Urban Woes

Each week a TV program called ‘SatyaMevJaitey’ churns out juicy stories for people to mull about, to remind them about the issues affecting a common man, to make them aware of the problems that everybody knows it exists but can do nothing about it. Each week, after 90 minutes of these emotional programs where people are believed to have shed a tear or two, and those  who are moved by this program donate Re1 SMS to a NGO, hoping it will bring change which is actually a Government’s job.

Different issues have been discussed so far regarding child abuse, dowry, female foeticide, doctors and their mal-practices and yesterday it was the bad infrastructure for handicaps.

So, the people who are differently able were discussed.

They spoke about equal opportunities for all, about integrating them into main stream, about their mobility in public places, about building ramp in the public places, about Job placements, and about many more issues affecting handicapped people.

But ask a common man how much he suffers even when he is able and completely normal.

Mumbai is safe city to live in, that is what most people believe. But walk down the street in broad day light and see how dangerous it is. The roads are broken, the inter-locking tiles are stolen from the street by hawkers to create make-shift tables, all the roads are dug up and they take months to repair. Foot paths are built one foot above the road level, how do they expect the handicap and senior citizens to walk on footpath? There is no co-ordination between different utilities, everybody had their own timing for carrying out their work and digging the roads.  

The other day I was waiting at the bus-stop and saw a woman in sari struggling to climb the first step of the BEST bus. She had to lift her sari up to her knee to climb up the first step, two and half feet above the ground, some street urchins had a good laugh watching her struggle. Only the fisher-women, sports women or women in jeans are able to travel with ease. 


Same story is at the Mumbai Locals. The new trains are two feet above the platform. The tiles have come off the edges of the platform, there is danger of slipping while alighting a train.

Nobody thought about senior people while designing new local trains?

Mumbai has sky walk in many areas, but who is using these sky walks? They are three floors up with no lift or escalators. If you walk through these sky walks at night, you are likely to see hundreds of street-people sleeping up there, it’s a safe place to sleep with no fear of speeding traffic to run over them, but during day time, it is used by very few people, senior people or handicap can never use these safe walks.

How can you make the life of handicap and the senior citizen easy when the infrastructure of Mumbai is handicapped?

Friend says to be the change you want instead of complaining.

I would love to bring change if it wasn't so difficult to get required papers/forms to be passed through offices with ease....for every work that we want done, there are long queues, repeated trips to the same office which reduces with the amount of tips you give. There is too much frustrations. Nothing happens without influence.......it takes so long to get any work done that all the peons and watchmen start calling you by your first name.

Last year I went to visit city of Lavasa, on the outskirts of Pune. This is the new city that is being built presumptuously with better infrastructure. But here too, I found they had not paid attention to the needs of handicap and senior citizens. True, there were ramps and slopes at certain places but there were no railings at stair case. One had to do balancing act while climbing up/down the steps without support.

No change is possible till the mentality of people change, till the Government realizes that it is its’ duty to make the life easy for its citizens. 


On my recent visit to Dubai I was impressed with the metro stations. Every station had escalators and lifts, everything was computerized and the most impressive thing was that people who have constructed these stations are all Indians.

Friend says that changes can be brought about with the right attitude.

Awareness is the first step towards change. Positive mentality is another factor, then there are also different organizations such as ‘San-Kranti: transform Urban India’ and ‘Indian Institute for HumanSettlement’ who can take up these projects and bring some change,

But I still feel

Life of a common man can be a comfortable only if the state cares…….

The Fruit Seller

He comes knocking at my door every alternate day. How much fruit can I consume? 

Two floors he climbs at this age (he must be in his seventies) to bring the fresh fruit for me. I am obliged to buy since I see the effort he takes to climb two floors but I ask him not to come back for next four days…till my stock lasts…but sometimes he forgets and comes back again the next day and then I am angry that I am obliged to buy, sometimes I just refuse, asking him to peep into my fridge to see that the fruit he sold me the previous day is still left untouched but then again I buy since I feel bad that he had to climb the stairs……

I live on second floor apartment and my building has no lift, hence every visitor huffs and puffs when they visit me. In this world of elevators I am quite primitive; not having one in my building, but then my building is almost 50 years old.

There are many of my family members (it’s never my friends) who have a good excuse not to visit me saying “I cannot climb two floors, so I couldn’t visit you, so sorry” I understand they don’t love me enough to bother climbing two stories… although they know that if they do, I reward them with my hospitality skills.

But this fruit seller cares not for my hospitality; he wants to sell his fruit at exorbitant price. He brings the freshest fruit and I have never ever been disappointed with his stuff….He has so many years of experience of selecting only the best stock, but he overcharges me each time but I never bargain….what is the use?

My argument is that he gives me home service. It is too much of a hassle for me to go to the market, select from the stall which has mix of good and bad fruits, select what I think is good and fresh, pick up the load and climb two stories to get home,

Buying from him is so much easier……..

But he is also too much of a nag……. He will offer me the fruit which I am prohibited from eating for health reasons…"I don’t want figs that are sweet” I tell him and he will argue he will lower the price for me…. “I don’t want oranges because I don’t like” and he promises that they are sweet……and healthy

I ask him to give me 250gms fruit and he weighs it on a balance scale with stone that he claims it to be of 250grams. I ask him to buy the proper weight and he complains he has no excess money. I give him Rs40 to buy, but one year now, he still uses stone saying he never found time to buy it…….

Well…old man he is….all his life he has only sold fruits, the choicest fruits, by just touching the fruits he knows its freshness, its taste and even its quality, he can even advice me when it will be ready to eat, He brings just enough that he is able to carry on his head and peddles from door to door. Every day, fresh stock.

Since he buys just selected few, it’s always the best.

Where else in the world can you afford such luxury of buying the best stuff at your door step?