Driving in the City....

Every person you meet in Mumbai is talking about this bridge which will be the future famous landmark of Mumbai. The Bandra-Worli sea link looks very attractive with its long 500 meters cables supporting the bridge….an intelligent bridge with state-of-the-art-system for traffic monitoring, surveillance, information and guidance, instrumentation, emergency support, etc.

Hopefully it will ease the traffic, which at present is a real nightmare, with more than 40 signals on its route, it takes us more that thirty five minutes to reach Worli from Bandra. With this bridge, we can reach Worli in just seven minutes! (That is if there is no traffic congestion at all)



31st May is the day, when people might go for a drive…….through this 8-lane bridge, which has a modern toll plaza of 16 lanes with automated toll collection system.

I am waiting too….*wink, wink*

Don’t visit us during rainy season please…….

Remember this?

Don’t visit us during rainy season please…….although Mumbaikars are taking no chances this year……

A valuable input from BMC is being circulated for your information.

Floods in Mumbai are attributable to simultaneous occurrence of rainfall and high tides. If, the rainfall is in excess of 200 mm in a day (24 hrs), floods can occur anytime irrespective of tides. However, if there is moderate rainfall but the tide is in excess of 4.50 meters at the same time, the city of Mumbai is sure to get flooded.

Accordingly, heavy floods are anticipated on the following days in Mumbai, if there is excessive rainfall at the time of high tides, since the tides are extremely high on these days: -

Date Day Time Height of Tide (Meters)
24 June 2009 Wednesday 1:41 PM 4.95
25 June 2009 Thursday 2:24 PM 4.97
23 July 2009 Thursday 1:23 PM 5.01
24 July 2009 Friday 2:03 PM 5.05
25 July 2009 Saturday 2:43 PM 4.94

BMC has already planned to keep the schools closed on 24 July 2009 since the tide level is record high of last 100 years on this day.

Mumbaites are, therefore, requested to cooperate with the administration by restricting their movements and certainly not to take their vehicles out on the roads these days.

There are speculations about very high waves on 22 July 2009 due to solar eclipse.
Public should, therefore, keep away from the beaches that day.

Also, please advise your friends and relatives outside Mumbai not to plan a trip to Mumbai around these days.

Besides this we have to watch out for open manholes and inform the BMC. It would help if we could discourage the use of plastic bags, and please help keep Mumbai city clean.

On the days like these, reading a thick book might help……..

Things to prove that we're Mumbaite......

1. We say 'town ' and expect everyone to know that this means south of Churchgate.

2 We speak in a dialect of Hindi called 'Bambaiya Hindi', which only Bombayites can understand.. and it is called Hinglish. If you irritate someone, he will say "hey. don't do my bheja fry, ok!" and did you know that chuddy buddy is a childhood friend, and time pass is something that is not necessarily constructive. samja kya?

3. We have door with more than three locks and we have atleast four sets of keys. and one set of keys is always with the neighbour who is always trust-worthy.

4. We try to fit Rs 500 worth of groceries in one paper bag.

5. Train timings ( 9.27 , 10.49 etc) are really important events of life.

6. We spend more time each month traveling than at home.

7. We can manage in 8' x 10' clustered room and it is called a living room...

8.. We're paying Rs 10,000 for a 1 room flat, the size of walk-in closet and we think it's a 'steal.'

9. We have different sets of friend: school friends, college friends, neighborhood friends, office friends and yes, train friends, a species unique only in Mumbai .

10.. Cabbies and bus conductors think we are from Mars if we call the roads by their Indian name, they are more familiar with Warden Road, Peddar  Road, Altamount Road .

11... Stock market quotes are the only other thing* besides cricket which we follow passionately.

12. The first thing that we read in the Times of India is the ' Bombay Times' supplement.

13. We take fashion seriously. We're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to us.

14. There are hookers, beggars and the homeless at every signal and they keep us entertianed till the light turns green.

15. We compare Bombay to New York 's Manhattan instead of any other cities of India .

16. The most frequently used part of our car is the horn.

17. We insist on calling CST as VT, and Sahar and Santacruz airports instead of Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport .

18. We consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

19. Our idea of personal space is no one actually standing on our toes.

20.. Being truly alone makes us nervous.

21. We love wading through knee deep mucky water in the monsoons, and actually call it ''romantic'.

22. Only in Mumbai, we can treat our friends Chinese Dosa and Jain Chicken