SETTING ASIDE PRIVACY

In Dadar, at the heart of the city, stands a 73-year-old building where privacy is unheard of.

 Walk through its corridors and you notice wide open doors; a man sleeping next to the stairs on the second floor landing, men sitting in the passageway playing cards; women making garlands in the same dimly-lit passage. And all the while, these people barely give you a second, suspicious glance. Inspite of you being a complete stranger and it being midnight.

 The paucity of space in the one room-kitchen houses of this building means that the passages outside the houses have become part of the house for these families that have lived here for over 2 generations. And while the passages serve as the living room, the terrace becomes the common bedroom. For, every night the families of this building sleep side by side on the terrace, their places marked by an unwritten code, a thin sheet of cloth being the mattress and the starlit sky acting as a ceiling.

 And yes. Despite the wide ajar doors, despite people sleeping on the terrace together – voyeurism and perversion find no place in their ethos. Despite men and women of all ages, from too many families sleeping on the same bare floor under the same ‘roof’. Hasn’t any untoward incident ever happened, I ask. ‘Never,’ says my friend who’s lived there all his life, surprised at the question.

 No wonder then, this is one of those rare buildings in Mumbai where neighbour-phobia has been firmly weeded out.

A TEETOTALLER’S TALE

ON the second day of that wretched three day dry spell imposed on the state due to the Ayodhya verdict, a tiny bar at Nariman Point opens its door covertly to customers. But with a catch. The tables in the bar are back to their positions but the seats aren’t. The few customers present when I and a few colleagues reach there aren’t sitting. They stand.

The logic, as a senior colleague explains, is simple. ‘The drinks finish faster when you’re standing,’ he says smiling. And the faster they finish their drinks, the better. I wouldn’t argue with the logic. Not when the Govt imposes a three day dry period as a ‘preventive measure’. You know, because sober people (and the people who stock up alcohol for dry days at home) don’t riot. OR maybe I’ve had one Sprite too many.

COMMONSENSE AND COMMONWEALTH DON’T GO HAND IN HAND

Somewhere in August, when news reports of  toilet paper costing Rs. 3575 a roll and rented treadmills costing Rs. 9 lakh a piece started playing out on TV screens most Indians probably said to themselves ‘All politicians are corrupt’.

On August 31, when India missed the 4^th deadline for the completion of the stadiums, the stock response used was ‘We are like this only’.

In the month that followed, hell broke loose. A terrorist attack, bridge collapse and a botched Games anthem later, the common man decided to change the channel muttering to himself ‘The media are like this only. One negative issue and they sensationalise it for a month.’

A week later when he switched on the channel again there was some firang on his TV, obviously someone important, but he was criticizing the way India was handling the Games (Read questioning India’s capability to host an international event). This inclusion of foreign hand into the picture provoked knee jerk patriotism like the country had never seen before. It was Us v/s Them now. ‘India’s pride was at stake’ he thundered on whatever social networking site he was active on. E-mails were composed, letters were written to editors of newspapers. Some smart ass even used sanitized pictures of the CWG stadiums to prove that the media was ‘wrong!’ and posted them on Facebook along with snapshots of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s speech to the nation asking to be positive yada yada… ‘India’s pride is at stake’, the common man urged to whoever would listen. ‘Let’s make this a success. Let’s shut those open moths!’ 

An eternal optimist was created that day — one living in a cocoon with walls made of leakproof denial ad patriotism. And lo! Things started seeming rosy again.

The media, probably sensing a change in the mood, decided to focus on the positives. One dark-circled news anchor asked the nation if it was time to concentrate on the athletes. The Games venues were declared fantastic. Not much was said about Indian athletes being forced to practice elsewhere thereby reducing the ‘home advantage’.

One media channel, however, refused to let go. ‘The Games are spoiling India’s image’ was the plot. ‘Should India CANCEL the Games’ they wondered aloud in a bid to stand out. Two hyperventilating ‘experts’ made sure they did. The fact that canceling the Games would permanently dent the image of the nation was conveniently ignored. So was the fact that India would have to pay a hefty fine.

The foreign athletes still complained about trivial issues like nagging wives. But Lalit Bhanot shut them up with something about subjectivity of hygiene.

Then came the moment every Indian worth his lacto-calamined skin would be proud of. THE OPENING CEREMONY. Many of them saw it. Most of them loved it. All of them talked about it.

The smug patriot claimed victory by the virtue of the country hosting a successful Opening Ceremony. The war had ended. Pride had been salvaged. And then, probably too tired due to over exerting his patriotism, he went on a vacation. Probably spent Rs. 200 to see Rajnikant in Robot running faster than bullets or shooting ten guns at a time or other escapist stuff like. Or maybe saw (gulp!) Anjana Anjani, or Khichdi.

Amid all this, no one noticed the athlete. No one noticed Anisa Sayyed who created a CWG record in front of half-empty stands at the Karni Singh shooting range. It doesn’t matter if her middle class family mortgaged ornaments to keep her in the sport. It doesn’t matter that every pellet she shot for the past 5 years cost Rs. 22.

These athletes who are medal winners one day are being relegated to mere statistics the next day itself. A statistic for the greedy politician to pass off as a personal achievement. ‘I told you this will be the Best Games Ever.’ A statistic for the smug optimist to feel proud about. After all, ‘we won 60 medals this year’ (hopefully). So what if both won’t remember most of the medal winner’s names in about a week.

The stadiums were half empty. No one bothered with DD Sports. Or if they did, they probably changed channels wondering, ‘Why isn’t cricket included in CWG?’

And what happens to the athlete? Well, he probably goes back to his/her day job as a railway clerk. Or if you are Anisa Sayyed, who’s won two gold medals by now, you’d look for a new job because railways didn’t let you transfer to Delhi to practice shooting and had to quit. Home ground advantage, anyone? National pride?

Probably in a year or two, the athlete would be disillusioned and will quit for greener pastures like MBA (remember Viren Rasquinha?). When that happens, what happens to national pride, eh?

‘Arre yaar gimme a break. I didn’t watch any sport but the Games were successful na!’

Yes. Half empty stadiums and Games were successful. Or as Kalmadi puts it ‘World Class’. Go figure.

We should try for the Olympics now. So that we can again remodel the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at a cost of RS. 961 crores and have another splendid opening ceremony there. ‘We are like this only’. Why?