Transportation in India

Instead of carry on writing Mumbai Diaries which inspired from a famous upcoming movie, I thought of writing on some topics. Here is one of them.

If you recall history it rickshaw that is one of the famous transportations in India. Not seen any one of them anywhere. The cab service I took from Airport charged me INR 900.00 for 40Km distance where our equivalent is 2385.00 (LKR 59.60 without AC per Km which is exactly similar to 688688 rate with AC). All of the taxis are equipped with a meter and Black and Yellow colour code where anybody could track them easily. Most of the Tuk-Tuks also in the same color code and metered. At the 1st tuk-tuk trip, the meter reading was INR 1 and 80 Pais and I was very glad as for same distance we have to pay here at least LKR 70. But unfortunately that was showing the distance which costs me INR 29.00 (LKR 76.85) quite similar to Sri Lankan rates. But the thing is they have a bag of coins and they return the balance. So ultimately it has become my medium of transport.

One day I wanted to find where the Heart of Mumbai. So I asked from the owner of the Hotel. He said "you take the train and goto VT"which is the last station" and asked me to obtain 1st class ticket. On 1st of April I walked to the nearby station and obtained a 1st class ticket which is machine generated slip costs me INR 108.00 (Please see attached photos of front and back). I walked to the platform 4 where you get trains to VT. It is exactly powerset trains we have here in Sri Lanka. But where is the 1st class ? It showed 1st train will arrive at 8.29AM and very sharp and mind you they are electric trains. It was jam packed train where I try to got in. But it did not stop there for at least 10 seconds. People rushed but I failed expecting 2-3 minutes stoppage.  Even 1st class is similar to our 3rd class. The biggest surprise is no 3rd class !!! Next train came after 5-10 minutes. I try to got in quickly as I know it won't stop for long. Alas ! this time I tried to got into Ladies compartment where they travel separately which is good. But moved towards next 1st class compartment which is for Gents and automatically I was in. People there were so generous to got me in free of energy. My goodness it was jam packed. Everybody talked about matches they had recently. One guy compared the similarity of Tilan Samaraweera and Misbaa-ul-Huk (eventhough I could not understand single hindi word, I understood it well). He is 100% correct. Both of these players play Anchor-roles I would say. Some even read papers inside it where I very hardly breathed. Since I was wearing Sri Lanka support t-shirt this time they knew I am Sri Lankan supporter. I spoken to one gentlemen. We had a long chat. He felt very sorry about me without a ticket for the final. Nice person. Their offices are starting at 11.00Am and closing time is 6.00PM with 30M Lunch break.  

The funniest thing in Mumbai are lorries. On the back side of each lorry painted "Horn OK Please". I could not ask any person what exactly they intended by this. It gives normal feeling that what they say is "Denna Handa Menna Ida" like message. If you need to move give me a heavy horn. Funny isn't it ? 

I met one of the Yemenese guy who traveled through entire India. We shared same tuk-tuk fare to Inorbit Shopping mall. He said, till his visit to India, he thought worst drivers he met were in Arab but now realized it's Indian drivers who risks their lives when driving. I too agree with him. Our drivers are far better than them. They have highways and 6-track road system with flyovers and everything but their road discipline is zero. Even their general discipline is below par. 

It is worth mentioning their fuel prices as well. If I am not mistaken price of a diesel litre is INR 44.00 which is LKR 116. I don't know but heavy traffic, smoky city never suggests price is that high. Otherwise they me be rich to waste that much.

I wrote this to increase the awareness of my friends on India, not to insult great Indian nation. But there are areas Indians should improve. 

