots on the roads which do not have much vehicular traffic.

How can 4 malls come up on 33^rd road like Crystal Mall and Link Mall and have no basement parking? Can we have a public parking lot near Linking Road and Hill Road and Pali Naka?

Sangeeta Almieda