Tag Archives: roads

‘Ek Tha Lallan’ : Ek Fire hydrant ki Aatmakatha

June 19, 2015Generalbelapur, ChangeBhai, fire hydrant, India, mumbai, navi mumbai, NMMC, roadsCB Team

“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.

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* ”

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.

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**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

Time Travel, Anyone?

May 5, 2014Generalbad roads, ChangeBhai, civic, crawford market, economic growth in india, India, infrastructure, roads, social issuesCB Team

Ladies and Gentlemen. Boys and Girls. This is what we call ‘going BACK in time’. Literally. Just look at this picture and tell me if I am wrong.

Call this a sad case of irony or whatever, but the truth is, that despite the fantastic economic growth, India is doing really bad in urban governance. For more than a decade, India has enjoyed unprecedented growth that in many ways is comparable to that of The United States of America years ago. However, the same cannot be said of our infrastructure.

Come on India, we know you can do better. Report some of these issues to the authorities through ChangeBhai and help India move forward.

Where there’s a will…there’s a ‘ROAD’ !

March 11, 2014UpdatesChangeBhai, civic, DDA, delhi, roadsCB Team

Q: When is the right time to do the right thing?
A: Who can say, but it’s usually most wise to start today.”

Here’s an interesting case study from ChangeBhai’s stable which saw a very active citizen upload a long pending issue of her neighbourhood, minutes after we launched the ChangeBhai portal officially. She thought it was most wise to start immediately. Here’s the story:

It so happened that minutes after we launched ChangeBhai, one of our early users uploaded this particular issue (Issue No. A0003) titled ‘Bad Road in Rohini’. The issue was put into process by the ChangeBhai team within a few days. It seemed that this road in question was a major source of grief for the residents of this area. Even the most active ones had given up when it came to taking it up with the authorities. It has been like this since the last 3 years now. You can say that that delay had indeed turned out to be the worst form of denial here.

A short note on why getting this road fixed was critical:

This road connects around 30 housing societies of Sector 9, Rohini to a busy commercial area housing, amongst other things, three shopping malls: City Centre, Metro walk & Shopper’s Stop. The condition of the road was beyond pathetic and yet, the citizens were widely using it, as it was the quickest way to reach the commercial area.

While most of the other issues we were receiving were getting resolved with minor delays (if any), this one stuck out like a sore thumb! After a lot of follow-ups (read escalations, verbal threats, giving up, getting-a-grip-again, sticking-daily-motivational-quotes-post-its etc.), we managed to get the authorities to approve the construction of this road early this year! A lot of follow ups later, the work finally started in February. Uff.

One of our newly hired management trainees has depicted the history of this case graphically as below:

Have a look at the images below and we are sure, you will be motivated to report a similar long pending issue of your area:

Q: When is the right time to do the right thing? A: Who can say, but it’s usually most wise to start today.”

Q: When is the right time to do the right thing?
A: Who can say, but it’s usually most wise to start today.”