Letter to fellow Mumbaikars!

Dear Mumbaikars,

Hello fellow citizens, how are you doing? Not so great, I know! BEST is on strike, well apparently they say,” We are not on strike, the workers choose not to show up on work!”; I don’t know the exact difference but, either way not the best of the news to wake up to. We Mumbaikars live with simple plans and a normal day to day life. Wake up in the morning, go to work/school/college, come back home, spent some time chilling out and then get back to sleep. Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat.

The public transport provided by our corporation plays an important role in our daily routine. May it be the local trains, or may it be the BEST buses, we can’t survive without them. The day when the locals stop functioning, it’s hell on earth in Mumbai. Till today, I thought the BEST buses were of less importance, but they are as important as the local trains. They go on strike and I take an unofficial holiday from college.

Every organization which provides public transport had been on strike before, from rickshaws to locals and from cabs to buses, everyone called it off for some reason or the other. The difference being, we were aware of it being happening before hand, unlike today. Today, we got doomed. It’s April fool’s day and the beginning of the financial year and we are trolled. They decided to stand for themselves against the Canadian work format and we are screwed for nothing. Like each time, nobody gives a damn about the consequences we will have to face. Bankers, students who are giving their final exams, the ones who have a job interview, the ones running late for an important meeting and many others face the wrath of all this without any reason.

Within all this mess, there comes a ray of hope, the Mumbaikars, well known for their ‘never back down’ spirit, stood up again. After deciding not to go to college, I visited the microblogging heartthrob website of this city, ‘Twitter!’ While going through it, I discovered this thing trending in Mumbai, “#LetsShareCommute”; for a second, I was confused, I thought it might be a twitter contest or something but after reading the tweets, I figured out what it exactly is and was amazed by it.

#LetsShareCommute was trending because fellow Mumbaikars were tweeting their route of transport and the mode of transport with the number of seats available in their vehicle so that they could share it with someone on the way to the same destination. Not only the people taking public transports and the people involved in car-pooling regularly but the people from upper middle-class who own a car were tweeting about it.  The one who came up with that idea, should be praised by all possible means. It was like taking the concept of car-pooling to a whole new level. We are aware of shared cabs and car-pooling, today they combined both these concepts using a social networking website.

This is the thing we should really be proud about. We, the Mumbaikars unite like it’s a fight for independence whenever a problem arises. May it be the 26^th July floods or may it be the 9/11 attacks, we stand united. We whine, moan and get pissed with the politicians and their wrong doings, but when it comes to helping our fellow citizens, we do not wait for them to help us, no, we get out there and do it ourselves. And for this very reason, I feel safe and at home, no matter in which part of the city I am. People are eager to help you out, wherever you are.

This ‘never back down’ spirit of ours is the real jewel of Mumbai and it will be cherished forever. Keep doing the good work and choose the right people to rule you, so that you will face less problems, not that we can’t face them, but ‘Prevention is always better than cure!’

Take care. Please vote. Implement your right.

Yours Faithfully,

A Proud Mumbaikar.



.S: The initiative was carried out by a Twitter handle @TrafflineMUM. This guys are doing a wonderful job by updating us about the traffic in Mumbai. Do follow them.