Monsoon Musings

Monsoons have arrived in Mumbai and so has my mother's irritable mood. Something happens to her during the rain months. She bursts at me for no specific reasons. Of course, being her daughter, I make sure I do everything perfectly to please her like not walking with shoes on the living room floor, cleaning the shoes everytime I come home, not forgetting my books spread over the floor, watering the plants as and when necessary and the likes. Mothers are great creatures! They possess such huge amounts of patience over their children and husbands' antics. I know how irritable my newly married girl pals are. Voice of caution to their best-halves: Listen to them. It's the rains.

People often carry romantic notions about seasons. Monsoons no doubt occupy the first spot as the favourite season for many Indians. For those who live in Mumbai, yes, we have mixed feelings about all the flooded roads, drains, the cold, the constant wet weather to endure for four months. Monsoons are not all about walking in the rain or going on picnics to dams, reservoirs, beach resorts. They are also a grim reminder of the plight of road dwellers and slum establishments. People living in them are the worst affected by this disease spreading season. It doesn't help to have politicos survey Mithi River/Nullah at the onset of monsoons and sometime during June  every year to declare all the sewage outlets would be cleaned. Because this never happens.

While working with a French Geographer on the Disaster Relief systems in Mumbai during the 2013 Monsoons, I discovered a whole plethora of ignorant and senseless policy mechanisms applied in areas surrounding the Mithi River. Its no longer a river, although it still retains the term. It flows through Kurla to Mahim Creek and I have seen shanties built right on top of the banks of Mahim creek. During high tides the water seeps in the houses through the cemented floors and yet people live there perched on their small beds while watching the water rise. The only activity they seem to do during the four rain months is saving their belongings from the water and drawing water out from the floors.

It's a wonder how humans stick to survival methods and live despite the worst habitat conditions. No meaning is accorded to all the urban planning terms and the various solutions proposed worldwide which policy makers always seem very keen to use, irrespective of their suitability. A thing or two to learn for all the bureaucrats, planners and the policy makers is that temporary solutions will not get rid of these urban problems. A long-term mechanisation needs to be in place. The government cannot build corporate parks on River Island systems and then deviate the river's course to channel off the excess floods. Wrong approach to basic city planning leads to haphazard growth of settlements. The urban planners ought to focus and insist on reviving water channels and river systems according to their original course. Somebody called Mumbai as the 'Venice of East' and although it took me by surprise initially, they aren't wrong to say it. Perhaps the Portuguese knew better and decided not to inhabit the islands after all.