Living in the city, one comes across corruption in everyday life. People who earns thousands of rupees a month shy away from paying a 500 Rs fine for an offence they committed. They bribe their way out. I count myself in the guilty too. However everytime we discuss corruption, we always blame the guys who take the money.

Lets take the cops for example. We all bribe our way out. And then we compare stories about how cops are so honest in the US and they never take bribes….blah blah….

However one needs to stop and look at the reasons the cops are forced to accept bribes.

We pay them peanuts.

These are some statistics I received in an email.

Here’s what our policemen earn:

• Police constable: Rs6,000-Rs8,000 with an increment of Rs75.
• Senior constable: Rs8,500-Rs10,000 with an increment of Rs100.
• Police hawaldar: Rs10200-12000 with an increment of Rs100
• Police sub-inspector: Rs15,000Rs16,000 with an increment of Rs175

The salary that an average private sector employee draws after three years into service is as much as that of an Assistant Commissioner of Police with an annual increment that is 20 times more.

Is that correct. These guys potentially go to work everyday risking their lives. And they get paid practically nothing.

Think about it.

This seems to me a gimmick but nevertheless ! Microsoft is starting an initiative that will provide unique email IDs for free. These email IDs shall be on domains that are location or topic centric. The first one to start is www.lokhandwalarocks.com

This initiative is being flagged off by unveiling an email id for the residents of Lokhandwala in Andheri, Mumbai called www.lokhandwalarocks.com. This is Microsoft’s first step towards customizing email for consumers in India.

“Email needs to connect with the user in a deeper way and this will be possible with custom domain ids powered by Windows Live Hotmail. MSN India believes that there is a need to move email from just a being a service to becoming an extension of a consumer’s personality and identity. We aim to deliver an email id for every kind of Indian which truly reflects their identity and personality. This is our way of offering more from one’s email,” said Jaspreet Bindra, Country Head, MSN India and Windows Live. [link]

Now as to why I think this is a gimmick. If you get an email ID there, you need to go their website to check email. And voila they have a live audience for their crappy ads. In today’s day and age, one can register their own domain for chump change and then use services like Google mail to actually send and receive emails from their own domain.

Why would someone want to then sign on with a lokhandwala domain.

When are they coming out with www.andheritrafficjammed.com or www.juhubeachstinks.com

Four guys entered Popular Car Dealers and requested a test drive on a certain car

They zeroed in on a Maruti Zen car, and requested for a test drive. Deepak, an employee, escorted them. “They made Deepak take a long route,” says Karan Bir Singh, the manager of the store, “and forced him to drive on to the highway while threatening him with a gun.” [link]

As much as I think this is crazy, I can’t stop laughing. These things happen in hindi movies. What I wonder is, do movies make people do this or are movies a reflection of what happens in real life.

Go figure !!

This is the headline of a very interesting article about school admissions and young toddlers.

Getting admission to the top schools in the city has become a nightmare for parents. There are horror stories galore about how parents need to get on the list the day the kid is born. Then there are interviews not only for the kids but also for the parents. I even know of a case where the kid cleared the interview at a high flying school but the parents ducked. That’s one pissed kid when he grows up and learns exactly what happened.

So in this scenario Pujit Aggarwal a local developer took a unique route.

This is possibly what every father in Mumbai who has been through the torture of securing admission for his child in a decent school would dream of doing. Real estate magnate Pujit Aggarwal, whose daughter appeared for a series of interviews at three of the city’s top schools two years back without any success, is all set to take over one of his own. Aggarwal, who owns Orbit Constructions, is signing a deal with the trustees of The New Era School on Altamount Road in south Mumbai that will give him a seat on the school’s management body and a say in its affairs.[link]

Well they say money can buy everything. This just proves the adage true.

Do you have any funny admission stories ? If so, please share them here.

What goes in must come out. How true this is in the case of garbage and the Arabian Sea. We throw in garbage into the sea and it sorts it and throws the plastic back at us.

Below is a picture of Versova Beach as seen in today’s DNA.

The amount of garbage gathering on the shore is by no means small. Faulting the BMC alone for this might be unfair. In fact, garbage receptacles are installed on the beach and before the last new moon day, the beach was rea sonably clean. The onus rests on the city for poor garbage disposal systems and the citizens for dispos ing garbage irresponsibly.

However, the filth didn’t de ter visitors. Couples may have had to scout out a new location, but soccer enthusiasts were back, practising their kicks and head butts amidst the pile of trash.

Even Nature is reacting angrily to us crazy humans. When will we learn ?

