Tag Archives: mumbai

Potholes in the sky?! Yes. Yes. Yes. Possible. Eee dekho tanik.

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Holy moly guacamole!! If you thought the title of this post was misleading, then you my friend, are so wrong. Mumbai has never and will never cease to surprise us. Check this snapshot from a CB user on twitter below:

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Source: ChangeBhai Twitter Account

What the eff is happening, eh, The B the M the C?! Roads ka chalo jabardasti samjhe hum ki tum bole traffic bahut hai n all that. But son! potholes on the skywalk!

If you remember our blog about the ChangeBhai issue# A0431 ‘Lights not functional on Skywalk ‘ from Mumbai, you would remember this location. *drum rolls* The great (greater than Akbar, the great) Andheri Skywalk. The phatichar-est skywalk to have ever graced this city.

Pehle iska light nahi jal raha tha because the meter approval was pending. That we got fixed.

Phir paani was tapkoo-ing from its roof. That somehow got fixed temporarily with some jugaad.

Phir vaapis lights stopped working. Ye chal kya raha hai bhai?

Then these potholes plus hawker menace & a leaking roof again.

(BHAGOOOOO …….BHOOOOOOTTTT! Kidding….but ho sakta hai. We have shakk.)

Accha, doosri baat..Google Andheri Skywalk and you will see such fancy pictures of it, you will be amazed. Aisa to yeh, suna hai, launch pe bhi nahi dikh raha tha . Check out these amazeballs pictures:

Source: photobucket
Image Courtesy: photobucket
Image Courtesy: bollywoodscout.com
Image Courtesy: bollywoodscout.com

If you want more fun in your life (duh!), then keep watching this space. We are thinking of making a mainstream movie on this issue. Andheri Skywalk ki Madhur Kahaniyan.

Anyway, bahut ho gaya rona. We will get this resolved, that’s for sure. And if you spot a similar issue around you, do report it on www.ChangeBhai.in.

Tata. Byebye.

 

Ek Chidiya Ne Band Karwaya Gutter Ka Dhakkan! Kya!?!

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Arre bhai… Sansani Vansani kuch nai. We, the poor ordinary mortals are getting deeply inspired by the Indian news channel hosts, who spew out criminally pretentious yet catchy dialogues, nineteen to the dozen to grab people’s attention.

The ‘Chidiya’ in question is the twitter logo. CHIDIYA = TWITTER. Matbal, an ‘open drain’ issue was resolved through twitter. Samjhe kya..Samjhe kya..

Raise a toast to the Ghatiya Logic pls. Karna padta hai yaar, interesting banane ke liye. :)

chidia-dhakkan

 

Anyways, toh short mein, kahaani kuch iss prakar hai….

A couple of days ago, there was this good Twitter Samaritan, who had been going all out trying to get a drain covered during the crazy Mumbai rains. He happened to tag ChangeBhai, after repeated attempts to get the incorrigible authorities’ attention went down the drain (pun intended). Refer to ChangeBhai Issue A0572, “Manhole Repair”

Our social media team sprung into action, got in touch with the operations team and had the issue taken up within minutes. A snapshot of a part of the twitter conversation as well as the issue image below, to inspire the rest of us to do the same:

user
Twitter conversation
Issue Image uploaded by the Twitter user
Issue Image uploaded by the Twitter user

Toh, bacchon…batao…. ‘Chalaak Chidiya’ kahaani ka moral-of-the-story kya hai.

Teacher…teacher….One should use social media for fun and keeping-in-touch, but kabhi kabaar aise acche kaam bhi kar lene chahiye.

(That chamcha kid in the school, though.)

Do tag us on social media if you feel any similar issue around you needs attention.

www.twitter.com/ChangeBhai

www.facebook.com/ChangeBhai

‘Ek Tha Lallan’ : Ek Fire hydrant ki Aatmakatha

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“Dear Municipal Commissioner Sahib,

Namaste.

My name is Lallan. I am a fire hydrant. I stay in Belapur area of Navi Mumbai. My life is over. How, you ask? Well, My parents have reported me as ‘MISSING’ at the local police station. Please tell them that am not ‘MISSING’. I am still alive,  but moving towards a slow death, being buried in my own grave.

When I was born, I was told that I am a hero, a hero who was born to save human lives in fire emergencies. I still remember the day I was placed here at my current location.

