To work and back, I see…


Rubbish lying outside the bins more than in them, stinking away to glory, encouraging crows to challenge the street dogs, even the cows.
Rag-pickers, walking thru this ten inch deep-heap that is the unconditional breeding area for disease.
The garbage-van standing right in the centre of the bi-lane, when a km of deafening honks behind him, doesn’t move it an inch.
The roads – a model patchwork with concrete, tar and cement bricks, that would give any fashion designer today, a run for his money.
Old residential society gates sunken by a foot and a half, as more concrete layers accumulate.
Debris of shops that were demolished ages ago, still rest there, terminally ill.
Dividers – now you see them, better you don’t. Places of worship, trees in between roads, serve far better as dividers.
Footpaths – I remember reading about them somewhere.
All are equal – personified when humans and dogs share a common bed.
Surplus road construction stocks, as though, hibernating.
Woman drying clothes off the walkway safety fence.
Road traffic officers, throwing temper tantrums as they whistle
“Size does matter” with the public transport buses on the roads
Beggars demanding and sometimes even threatening for alms.
Towers of filth gleaming outside gutters that were cleaned months ago.
Underground sewage system, ensured nothing that is above it gets into it.
Drainage outlets blocked with enough litter, leaving the rain water at the mercy of being vaporized.
Potholes, ensured the shock-ab guys never went out of business.
Bikers speeding, cutting lanes as if they were authorized to.
Auto rickshaws wriggling out of the most complex of traffic jams like cockroaches out of kitchen sinks.
Ignorance is bliss – when it comes to Ambulance, Fire engine, other emergency sirens
A few more fist fights on “how dare your car kiss mine”
Laborers working in under construction buildings sans safety nets, hard hats, harnesses
Fellow travelers littering cigarette butts, gutkha wrappers, as if they were born in a dustbin
Bare live wires proving yet one more time that light travels faster than sound
Even more slums in and around the rehab area
Naturally painted nooks and corners of buildings, with red, paan refuse
Heart, spine, car breakers, not speed breakers

And…
A simply beautiful lake loaded with PDA!
Stalls under the flyover bridges selling wada pavs, to tea, to boiled eggs to bananas, ensuring no one went hungry.
People making a living by selling garlands, flowers, toys, etc. at traffic signals.
Others selling peanuts through traffic jams.
A police officer picking up a few surplus cement bricks to temporarily fill a pothole.
A well dressed someone, stepping out of his ‘accord’, to guide the traffic jam, in the absence of the road traffic control officer.
A couple of accidents, bruised humans and their belongings still being returned in the chaos.
A child helping a blind man, cross the street. And I thought this happened only in the movies.
The perfect combination with greenery and glass buildings.
The rickshaw driver, pushing the rickshaw out of the puddle all by himself, with a passenger inside.
The road traffic control officer stepping down his duty to help an old man who skid his scooter.
A taxi driver answering the call on the mobile phone that was left back and explaining where exactly one can find him with the phone.
Modified rickshaws to carry upto 10 children to school
People explaining you the roadmap, signal by signal, lane by lane, when you asked for directions.
The lush green eastern express highway
The plush hills…
The mad rains…

Hmmm…

Zara hatke, zara bachke,
yeh hai mumbai meri jaan…