Two by two, feet of blue
After visiting an ATM in Bombay several weeks ago, I was counting out my bills and stepped into the curved basin of an open drain:
The drain had just been built to handle monsoon runoff. In honor of the occasion, my ankle bowed outward with a sharp pain. Six clucking watchmen surrounded me, highly sympathetic and totally useless. A dry cleaner hustled out and offered me a bottle of water. Since he has front-row tickets to what must be a weekly show, it was only sporting.
In the next weeks, I noticed several other people hobbling around, some with ankles in plaster. According to Mid-Day, I am not alone:
Last week my father entered a state level competition. The competition was basically a contest between who could drop my father to the floor first. The contestants were an unevenly sloped gutter, and my 35-kg German Shepherd, [and] ultimately the gutter won. As my father hit the floor you could hear an audible groan. [Link - thanks, Bombay Addict]
One of the striking differences between Bombay and the U.S. is the vastly different standards of public safety — stairways inside stores and beach promenades above sharp rocks often lack handrails. That’s partly because of cost in a developing country, partly because the courts are so slow that litigation isn’t an effective exception handler:
There’s little regulation by private tort, which is the exception handler, the leading edge of the legal system, because the courts take 30 years to resolve cases. So you see exposed wires hanging from strip mall ceilings, parking lots using barbed wire at toddler level and outdoor barbers using straight razors. [Link]
Things happen in streaks, patterns erupt and sublimate away. This month at the cafés I saw twisted ankles — and albinos. Those without melanin kept floating through the hood. There must be a reason. I’ll probably stumble into it someday.
on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006, 6:19 pm in Bombay, Health › 
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Nilgiri Hostel in IIT Delhi had a dhobi room and to get to it you either went around a U-shaped corridor, or took the shortcut by leaping over the flower bed and walking across the lawn. One day the maintainence guys put up barbed wire to discourage students from jumping over the flower-bed. My room-mate had to drop off his laundry that evening, and didn’t notice the newly erected fence in the darkness. He took the customary leap over the flower bed and smacked into the barbed wire, and bounced right back. Ouch. He had a couple of serious cuts on his legs. However, the attitude wasn’t “who should I sue?”, more like, “lesson learned”.
Was that Cyrus Broacha in Mid-day or Mumbai Mirror ?
You’re right, it was Mid-Day, thanks. Don’t remember the columnist.
Whacko MTV VJ Cyrus Broacha. Here’s the link.
Thanks. Hope your ankle’s better.
Take care Manish, hope your ankle is ok…
Roads in india are scary and so bumpy and even some streets without traffic signals in cities like hyderabad are so hard to cross, its really a skill to cross the streets in india, driving in india is a nightmare for me..