I was red in colour. Super shiny. Ready to take on the world. Fully alert to be in use, in case any emergency was to occur. *beams with pride*

Life was good. Of course, a minor glitch here and there but all good. A glitch like how, you wonder? Well, occasionally the neighborhood Tommy would come and take a leak on me. *facepalms* Children coming back from school would play around me. The local flower vendor Lata tai would hang her wares on me every weekend. But, that’s ok I guess. Part and parcel of being in an Indian public place.

But, one fine day the local administration decided to lay the long-tattered road in front of my pavement. I was jubilant. Thrilled that my surroundings were being beautified. But man, was I wrong!

The sleepy eyed road engineer messed up while taking the road measurements. He failed to even notice me. The contractor’s men came and poured tar on me a la Anarkali. :( And I thought I was a Hero. *sighs* Nobody loves me.

I wish I could have shouted for help. They should have put an alarm or some kind of a siren on me.

IMG_20150611_124904

So anyway, here I am. Most of my body is underground. I am now all black and totally useless. Useless even to Tommy who thinks am now too low for him.

Pls help me. If not for me, then at least for the sake of humans who reside nearby. They need me. *sobs uncontrollably*

Yours half-buriedly**,
Lallan Underground^
Near St. Josephs Church
CBD Belapur, Sector 8, Navi Mumbai

P.S. : Attaching pictures of my cousins from across the globe, courtesy their Facebook and Instagram accounts. *day dreams* ”

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If you manage to spot a ‘still living and healthy’ fire hydrant in your neighborhood, do upload a picture of it and tag us on facebook or twitter. If the fire hydrant is in a bad shape and is about to go ‘MISSING’ like me, do upload an issue on www.ChangeBhai.in under Civic category.

———————————-

**that’s not a real word btw.

^ Actual name changed to protect identity. Also, all characters in the story above are fictitious. Any similarity to a real person (under or above the ground) is purely coincidental.

Image courtesy:  architectureandbranding.wordpress.com,chicagoclout.com, agencythirtysixty.com in that order

Dustbins walking up to you?!! We knew this day would come.

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We remember writing a sarcastic piece last year on our collective inability to walk up to a dustbin and throw garbage in it. An excerpt from the article below:

Bins are not capable of walking up to you
(we are hopeful that with growing technological advancements such a day would come as well :) #IndiansNeedWalkingBins)

But boy!, little did we know that the Mumbai city administration was dead serious about the prospect of having dustbins walk up to you. This is why we say that contrary to popular perception, our administration is not that averse to all these fancy ideas.

Don’t believe it? Then read this..

BMC is planning to introduce Dustbin Robots all over the city. They have already installed one for a pilot study in Dadar.

Dustbin Robot in Mumbai!
Dustbin Robot in Mumbai!

The dustbin can travel 350 meters after being charged for four hours. It boasts of nine sensors and will be able to sense human presence . It can collect 80 kgs of trash in a single run.

Some people (like me ;)) would smirk at the idea and say “uth jaayegi ye ek raat mein hi“. The dustbin apparently has a three tier security system. f the dustbin is moved of the assigned area, it will shut down and an alarm will intimate authorities about its removal from the said zone. It doesn’t end there though as once the dustbin shuts down, text messages will be sent automatically to three emergency cellphones, informing them of its location. Whoaa!!

Now, of course, it doesn’t look as fancy as this Italian one called Dustbot below, but for Indian conditions it’s definitely a great start! What say you?

DustCart Robot in Italy, photo courtesy: alternativeconsumer.com
DustCart Robot in Italy, photo courtesy: alternativeconsumer.com

Till the time this robot comes to your city, do report all garbage related issues on www.ChangeBhai.in!

@BMC, tab tak puraani dustbins hi khaali kardo bhai. Check hundreds of issues similar to this latest one we received on ChangeBhai, Issue#A0563, “Garbage bin outside society gate”.

Ek Tha (ne) Lion.

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No, we are not referring to a potential sequel to the Salman Khan starrer movie Ek Tha Tiger. :)

If you remember,  there was this widely circulated video of a lion roaming on the roads of Thane around two months ago. Going by the number of bad road related issues being uploaded from Thane, we can only guess why the lion was roaming around Thane like it was on a vacation. Looking at the roads of Thane, it probably thought it was in his jungle and not in a city. lol.