* Nothing comes for Free, so please remember the following:

1. As the invite says, we need for you to confirm your attendance to us via email.

2. You can come if you’re a veteran blogger / a new blogger / a blog reader / a blog commentator / a blog stalker (though we will kill you) or just a friend of a blogger (though I know most of us have few of these).

3. Entrance is @ Rs. 150/- per head and covers the entrées and NOT booze.

and last and most importantly…..

4. DO SPREAD THE WORD.

Believe me, this is going to be one heck of a meet you don’t wanna miss.

Image copyrights DNA

Bombay may be a long way away from ever getting its own Formula 1 race track but that has not stopped the citizens from becoming race car drivers themselves. And in the process have cost some residents with their lives. This is outrageous.

Palm Beach Road in New Mumbai is one such death trap speedway

As per figures available with the Traffic Police till April, 12 people were killed in 10 fatal mishaps. Twelve cases of serious accidents were registered which left 15 injured, while three minor mishaps were reported which left six injured. Of the accidents registered, 10 were hit and run cases.

Of these three were fatal, six were serious and in one case no one was injured.

The last year witnessed 48 accidents, of which 14 were fatal and left a similar number of people dead. There were 30 serious mishaps which left 56 injured, four mishaps were minor in which 5 people were injured.

The lack of staff and personnel does not allow for more enforcement by radar guns etc. I think that is not an excuse. If they hire more personnel and collect more fines, the salaries of the new hires can be covered.

I personally don’t think that jacking up fines should be the method of deterring people from committing stupid acts, but in this case there seems to me no other resort.

And, if you kill someone in an accident, you should not get bail. Period.

Alistair Pereira, are you listening ??

If you are a bibliophile or just love to see old books, texts and manuscripts, drop everything you are doing and head to The Asiatic Library at Horniman Circle.

From now till the first week of June, you can feast your eyes on some of the rarest books in the library’s collection.

15 of these rare volumes (some of which are more than 500 years old) in languages like Greek, Latin and Italian that are on display at the Asiatic Library till the first week of June. Among the tomes that are being exhibited, is ‘Greek Gram mar of Constantine Lascares’ printed in 1495. “Aldus Manutius, who is con sidered to be the greatest printer/publisher of his time, began printing books in 1495. This book is the very first title printed by him and is an excellent example of type and layout,” says Virchand Dharamsey, the curator of the exhibition.

The books, according to Dharmsey, reveal a fascinating history through their intricate illustrations, texts and lettering. “They also give us insights into history by allowing us to study different types of literature and poetry,” he adds. There is also a photographic exhibit section on early printed books including ‘History of Maffei’ (printed in 1590), which is one of the first books in which Bombay gets a mention along with historical ” The idea behind this exhibition is to draw the attention of book lovers and scholars towards the vast treasure of books that need special care.” [link]

If you have been there already, do drop in a line in the comments section letting us know your opinion and experience.

This is not strictly a Bombay post, but its about Pune, which does not have its own metblogs page and hence comes under our gambit.

Bipin Pote, a resident of Pune booked an apartment for his family with Yash Developers of Pune. After paying a deposit, things turned southwards very quickly when the developers. They played hookey and finally terminated the transaction and refused to refund the amount.

I lost all my hopes and went to the builders office to collect back my booking amount of Rs. 51,000/-. The builder told that I had to collect the cheque within 15 days of cancellation of booking [link]

Of course the developer is only one level higher than the politician in the “Crooks” food pyramid and hence the regular threatening starts.

The builder started abusing and threatening me. I lost both the flat as well as my booking amount of Rs. 51,000/-. I was very angry with the builder .

While Bipin awaits the Consumer Court’s decisions a year and a half has passed since he made the initial payment. With Mumbai experiencing an unprecedented construcion boom, it wouldnt surprise me if there were more Bipins all around.

By blogging about it, Bipin has found the easiest medium to express what’s happening. If you think that this is worth the cause, blog about it, write about it, email friends and spread the word. Maybe some MSM reads and picks up the story and brings justice to this case.

It is a well known fact that the city politicians are crooks. Of varying degrees, crooks nevertheless. However it takes a special politician to first formulate rules and then go about systematically breaking them. Seems that their memory is too short, or they think the public wont remember and hence not react.

The new Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak had in his past role as principal secretary set limits to the kinds of cars government employees can use. However now that he is a municipal commissioner

he is using the car - Honda City VTEC, which he should not be using as it costs much more than the limit prescribed for the IAS officer of the rank of principal secretary. Same is the case of car that BMC Mayor Shubha Raul is using.[link]

Wouldn’t our city and country be a better place if we could only have better politicians. But as someone said, the people get the government they deserve. So well !!