I fully expect Bombay to feel like a First World city by the following December. I say this not because the government has been promising us a version of this since 2014 or so, but because I think optimism is all we have left, and we shouldn’t squander it. If we think it, we can make it happen, and if it doesn’t happen, we can always find someone to blame.

This time, however, I have statements to back up my sense of optimism. In July 2022, the chief minister of Maharashtra held a meeting with civic road department officials about making our roads pothole-free within the next two years. Apparently, this meeting was held a day after the BMC experimented with some pothole-filling solutions, which means they probably had a new PowerPoint presentation and deadlines based on new fact-finding missions. This promise was reiterated just weeks ago, with the announcement of a R2,000-crore beautification plan involving, among other magnificent and magical things, the repairing and resurfacing of all roads in the city. The chief minister also stated that they would last at least 30 years. That same week, he also promised that Thane would be free of potholes before the next monsoon.