Actual snapshot from the viral video
Actual snapshot from the viral video

Btw, thank you Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) for resolving issue#A0551 ‘Road in Bad Shape’ in record time for the first time ever. 15 days! Not bad considering your historical data. That too without bugging us for issue pictures from different angles & directions like these roads are in a remote Chambal valley village and not in your own city. Hmmm… think we will need drones to send the kind of pictures these municipal corporations sometimes ask for. Absurd.

So, ya, thank you TMC. You saved us some major energy and time as the user had never uploaded an image. Bach gaye!

@ChangeBhai users: Pls try and upload an image against your issue. Makes our job much easier.

Also, a shout out to the user sagarkanade for intimating us of the issue resolution as and when it was resolved by the authorities. We really appreciate active participation by the ChangeBhai users post uploading the issue.

Encouraging and timely mesgs from users such as sagarkanade (his comment under the issue copied below) keep us going. Really.

Sagarkanade            26 Feb 2015

———

Hi Team Changebhai,

The road problem seems to be solved . It has been re-layed with additional tar.The only concern that remains is the haphazard way rickshaw drivers stop in the middle of the road for passengers to get in.

But I would like to thank you for reporting the issue and also thanks the authorities who acted on this and got this resolved.

Thanks a ton and keep up the good work.

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Also, a big thank you to users like Shobhana Anil who have been patiently updating us regarding their issues via Facebook.

We request all our users to keep bugging us regarding the status of your issues. Doesn’t really matter if you issue is pending or gets resolved. We will ensure we pull up our socks and get to work on your issue if it has been pending from our side.

And ya, keep uploading new issues on www.ChangeBhai.in.

What exactly does ChangeBhai do?

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Hi Changemakers!

It gives us super duper immense pleasure to say that a lot of active citizens are using ChangeBhai to upload issues of their neighborhood. A lot of these users are from Mumbai (though we handle issues from all over India : metros, tier-1 & tier-2 cities. Buck up rest of India. Get your issues resolved. Give it a shot at least, we say :)).

PicMonkey Collage

Just wanted to share a few things about how we do what we do.

Firstly, a short note about us. We are a young team of active citizens who have launched this initiative to ‘assist’ the citizens in getting their issues resolved & are not liable to resolve any issues.

Unlike a lot of portals which tell the user to sign petitions or just upload an issue and spread the word around amongst their social media friends to create a buzz around it, we just do this one thing.

GET YOUR ISSUE FIXED. Period.

Ok, now…

Who should not upload issues on ChangeBhai?:

  1. If you have that keeda inside you to prove that ‘everyone and everything else around you wrong’
  2. If you have always nurtured an ambition to migrate to a phoren land just because you think ‘things can never change in India’
  3. If a careful and deep analysis of your social media posts shows that more than 70% of your posts fall under the category of ‘cribby’ or ‘deprecatory’
  4. If the first instinct you have when you come across somebody trying to change things around them is something like this, instead of trying it at least once.

                        Kya faltu velle hai ye.

                        Kuch nahi hoga inse

                       Main isse acchi website bana sakta(i) hoon*

What all to expect when you upload issues on ChangeBhai

    a. Each and every issue uploaded correctly will be put into process and forwarded to the authority no matter how important or minor it is.
    b. We always share the name and the number (mostly mobile) of the staff member with whom we are coordinating to get the issue resolved. In many cases, even the ward office address where he/she sits. You are free to call them too, if you want.
    c. No matter what, you will always get regular updates from us. You will always know at whose end (authority and employee name) the issue is stuck.
    d. First non-automatic email that goes to you will ask you to confirm the location and ask for landmarks. Do respond to that. This is being done because many a times we and the authorities have gone round and round because the map tagging was done inaccurately by the user. This affects our credibility in front of the authorities, so we are just being sure.
    e. In cases where there is a location confusion or the issue is of recurring nature, we give the ground staff’s contact to the user as that works better than going ‘to-and-fro’ between the user and the authority. You will agree that our collective aim should be to get the issue resolved and not get stuck in process formalities.
    f. You will be given a ‘Resolution Tip’ in rare cases where the issue is recurring in nature on what exactly to do and whom to contact to report the issue in the future.

