My eyeballs literally almost popped out when I came across this website offering ‘Slum tourism’ to westerners. This explains the recent phenomena of a hell lot of western celebrities making a beeline to explore, out of all the places, Indian slums. The website claimed that this ‘concept’ is picking up really well among westerners who want to explore the ‘Real India’. Oh God, kill me please! Somebody tell them, there is no Real India. There is just Dual India.

Btw, this is completely besides the point, but I secretly blame Slumdog <beep> millionaire for this day. A lot of critics and people on IMDB described this godforsaken movie as the, wait for it..Feel good movie of the Decade. I mean, seriously? The one perception which takes the cake is ‘Indians are poor but happy people’. Really! What are you? A sadist?

Let me not digress any further and make a serious point. Look at the picture below of Hooverville, Seattle and the world’s favourite slums (blah!), Dharavi, Mumbai:

For people who came in late, this is America during the 1930-40’s Great Depression. After President Roosevelt launched a series of programs aptly named ‘New Deal’ and the feeling of ‘regime certainty’ came back, America gradually came out of its problems. See, I just summed it up very conveniently in 2-3 lines, but of course it took years of monumental efforts from the government as well as the people to come of it. Google it later to know how, when, why, what etc. I have exceeded the word limit given to me already. 😐

Blame my eternal optimism, but from a layman’s point of view, what I really want to take away from these two pictures is: Things can become OK. Stealing/twisting Modi’s favourite quote. Acche din aa sakte hain.It will clearly take us years to get things right in our country and then another couple of years to get the perception of ‘India is a dirty shithole’ out of the world’s mind.

So why don’t we start today and report issues on www.ChangeBhai.in and contribute in our own small way to make India a better place to live. Unless, of course, we are comfortable with being a prime ‘slum tourism’ destination for the world.

Guys, we have decided that we have had enough of serious blogs for now. Amidst all the hard work and toil happening at ChangeBhai, we believe we should keep a check on our sense of humour as well. So, here we go.

Check out our first series of Believe it or I-dont-care-if-you-dont facts around one of the most popular issues handled by ChangeBhai i.e Potholes.

1. Pothole Speed Breakers:

Apparently, these fake pothole stickers are used in Canada to deter people from speeding. No prizes for guessing why we don’t need these back in India. Hah!

2. Pothole Utility

3. Pothole Art

4. Chilling Out Zones

@Authorities in India: Don’t be surprised if we start using these techniques to embarrass you. Not joking.

“Greatest show on earth begins today” screams the headline in today’s TOI. All of you would agree with the fact that the buzz around the impending elections in our country this time is utterly deafening. As citizens of the largest democracy on earth, we mostly associate election time with something exciting, something to look forward to. A welcome change of guard. A new beginning.

But, alas, under this whole media blitzkrieg, we could have never imagined the fact that the government machinery literally comes to a standstill around the election time.  Let me back my point with a live example from ChangeBhai’s database. Look at this Issue#A0269, “Road dug but not filled properly” uploaded by a Mumbai user and do read the comments uploaded by our back end team to get the context.

Click here to go to Issue#A0269, “Road dug but not filled properly”

It appears that, out of the 5 road engineers handling this area, 4 have been placed on election duty. The ‘helpless’ Head of the road department of this area has been requesting us to understand his situation. He, by the way, is on election duty himself from morning till 3 in the afternoon and they are supposed to keep their mobile phones off during this time.

It is insane how the Municipal Corporation employees could be stalled from discharging their regular functions in the name of elections. They are not in a position to carry out even the most basic function like the emergency maintenance work. We suggest that the over enthusiastic Legal luminaries as well as the Election Commission should find a solution to the problem of our government machinery being rendered almost dysfunctional at this time.

It would not be wrong to conclude that MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) is in an absolute state of limbo at the moment. Sad but true. Having said that, we, at ChangeBhai are not going to get bogged down with this and have doubled our follow up frequency owing to the elections. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”

We, at ChangeBhai strongly and emphatically recommend that this particular Law ‘Prevention of cruelty to animals act. 1960’  be added to the list of ‘The Most Ridiculous And Outdated Animal Laws in the world’. It is so incredibly vague in today’s context that we had to literally pinch ourselves when somebody sent it to us and told us politely why Issue# A0260 on ChangeBhai pertaining to ‘Cruelty to Caged Birds’ cannot be resolved.

We were in touch with a senior Animal Welfare Officer to get this issue resolved. Fantastic guy, but of course, as helpless as the user who reported the issue. He patiently explained to us that the law which pertains to this issue is so archaic and outdated that the police as well as the courts refuse to entertain such issues. There have been a lot of unsuccessful attempts, he told us.

Getting back to the ‘so called facts’. Apparently, Chaper III, Point 11(e) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. 1960 says:

“Treating animals cruelly

: keeps or confines any animal in any cage or other receptacle which does not measure sufficiently in height, length and breadth to permit the animal a reasonable opportunity for movement;”

Now, the problem is the word ‘SUFFICIENTLY’. The animal abusers get away with it by arguing that the enclosure in which they have put the animal/bird is ‘sufficient’. In our case, the pet shop owner can very conveniently say that he thinks putting 15 birds in a 2 feet * 1 feet enclosure is more than sufficient. Clearly, nobody bothered to define the word ‘Sufficient’ way back in 1960. I don’t really blame the guys completely as at that time there were no organized ‘Pet Shops’ selling birds in cages.

The Animal Welfare Officer also informed us that ex-minister Jairam Ramesh tried to do something about it and he conceptualised something known as The Animal Welfare Act,2011 and the Pet Shop Rules,2010. These legislations intended to replace the existing Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, were to provide for enhanced penalties and clearer definitions of animal abuse.

No prizes for guessing but no, nothing happened after that. And here we are, determined to get this issue closed. We urge all of you to help us spread the word and share it with people you know.

 Psst…Next time when you see birds in a small cage please bug the store owner so that he knows that we, the Urban Indians are NOT OK with it.

We, at ChangeBhai understand the importance of reaching the citizens when they are ‘On The Go’.

Kudos to our partner Adcraft Outdoor Media in helping us create awareness about ChangeBhai through outdoor advertising! We can’t thank you enough for your support in launching the bus campaign in Maharashtra.

Psst…Do share pictures of these buses with ChangeBhai messages if you happen to spot them on the road or at signals. Email them to us at now_or_abhi@changebhai.in and win interesting ChangeBhai merchandise!

They say, Enthusiasm, like measles, mumps and the common cold, is highly contagious. We got to experience this first-hand during one of our ground engagement sessions at ISB&M College, Pune.  As part of our Social Impact workshop, we gave the participants 10 minutes time to prepare a skit on the topic ‘What would they do if they were given the power to bring about a change for a day?’.  They were required to keep the issues handled by ChangeBhai as the underlying theme of their skits.

Without wasting a minute, the students formed huddles to discuss their skits. And boy!, what an output!! Each group presented a unique concept. The execution was fantastic.  The performances were stellar.  Some of them performed so well that we forgot for a moment that we were in a management institute. These youngsters conceptualized and executed their skits professionally.  They addressed a variety of issues ranging from child labour to garbage dumps to animal cruelty.

Thank you ISB&M for inviting us to your campus. We need more active institutions like yours to spread the word!