Mummies Ahoy!

I knew that the exhibition was on at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (formerly Prince of Wales Museum) Vastu Sangrahalaya since November last year, I was not able to make it there until now. But this weekend, I was determined to go there. With its vast rooms filled with paintings, idols and other artworks, it is a veritable treasure trove of knowledge about the centuries gone past. You could spend an entire day here and yet not get bored. I hope I am able to do that one day.

Anyways, the reason for my visit this weekend was an exhibition of the Egyptian Mummies and other artefacts. At Rs 60 per head, the entry fee was reasonable. But for the life of me, I could not fathom the reason behind the security asking everyone to leave their water bottles behind. I dutifully left mine behind and excitedly rushed towards the first floor which housed the exhibition. At the entrance, a replica of the Rosetta stone greeted visitors. I had heard about it but was seeing it, even though it was a replica, for the first time in my life. Looked mighty complicated!

I pushed on. The displays contained so many things - amulets, ceremonial pots, clay tablets depicting scenes from Egyptian life, replicas of the containers that were used to preserve vital organs of the dead, idols of the Gods and the Mummies! There were about 4-5 sarcophaguses. I wondered if they really contained Mummies inside. There was one Mummy without its sarcophagus though - the board next to it said that imaging has revealed that it contains body of a young man. It is one thing to see the Mummies in movies and another to stand next to one. I stepped back in alarm. It definitely creeped out, must confess. The information on displays ranged from the mundane - like the names of the kings and their descendents, to the interesting - like the Egyptians' ideas about life and the afterlife, to the gory - like people killing cats by twisting their necks just so that they can offer their mummies to God. It was unreal to think that these very objects who had now become part of a public display were once handled by real people like you and me, who led real lived filled with both - grief and sorrow. I recalled words from Author's note of a novel that I recently finished reading - Each of us is a time capsule.

By the time I reached the end of the exhibition, I wondered - these people seemed to spend so much time thinking about death and the afterlife, did they ever find any time to live in the present?

Some drama or other. Almost every day. Guess the best place to have one is in the BEST buses of Mumbai. The other day, I was busy reading about the credit card frauds that are becoming common these days when angry voices made me look up from the newspaper. 3 commuters had boarded from the front entrance of the bus - they looked positively angry. At first, I thought it was directed to either the driver or conductor of this bus. But it soon became evident from their conversation that the driver of the bus that they had recently got down from was responsible for that. Seems that he was driving the bus at snail's pace. I recalled an expression an examiner at the US DMV center, where I gave my first driving test, had used while referring to my driving skills, or lack thereof - you were turtling along! I was puzzled. We have have heard of the BEST drivers and their rash driving all over Mumbai roads. This slow-driving was unheard of, well, until now at least.

The driver and conductor of the bus I was riding in heartily joined the discussion. The sole male from the trio of commuters was most vocal in volunteering the facts - the driver had been doing this since the past 3 days, when they confronted him he said that he was suffering from loose motions (enough of a reason for a commuter to get out of the bus, in my humble opinion!), they were in danger of missing their morning punching time and losing over a thousand rupees or so. The driver and conductor made sympathetic noises but seemed more amused than surprised.

Two hapless ticket checkers happened to be present at two of the bus stop en route. The trio made it a point to complain to them and requesting that the offending driver who happened to be driving the bus somewhere behind us be reprimanded. The ticket checkers said they would look into this. The bus chugged on ahead, the matter was forgotten and I was able to return to my article on credit card fraud.

Scavenger - by David Morrell

Time capsules, letterboxing, messages from the past......pretty interesting stuff, if you ask me. That's what made me pick up this book by David Morrell from the library last weekend. Of course, from the storyline on the back cover it was evident that this one was sort of a sequel to his 'Creepers'. I didn't see 'Creepers' anywhere and the attendant was busy with other patrons. So I checked out the book and left.

Turned out that reading of 'Creepers' was not a pre-requisite to reading this one. It was enough to remember that Belanger, a cop, had survived the fire at Paragon hotel along with Amanda who looked a lot like his kidnapped wife. The novel begins when Belanger is trying his best to forget what happened at the Paragon and moving on with his life. Since he doesn't have anyone to look after him after being discharged from the hospital, Amanda takes him to her home. They soon become a couple (surprise! surprise!).

Then one day, they receive an invitation - from some history club, where a prefessor is going to deliver a lecture about time capsules. They attend, are duly drugged and separated. Amanda is nowhere to be seen when Belanger wakes up outside the ruins of the Paragon.

While Belanger is agonizing over whether Amanda is safe or not, she is going through a hell of her own - along with five more people. Someone wants them to play a game - of overcoming the obstacles and finding a long-lost Time Capsule.

The novel made a good read - though the hero, like in almost every crime or thriller novel, seems almost superhuman in overcoming the obstacles, surviving attempts on his life, solving the clues and finally managing to reach the Damsel in distress. The Author's Note mentions that many of the references in the novel are facts so I duly noted the links he provided. I hope that one day I will find time to go through the following:

Capsule History
Tales of future past
Crypt of Civilization
Black Hills  Secrets
Geocaching
Letterboxing

When I went to the library to return the book this weekend, the attendant told me that the library stocks more novels of the author and promised to look them up for me next weekend.

Whether I read them or not, one sentence from Author's note will remain forever etched in my memory:

Nothing passes as long as we remember it. Each of us is a time capsule.

अर्ज किया है.....

दरियामे यु तो होते है कतरे ही कतरे सब
कतरा वही है जिसमे के दरिया दिखाई दे

(From the internet)

Kala Ghoda 2013

‘What’s the proof that God exists?’