The whole concept is to ‘work together’ and get these issues resolved. We get you the right contacts, we escalate wherever the issue gets stuck etc. Of course, we cannot get all the issues resolved, but we put each and every issue into process and make repeated contact for follow up. To give you a figure, roughly around 20% of the issues get stuck for more than a month.

IMP Note for the Procrastinators : In cases where our operation team has already sent 2 follow up emails for pending information or issue closure confirmation, the issue will be tagged as Fixed/Closed on the 7th day of receiving no information from your side. You may however choose to reopen the issue by sending us an email on now_or_abhi@changebhai.in.

Our process might not be perfect but we are improving with each passing day based on citizens’ feedback and our experiences with the authorities. Knowing how we work and the limitations of working with authorities, do give us constructive inputs. We would love to incorporate them wherever possible. But first: Upload 1 issue on www.ChangeBhai.in at least.

And do pass the word around to encourage others to upload issues if you agree that ‘getting ChangeBhai to bug the authorities with repeated follow ups‘ is better than doing ‘nothing at all’.

Happy change making!

* If you think so, email your web development portfolio to now_or_abhi@changebhai.in. We are looking for php & app developers.

 

Zzzzzzzz. This is all I do when it rains. And You?

Civic gyaan, , , , , , , , ,

Heylo ChangeMakers!

Am sure you saw our video Rains, Love, Chai, Pakodas …And?, which was launched last week. No, you haven’t? Click here to watch it.

Dunno about you of course but I could so relate to the paper boats and the frogs bit in the rains. As kids, we used to go crazy with these thingies when it rained. Some solid timepass!

But, know what..what I didn’t see/hear people referring to in the video and what I totally do in rains nowadays is this one thing:

Sleep my ass off till it hurts. :)

Comment below if you agree with this.

sleep

Neways..

Wo kya bolte hain..Watch the first drop of rain fall, feel the breeze, stop by, notice the smiles, smell the roses. Sorry, ye thoda zyada ho gya cuz all of us know what it smells like when we walk on the roads in rains. 😐

The video rekindled many fond memories but know, what the sad bit is, it’s just not the same anymore. The rains just doesn’t bring that cheer it used in the earlier days. The mess , the bad roads & the traffic just screw up the whole ‘rain’ experience, which by the way, you can report on www.ChangeBhai.in.

Check User Issues# A0481 “Pathetic roads” & A0516 “Drainage” & do report similar rain related problems in your area. And, if you have no issue to upload then do share the post to spread the word.

Issue#481, "Pathetic Roads"
Issue#481, “Pathetic Roads”
Issue#516 "drainage"
Issue#516 “drainage”

Indian Traffic Sense = Non Sense. Proved.

Civic gyaan, , , , , , , , ,

parking1           parking2

Can you think of anyone, like any-freaking-sane-person to whom these parking spaces (pics above) will appeal? No?! Lemme tell you. To these guys here. Grrrr.

ChangeBhai Issue#A0417,#A0485
ChangeBhai Issue#A0417,#A0485

They will love it. #SlurpSlurp #WhaddaChallenge

The civic sense of us Indians is legendary and traffic sense is not to be left behind either. These terms mentioned below, for example, are clearly alien/french/greek to most Indians.

Right of way. Kyun jaane doon main kisi ko. #MardangiPeKalank.

Excessive honking. Hamara horn. Hamaari marji.

Lane Discipline. Kaun banaya ye @#$%&@#* rule.

Speed Restriction. Nayi gaadi li hai bhai ne.

And the worst of all.

Parking Discipline. Chup be! Time nahi hai faltu.

By the way, the image above was uploaded by a Mumbai user, refer ChangeBhai issue#A0417 “Double parking caravans on main rd”. The issue was resolved by the Changebhai team with a lot of help from Mumbai Traffic Police. Do not forget to check out the lengthy resolution comments below the issue description.

The buggers were shooed away from one spot and they changed their location to another spot closeby. Check ChangeBhai issue#A0485 “Double bus parking still happening”. Thanks to the Mumbai traffic police Constable Wakde for helping us resolve this menace. Work in progress. Phew.

So, if any of you see similar traffic offenses on your way to work or in your neighborhood, you know what to do. No, you don’t?!?

All you need to do is take a picture, log on to www.ChangeBhai.in and report the issue. Supra eazy!

Ok. So, I still have some word limit left for this blog. Joke time. Old joke this one:

Santa parked his truck in ‘No Parking’.

