perspectives

Long ago I too thought that the solutions to all traffic woes would be to build flyovers. As many as you possibly can, just build them and the traffic will simple cease. The simple logic being that if you don’t have halts you don’t have traffic.

Reading books by intelligent people gives you a perspective on life that is different than the average Joe. You look at life from different angles. That is the single biggest thing about reading. You understand that there are multiple perspectives and viewpoints for various issues. You also realize how much to trust propaganda and simplistic thinking. Also being in marketing you realize that you are not the center of the world. Most people (even in marketing) market to themselves and their own sensibilities. That’s not the right way to understand things. Just because you like it is no reason to have a pack design in a certain manner. Its what your core customer wants that’s important. I have learnt that India is not English speaking and we continue to throw English inside our communication. We marketer’s believe that everybody understands English. In offices in metros we think since we use English as the primary means of communication, that is the answer to everything. Of course you must understand English. May be earlier it would suffice as the big markets were the well-developed metros. But now as we look beyond the metros the vernacular languages need to addressed. The politicians and the film world have got it bang on. They are ones who have embraced the vernacular since time immemorial. But since we marketing people are based out of cities we forget the basics.

Simplistically as well, we think that the only spending on infrastructure we must do is the roads. So many people (very smart at that) have told me that the solution to Mumbai’s infra mess is more roads, costal roads, ring roads and flyover etc. No one seems to understand the huge amount of money being spent on what is a fraction of the people enjoying the service. Mass Rapid Transport is not about roads for cars but using bus and train services to connect people across the city. A network that takes a huge mass of people from one end to another. This opens out the city and flattens it evenly. People want cheap reliable mode of transport. The car is the worst thing for solving city woes. My argument has been rather simple here. My guess (only a guess) is that the amount of money the city spends on these massive flyovers can be simply utilized to do something else. Suppose we just take the number of busses on the road and triple it thus reaching far off corners and for good measure put air-conditioning to placate the office goers, the cost of which can easily be borne in lieu of the flyover constructed. Me thinks that with this kind of money you can even charge normal rates and give AC service. Ofcourse this is simplistic thinking. Flyover can last many years, far more than an average life of a bus. Plus no point having busses if your roads are jammed to start with. But the thinking is different. The point is to look at lakhs of people at the lower level than the few bums at the top.  

But it’s not easy to change habit. Over the last few years I have got the habit of travelling by car. First at kaliana and then at worli – my house is ill connected to office by public transport. It doesn’t make sense to travel thus. It takes far more time and is tedious. So I have the car habit. While I was in nariman point I used to take pride in travelling by train. This way I got my reading time as well. There is some loose talk that our office will get transferred back to Nariman Point. Jasmine and I saw it differently. I thought great - there is a new freeway from town right upto my building (literally – mine is the first building you get off to) and Jasmine said – great, now you can go by train and catch back on your reading. Oops. I missed that one. No body like change from routine.  I too am a victim of my own routine.

traffic sense

On some days I get home faster and on some days I get home slower. The traffic is a bit unpredictable. It’s generally easier on Mondays than other days as I guess it must be thanks to the retail business holiday. But the unpredictability of the route is typically concentrated in only what might be 5% of the complete route distance.
That my attempt to make a some statement like 80% of variability in returns depend on asset allocation rather than eth asset fluctuation. I know, it sounds like fart and it may not make sense to you (or me); but there is some serious science behind this stuff.
So there is a patch on the route that makes the commute highly unpredictable. If there is traffic on that route I am doomed at the spot anywhere 15 to 50 minutes. I could walk faster through that patch. It is sion koliwada. The interior heart of the place. the place where are large chawls with Jai Bhim written in blue, where just of the road there is a colony called sardar nagar, and large slums with south Indians dominate. All in all it seems to be a very potent combination. This road through the place did not exist a few years ago. The carved a road from here to the highway which leads to my complex. This is a short cut and I safely save 20 minutes else I would have to make the great turn at priyadarshini circle which at peak hours is horribly horribly jammed.
So the traffic I get once in ten days (a little dense) or once in 20 days (quite slow) and once in 30 days (we are celebrating some festival you dickhead) is well worth the trouble.
Especially the last one. Once in 30 days (I suspect the instances are getting closer) there is some festival or another by some community. Since it is a densely populated area comprising of the lower income group, the political parties are also fairly active there. We rich basterds rarely vote and we are too far spread to really rally around. So on and off there will be a rally, a stage built on the bloody road, a procession, some dance and excitement and a large mass of people roaming around. Recently the monorail which is expected to pass through narrowed the roads further, dug some stuff up, erected barricades and then just as suddenly, filled the holes and left, leaving rubble. So much happens in that one or two kilometre stretch that it makes the rest of my commute seem mundane in comparison. Well actually, the rest is mundane. How exciting can western express highway followed by a cut through dharavi and a drive past Sion hospital get. There is one really stupid cross road just at the start of the mad street. The cross road by itself is not srazy. Poor thing. It just lies there. The craziness is due to the cars that insist on creating logjams there. The bus coming in from opposite wants to turn to its right and invariably finds itself facing a car on the wrong side which is trying to manoeuvre, in order to pass the bike which is stuck as the car ahead is overtaking a waiting line which in turn got jammed by the original bus leading to other in my line rushing forward on the wrong side in the hope that somehow by reaching ahead they will beat the system, causing many more to follow suit and then some want to take the turn which is to my right to get inside, but is a no entry, but who cares anyway as that lane has cars parked all over and has many garages that park their cars on the kerb while they work on it and the ….. you got the point. Dint you?
You pass that and you get to the chaotic bazaar right ahead. I think the yoga I have been doing must be helping me here. The other day there was a procession of the South Indians. They had completely jammed the road. The crowd was so great that the bikes which normally make their way too were pretty much stuck. Yoga connection? I was happily stuck. It did not bother me one bit. I was pretty much unfazed. At one point I even stepped out and locked the car. I was enjoying the music I couldn’t understand a word of. I was enjoying the crowd, smiling at people, laughing and cracking jokes with the bikes who were hassled. Sharing a smile, everything. Just short of dancing alongwith the crowd. It was some weird festival. The guys were in a procession carrying some pots and garlands around. But the interesting bit was the human self torture. They had these huge hooks which were essentially hooked up on their backs, with the hooks passing through the skin and they were pulling stuff with it. Some were pulling loads of coconuts while one guys I saw… what the hell was that… he was pulling a god dam TAXI? Whoa. Then there were the others who had huge rods piercing their cheeks. They went in from one side to come out through the other. And they would be roaming around with that hanging on their cheeks. Weird. I have a few of these before. Never understood why they torture themselves such.
Here is the pic of the rod guy.

The rod is much bigger than what you see and the reason he is so bending as he is trying to manoeuvre his rod between the traffic. Swaying from side to side.
I can’t believe this shit still happens. Now I guess I know why I am not that religious. They all seem to lead to some form of flagellation. Suffering is intrinsic in religion I guess.