‘Can you see Oxygen? Or for that matter, air? But you know it exists because you can breathe and you are alive’

‘Exactly my point, my friend! There is some proof that air exists. What is the proof that God exists? There are many that He doesn’t. Poverty, murders, genocides, epidemics, wars….take your pick’

I could never win the arguments with my friend who was an atheist. She and KanjiBhai would have got along well. KanjiBhai who? No, you are unlikely to ask that question - because I was probably the last person in India to watch ‘Oh My God’ when it was aired on TV last weekend.

But in case you have beaten me to it, here is the story in a nutshell. Kanji Bhai (Paresh Rawal) owns a shop selling Idols – Mahadev, Krishna, Hanuman, Sai Baba – name a God and you will find his idol in the shop. Owing to his expertize in passing off tap water as Holy water and idols bought in Holy places as ancient treasure personally handed to him by some saint, he is doing well – albeit at the cost of his hapless religious customers. But despite being surrounded by God all throughout the day, Kanji Bhai doesn’t believe in Him, much to the annoyance of his devout wife.

Call it the wrath of God, if you believe in God, or a mere coincidence if you don’t, an earthquake hits Mumbai. The neighborhood shop that is decrepit enough to be knocked over by a mere whiff stays untouched and Kanji Bhai’s shop is razed to the ground. Never mind, he says, though shell-shocked. There is always the insurance company. He, however, gets another shock when the insurance company in question calls the quake ‘an act of God’ and refuses to cough up the money.

Cornered from all sides, Kanji Bhai decides to sue God, only to find that no lawyer is willing to fight his case. When one lawyer finally agrees, he tells Kanjibhai that you need an address of the person who you want to sue. And so the summons is sent to those who ‘supposedly’ represent God on earth – namely the sadhus, the babas and the maiyyas. India, however, is a secular country. So when people from other religions come forward to join the claim, notices are also sent to Maulawis and church priests. The Press, the religious community and common man on the street all have opinion about this ongoing battle between God and Kanji Bhai. Just when he feels that he is fighting a lost battle, someone comes to his rescue – someone who identifies himself as ‘Krishna Vasudev Yadav from Gokul’!

Who is this guy? Where has he come from? Is he able to help KanjiBhai? If you want answers to all these questions, you better watch the movie (if you haven’t already!). J

I did. To tell you the truth, to begin with, I had got a stack of things to be completed while watching the movie. But when ‘Krishna Vasudev Yadav from Gokul’ turned up, I swept everything aside and sat glued to the screen. And no, I am not an ardent fan of Akshay Kumar – though I liked him in Bhool Bhulaiyya and all Heraferi movies.

I did so because I realized that though I am not an atheist like KanjiBhai, some of his questions are mine too. And I wanted answers.

I did so because I don’t believe that keeping fasts, walking barefoot to the temples or going to the Holy men is the way to reach God. And I wanted to know if I am right.

I did so because I knew who this ‘‘Krishna Vasudev Yadav from Gokul’ was (no surprises there!). And I wanted to know how, if at all, he helps KanjiBhai.

At the end of the movie, I got answers to some of my questions and some – like e.g. why a bus full of pilgrims on its way to a Holy shrine meets with an accident killing all on board - were left unanswered.

But as I pass 2-3 shops, full of idols like Kanjibhai’s shop, on my way to and from office, I recall what one of the Holy men (Mithun Chakrabarti) says to KanjiBhai in the end ‘even if people are listening to you now, they will come back to us eventually. Because they are not God-loving people, they are God-fearing people’. 

Oh My God! More prophetic words were never said!

The news - that BEST is thinking of shutting down its AC service in phased manner within 2 years – will not come as a surprise to anyone who has observed an empty AC bus plying the city’s streets. This, however, is a clear case of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

I agree that there are many problems such as non-working or leaking ACs and faulty engines. Twice, I have myself had the joy of traveling in a bus that took forever to get to the other side of the flyover. The punctuality of the service is nothing to write home about. But shutting down the service is no solution.

Here are a few points for improvement, from the perspective of a commuter:

11. The service timings should be revised after a careful study of traffic patterns as well as commuter behavior and the buses should ply from South Mumbai to suburbs and vice versa during these times. e.g.  if you check the BEST site, some of the AC buses, like AC2, don’t operate from suburbs to South Mumbai in the evenings. I wonder what logic BEST has applied for this, if any.

22. There is no reason to ply these buses on Worli-Bandra sea link. Take example of AC-70. After Kherwadi, it takes the sea link and misses out on commuters going to Mahim, Sitala Devi, City Light, Shivaji Park & Prabhadevi.

33. I doubt if any express service is needed on the AC route (e.g. AC 70)

44. Put up the bus number in neon signs at the front and back. The way things are now, commuters have to run to the front of the bus to squint at the number that is hand-written on the lower left side of the wind-shield. Sometimes they run after the bus only to realize that it isn’t the one that they want to take.

And while the BEST is at it, it can do something more to make sure that more people travel by bus:

11. Modify the roofs of all the East-facing bus stops so that they shelter people from the morning glare, unless the BEST wants its customers to go blind.

22. Revamp the seating arrangement at the bus-stops such that old people and children can sit there comfortably while waiting for the bus. There is no need to worry that if bus stops are made cozy, people will come to stay there.

33.  Put up sign-boards depicting the entire route for the buses that halt at the stop so that people can figure out which bus they need to take. It’s not often that you find good Samaritans around who will tell you exactly which bus goes to Haji Ali or Andheri.

If you look at the long stretch of the vehicles waiting at any signal during the rush hour, it becomes very clear that what this city needs is not more cars or cabs or rickshaws – it needs better means of mass transport. For those of us who aren’t fans of local trains, mega blocks and broken pantographs, there should be options that are safe, clean, reasonably fast, reliable and timely.  

I don’t think that’s a lot to ask for.