When he returned he saw a note on his truck. “Parking Fine”

Santa writes “Thanks for the compliment”.

How to Give Ganpati Bappa the Best Welcome This Year?

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Ganpati Bappa Morya, Pudchya Varshi Laukar Yaa!

(Translation: Glory to the Lord Ganpati! Come again soon next year)

We invite Lord Ganpati to come back to visit us year after year, but shouldn’t we ensure his trip is comfortable and worth it. :)

By the way, the Ganpati Mandals in Mumbai mean serious business this time and to ensure our beloved ‘Bappa’ has a smooth ride on the Visarjan day (September 18), they have given a list of 2113 potholes and a deadline of September 16 to their municipal corporation to fix them. They say if they fail to do so, then all the mandals will use their reserve funds and carry out pothole-repair work. Wah! What spirit!

Image Courtesy: Rediff
Image Courtesy: Rediff

This was about a case of ‘good spirit’. A case study from ChangeBhai’s issue database about ‘not-so-good intent’ below:

Check out these issues uploaded by two ChangeBhai users:

Issue# A0429 ‘Huge Pothole outside SaiPalaceHotel’

Before
Before
After
After

Issue# A0418 ‘new potholes on recently made road’

Before

Before

 We are awaiting post resolution image of issue# A0418 from the user

In both the cases, the roads were newly made and had developed potholes shortly after they were repaired. Of course, we got the potholes repaired but the question is ‘How long will they last?’ Having worked with them closely, we can see that BMC is trying to do what they can at the moment, but the backlog of repairs and resource constraint are two issues which make the problem bigger and bigger with each passing day. Koi Sujhaav?

And ya, tab tak,koshish jaari rakhte hain . Do upload similar issues on www.ChangeBhai.in to ensure Bappa’s trip is totally worth it, this time. :) Ganpati Bappa Morya!!

Garbage, Crows, Murder and Mumbai.

Civic gyaan, , , , , ,

Do you know what a ‘Group Of Crows’ is called?

A MURDER.

😐 No joke this, Boss. Google Kar lo. “English is a very phunny language”, as Amitabh Bachchan said in some movie. Namak Halal, me thinks.

Do you know where you can see maximum ‘Murders in Daylight’?

MUMBAI.

No. Am not referring to the underworld problems that this city faced in the not-so-distant past. Am referring to the ‘Crows partying on messy garbage bins’ issue which all Mumbaikars are so incredibly exposed to, that they have absolutely no problem ‘Living With It’.

But, not this user. Check  issue# A0450, Garbage with crows feeding. Do check the comment section to know the entire story. For those, who are in a hurry, here is the picture of the issue.

ChangeBhai Issue# A0450, Garbage with crows feeding

ChangeBhai Issue# A0450, Garbage with crows feeding

The user would witness this gross scene everyday on his way to work. After he reported it to ChangeBhai, we immediately flung into action. MCGM shared their side of the story, which was (yawn if you want):

‘We pick up garbage between 9 am-10 am but the nearby slum dwellers and restaurants throw garbage late in the night, which can be seen by office goers (including the user) before 9 am. Hum kya karein, aap batao??’

This issue# A0450 was strikingly similar to a lot of other garbage issues that we receive on a day to day basis. Check this one for example, issue#A0412, Garbage strews outside bins.

In all these cases, MCGM authority after expressing their helplessness asked us for suggestion on what to do about it. They also add that enforcing a fine does not work with the slum dwellers for obvious reasons.

After long discussions, here is what we suggested and got implemented:

Issue#A0412: MCGM placed a guard on their payroll near the bin to warn the slum people and ask them to throw the garbage in the bin and not outside it.

Issue#A0450: MCGM is placing 3 additional bins of 0.5 tonne capacity each in this densely populated area as it required minimum 2 tonne capacity bins to accommodate the garbage here.

What would you suggest we should have done in such cases?

A. Let the crows party #4BajGayeLekinPartyAbhiBaakiHai

B. Enforce penalties #JebDheeli

C. Do what we did #LageRaho

Do upload issues of your aas-padoss on www.ChangeBhai.in if you want to ‘pull the plug’ on such murders.

Note: As we always say,  most civic authorities including MCGM are willing to resolve our issues if we work ‘with them’ instead of ‘against them’.  Try it, we say, if you disagree.