So the first public conversation on birthday turned out to be apt and relevant for me! I the morning was heading for a meeting on our Mumbai Solar work in Santacruz east. Rickshaws outside station were few and got into a shared one, where a co-passenger was a lady. There was a massive jam on the highway and the driver had already informed that he will be charging higher. Turns out the lady was a police woman and immediately called up the traffic cops asking for more people to come up to clear the jam. Along the way we got talking and she told me about what a difficult job it is to control the traffic and standing for hours at the junction inhaling the pollution. Recently there must have been a police health camp and apparently 15000 were diagnosed with cancer! She was anguished that if a cop is caught in an ACB racket then it makes news but here 15000 have been diagnosed with cancer and that is not seen as news. She discussed how at 2000 the number of traffic cops is so less for Mumbai and I told her about Mumbai Transport Forum and the work I do with the government. And then she got speaking about how the past few days were so difficult for the police due to Ganeshutsav and the threat perception being high. Almost all cops were on a 2.5 day continuous duty. She told me about how at Lalbaugcha raja the cops on duty got only some pulav as intervals and that too sent by the HQ, nothing by the committee. She told me how anguishing it is to see taporis and people whom you will be hauling up in the police stations rise up the ranks through these kind of festivals and roam around in BMWs. And then some of them become Ministers and the cops have to be saluting them. We discussed about all the money collected at these Mandals etc. I mentioned to her about why I do not go to any of the sarvajanak Ganpati Mandals at all because it provides patronage to the scum of the land and why there should be a mass boycott of these. You can experience god just wherever you want if you believe! We agreed on how religion had become a tool of pure manipulation and business for the least moral and the average person was fodder. Being the good assertive cop she was the rickshaw guy found a bumpy stretch through Vakola and dropped her right in front of her office and we said goodbye.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:00:34 +0000
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