The eternal East-West divide
Updated On: 13 July, 2024 08:04 AM IST | Mumbai | Lindsay Pereira
When will we manage to move from one side of the city to the other without worrying about traffic or the weather?
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Veera Desai Road in Andheri West after a spell of rain on July 26, 2023. Pic/Anurag Ahire
I woke up this morning to news about the Andheri subway being closed on account of rain. There was an unusual amount of it, apparently, which is what we’re always told whenever some parts of the city disappear under water. It’s as if everyone at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation suffers from Transient Global Amnesia, a condition involving sudden episodes of memory loss that resolve on their own within 24 hours. They forget about the monsoons each year and are always shocked by rain clogging the streets. How can this be, they ask, before blaming the weather for their inability to prevent waterlogging.
And so, I went back to sleep a few minutes later, because this information has been a regular part of my life for as long as I can remember. I didn’t grow up in Andheri, but the suburb I was born in wasn’t too far, which meant I would hear about flooded streets each June. There weren’t as many vehicles around back then, and the Maruti Suzukis didn’t take up much room, but that didn’t matter because everything would stop working anyway. The areas were familiar to us all: Nana Chowk in Grant Road, Gandhi Market in Sion, Hindmata in Dadar, Kalanagar Junction in Bandra, DN Nagar in Andheri, and a bunch of other spots where time appears to have stood still while we create plans for Smart Cities.
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