Is this Amchi Mumbai??

Well one would aspire to hear the rocking line of Munna Bhai MBBS with Vidya Balan screaming in her sweet voice, saying "Gooooddd mmoorrrnning Mumbai".. every day and we would step out with a smile on our face and a will to have a fantastic day...
Sounds good, doesn't it ??
Every morning, i wake up, with a will to have a fantastic day (ofcourse) and sometimes even have one... But these fantastic days, are one of those when i leave either very late for work or happen to work on a weekend. You wondering why ?? Have a look at the pic posted and take a guess 'Which is MY hand!!' [Now your wondering "What connection to travel and my hand"]
Its the pic of a Virar local, bound for Churchgate (a First class compartment...i think it must have been 9:30am) .. All you can see is hands, hands and hands .... different colours, sizes and ofcourse with different things in them. Imagine all those people standing inside, there " isin't enough space for hands... the human body is still bigger in size" .
Even animals when loaded in trucks, still have space for themselves !! [i would summon Maneka Gandhi here]
When the government and railways boast about making mega profits, providing services for the common man blah blah blah... Do they mean 'Rinsing the common man in an over crowded train and selling his blood and ofcourse providing services to make this rinsing less painful' ??
I wish Maneka Gandhi and Laloo Prasad Yadav traveled in this train sometime, in such a state...
Laloo's buttery cheeks would get squeezed and sucked into his jaws, with his nose stuffed into someone's armpit and he would get off (at his destination ofcourse) smelling of others mehenat ka pasina, without his dhooti, which would be stuck somewhere in the gangway...
Maneka Gandhi on the other hand wouldn't be much better.... Gotten sqeezed,rinsed and battered she would go back her animals and say "You guys are much more lucky... You'll travel comfortably and then get slaughtered, whereas these Bombayites travel in pathetic conditions and still get slaughtered for our (politicians) sins".
Is this what these First or second class citizens pay such taxes for.... is this a morning that a mumbaite lives for, unless he believes that he should feel every human in the train, close to his chest, smell and mingle with his sweat, but still not ask his name!!
Sounds like hell, does it ?? infact worse that it.... Politicians call it 'Amchi mumbai', is this really mine or your own??

The Lazy Police

So, I see my self blogging week on week now...

This time around I have a story to tell!!

Being the Mumbaite I am, I was traveling back and caught one of the last trains, a Virar of course, which as usual had the last train kinda crowd, people with tired eyes, some alcohol friendly and some just late... all having a story to tell... some talking to their friends and some alone, thinking to themselves - "When will I reach back " (the local trains always have subjects, which would be a good study for psychologists)...
Anyway, I got a place to sit and was hearing a group of guys abusing the government (its the usual thing in these rickety trains, where one does not know what his plight would be)... but later one of them walked to the door and lit a cigarette, peering around, then called some friends to share the smoke and the conversation continued... I overheard them speak, it was about a cop (police man ofcourse), sprawled out on one of the seats opposite to the 8 seater...
It was a surprising sight, he seemed to be clueless about what was going on (no one is allowed to smoke in public transport) and probably was in the eleventh heaven, with a faint odour of Whisky and garlic surrounding him and occasionally scratching his crotch!! Opposite to him was another 'cop looking guy' sitting and was supposedly accompanying him, but chose to turn a deaf ear to the happenings around him...
Phew!!! This is our government, who we trust and vote for... No wonder they get bought off so easily for a few thousand or lakh rupees....

So your wondering what did I do there ?? The train was approaching my destination and I got off, but yes I got something with me, a pic of the moment (taken from my low end mobile phone) and a thought "Do we really need to work hard, slog our butt off, pay heavy taxes and take care of this sloppy government" can I truly and honestly say "Mera Bharat mahaan!!"

Why Eyes Wide Open ??

Ah... I write again...
So, I told some of my friends that I’ve started blogging and their reaction was "What!! You of all the people... BLOGGING", I smiled, nodded my head and sipping on a drink said "Yes".
They asked me the URL of my Blog, I told em "Guy-eyes-wide-open.blogspot.com"...
Blogspot.com needed no explanation and was understood instantly [knowing their geeky nature :)], but Guy-eyes-wide-open had its questions, so I explained
Guy - That is me, the Guy next door!! A simple human, living a simple life in this big City.
Eyes Wide Open - While living our everyday life in this city and traversing from point A to wherever and back, we see so much, hear so much and even though, we may not like what we see or hear, we still cannot change it, cos there's not much in our control. The next day the same old process is repeated again, but this time we live with Eyes Wide Open, to see more, to hear more and understand more, striving to change what we don't like to see.
They finally understood and we raised a toast to it. Hopefully, they would read my blog and start blogging sometime soon. I'm sure I would write stuff that is irrelevant (at times) to most people, but would make sense to those, who've been thru it.
Personally, I have been a bombayite, mumbaikar (these are the only two names, I like best for people, like me, who belong to the this city) and have seen soo much change in this city over the past few years. Some changes are really good and some so bad that it hurts!!!
How do we change this?? I don't have a concrete plan, but over time, I’m sure, it will develop... The media (print, TV, Internet) has soo much everyday, but how many of us actually post comments, thoughts that we as citizens, have!!
[My favourite sources for my kinda news are
Newspaper - Hindustan Times and Mid-Day.
TV Channel - Aaj Tak, Star News, Zee News.
Portals - www.rediff.com, www.mid-day.com, www.timesofindia.com and ofcourse www.hindustantimes.com :)]
Internet was the best thing to happen to this world and Blogging - Freedom of expression is just the beginning!!