Front Side of the Ticket

Mumbai Diaries - I

30.03.2011

Landed safely here in Mumbai around 2.30AM wondering what to do ? Since my friend Subash did not come with me as expected, I was alone. Felt roaming. Took a cab to my hotel we have booked months ago which is in Navi Mumbai, area is a hub for wholesale for vegetable(Mafco Market). I got mad in the morning when I see busy town like Manning market all over. I never given up and walked till I find disired place.you know when walking in the Mumbai pavements it required you to be very cautious since in the middle some concrete slabs are removed and exposed to muddy canal. If you fallen into this pit it will be a disaster.  At last I found Inorbit which is similar to Majecstic city but lot better than that. eventhough problem here is most of the pople could not speak English. Otherwise they mis-understood ourselves as Indians. I did initial part of my shopping buying shampoo, razor, etc. And visited hell a lot f Branded shops in the mall. You name it they have it here. Adidas, Arrow, Lee, etc. But the prices here are not bearable for us. I felt very poor of us. We need one generation to be parallel with them. 1 INR = 3 LKR like situation now. I could remember I bought a shirt from a traveller who visited India in 1997 for 1.6 conversion rate. Pathetic. Isn't it ? Kauda Mewata Waga Kiyanne ? Majorly Prabha. Other Part is rest of our political ppl. 

I was at Inorbit around 1.00PM but saw people screaming. And see what for ? Only for seeing their hereos on the TV. What a supportive Nation. They sat on the floor. Supported every bowl India. Moment they sing National Anthem everybody sang as if they are in the ground. I felt being grounds. At one time I felt disturbed. You know I could not call home because of their screaming. Such a Cricket Crazy nation. They could not realize where they are. May be due to fact that they fighting against their arch-rivals. But don't forget each occasion India had won. They met them  in 1992,1996, 1999, 2003, 20007. But Indian are victorious. I noticed one thing Muslims here in India supprts India. But what about our's. 

In front of my hotel there is a Cracker Seller. In the day time heat is like you are in oven. Might be 40 C. I have never beard a heat like this in Sri Lanka. One moment I thought this Cracker shop will burst because of the heat. But Still it's open and people buying cracker like New Year. Burn. Party Everwhere. My goodness. I have never seen such a unity. Today people at shops are not working. They are either watching or listening to the match. Such a divoted nation. I will tell you we should give them a real fight if we are to win. You could see their flag everywhere here in Mumbai. Could not explain what is happening here. In a way I am happy with this nation. They could unite to a one bunch by Cricket. 

To end this note it is worthwile mention what one of the saying " Cricket is our Religion - Sachin is our god !!!!"

Dilruk  from Mumbai. 

Again this is one of the Notes I written in Facebook.

Evolution of Dilscoop

When talking about TM Dilshan's famous DilScoop my memory goes back to late 80s where I had my A/L studies at Kalutara Maha Vidyalaya. I am not sure whether Dilshan is scooling in 1988/89 but I have seen junior students playing Cricket everywhere in the ground. But the specialitiy here was they played 3-miss game (they put shoes or slippers in a space equal to bat's height as wicket. Passing the ball in 3 instances without touching the bat between those shoes means out). Our ground was a fairly small one but they played 25 odd places very close to each other. Distance between two playing spots perhaps 5-10 meters. 

Since they were playing in daily basis in those spots, they have bocome small pits. In a rainy day you could see them as tanks filled of water. For the reason these spots wear and tear, depth of them become 4-6 inches where at the bowling end there are no such level drop in playing plane. Therefore, bowler could see a batsman is somewhat shoter than 4-6 inches of his normal height. In the view of batsman he gets allmost every ball fast and on chest height. So that he could either play a pull or hook shot. But these kid are not technically sound to be honest.

Due to this factor, it is normal these young generation are conscious of innovating new shots. To be honest I have seen them playing un-authordox shots like dilscoop eventhogh it has not given such name nor globally accepted as a Cricketing shot.

Dilshan also must have played these type of Cricket during his school time and when playing in high class Cricket it must have been aided him innovating the shot. I am certainly happy if Dilshan himself read this and reply if this is true or not. I have just expressed my idea here. If Dilscoop is totally new shot, I appologise for writing this. I know Dilshan has very limited time to reply these type of queries but his brother Sampath could make a note on this.

But every Kavian(Old boys of Kalutara MV) will accept my point with happy memories of good old times they have forgotten for some time.

Subash Dilruk Kannangara
Initially I have written this as a facebook note on 05.09.2009 and thought of sharing it here.