Mumbai has been reeling under 15% water cuts that were imposed at the end of monsoons. For a long time residents had been complaining about how they couldnt get water at the top floors of their apartments or how the pressure was low. Its an open secret that there exists a powerful water mafia that has links to most political parties in the city. But ironically it is these same guys who come up with protests to show their 'concern' for the common man's problems. First the BMC's ruling Shiv Sena took up the issue, trying to distance itself from the bureaucracy and claiming that they did not support the administration's idea of increasing the water cut to 30% and the resolution was rejected. (The lake levels at the end of monsoons showed a deficiency of 25% which the administration cited as the reason for imposing further cuts). Then in classic Sena style activists went and ransacked the office of the hydraulic engineer....

November 2008 was a dull month as far as news was concerned. The week starting 24th seemed especially so. I was down with a bleeding infection in my leg, so finally on the 26th I decided to take the day off. It was such a lean day that another colleague also took an off and it didn't seem to matter. I was sleeping under the influence of medicines when a source alerted about some firing in Colaba. Oh another mafia thing this must be, I thought as I forwarded the information to office and went back to sleep. A few minutes later another source frantically called about some blast near Mazgaon. His voice was cracking with fear. As I scrambled to get more details, I felt a fear that this was going to be something ominous. Being from a small city, till now blasts and other mishaps were things I had only seen on TV. But suddenly it seemed that I...

If you are in Mumbai right now, you would see lots of posters of the late Pramod Mahajan on the roads. The posters have been put up in context of Mahajan's 60th birth anniversary. What hits you however is that Mahajan's party, the BJP, still has to rely on the past glory of the late leader to claim a stand in Maharashtra. This is indicative of the state of the party in the whole country. When it comes to a larger pan India appeal, the BJP has to rely on the now faded charisma of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is a party that has to still talk about the rousing speeches Vajpayee made, the Indo-Pak relationship under BJP rule, Pokhran, Kandahar and everything that happened in its five year rule or before that. But as for the last few years that it has been out of power, the party has little to say about making much of a difference in any national...

If you are in Mumbai right now, you would see lots of posters of the late Pramod Mahajan on the roads. The posters have been put up in context of Mahajan's 60th birth anniversary. What hits you however is that Mahajan's party the BJP still has to rely on the past glory of the late leader to claim a stand in Maharashtra. This is indicative of the state of the party in the whole country. When it comes to a larger pan India appeal, the BJP has to rely on the now faded charisma of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is a party that has to still talk about the rousing speeches Vajpayee made, the Indo-Pak relationship under BJP rule, Pokhran, Kandahar and everything that happened in its five year rule or before that. But as for the last few years that it has been out of power, the party has little to say about making much of a difference in any national...