Deja Vu 26 July 2005

I wasn’t in Mumbai when 26 July 2005 happened. So I cannot say whether it was a case of Deja Vu or not. But others, including the high decibel ‘The Nation Wants To Know’ type TV channels, assure me that it was. Okay. Heavens opened up, the city flooded, traffic jammed, trains stopped, people suffered, BMC was cursed......all went as per the script that’s enacted once or twice every monsoon. Even the ‘Mumbaikars helped each other out in moments of crisis’ part of the news broadcast sounded the same.

But there was no Whatsapp in 2005. I know I belong to the Laggards category of technology adoption life cycle so I installed Whatsapp when everyone, his mom and even granny were already there. That was in 2015 – post-monsoon to be precise. To the best of my knowledge there wasn’t any 2005 like situation in either 2015 or 2016, though I am sure we must have come perilously close to it once or twice, given the BMC’s inefficiency and an average Mumbaikar’s lack of civic sense. But I didn’t see much griping on Whatsapp about it.

Until today that is. The message came on our Sanskrit class Whatsapp group (which till today didn’t have a single post that was out of sync with the group’s mandate!) and was forwarded by, of all the people, our teacher! I was sad. Till I read it. Then I was angry. The gist was that when a simple vada-pav vendor on the street - whose livelihood depends on his business - could offer free food to help out stranded people, big chains like McDonald’s and Burger King did no such thing. Shame on the MNCs and all that!

Now, I got riled on two counts. Three actually. But I will let go of the disappointment that I felt on seeing this message on our Sanskrit group. So two. First, I don’t remember reading anywhere that our very own ‘Indian To The Core’ grocery chains like Sahakar Bhandar and Nature’s Basket handed out bags of chips and glasses of juice to stranded people. And why not? Because they, just like McDonald’s and Burger King, are businesses – for profit. They have shareholders and investors to answer. If they have to do charity, they do it through CSR. They cannot hand out free food. Not to mention that if they went nuts and did that, we Indians will queue up outside, whether we are stranded or not, and eat our way to their bankruptcy. :-(

Which brings me to the second point. Did the rain dissolve money in people’s pockets? If not, why should the Vada-pav vendor offer free food to them? Even if he did that through the goodness of his heart, wasn’t it the receiving people’s duty to duly pay him?

As far as good Indians go, well, the cab and rickshaw drivers who charged twice or thrice the normal fare amount to transport people and made hay while the sun didn’t shine were Indians, no? Even the vegetable vendors were selling coriander worth Rs. 10 for Rs. 30 today.

Mera Bharat Mahaan!