The Ocean’s Blues

On June 12, 2014, I drove through Cadell Road flooded with sea water awash in garbage. I realized that people would soon be booking their orders for the larger sarvajanik Ganapatis, in time for the start of the festive season at the end of August. The picture in the papers on June 13, were evocative of a living creature that was spewing up an indigestible meal from the depths of its belly. I was moved to writing this piece, appealing to our people to think of the plight of the sea when booking their Ganapatis. After all, Mumbai is in the coastal zone and we live at the mercy of the sea - it behooves us to show consideration towards her

The ocean was feeling sick. It clutched its belly as it roiled and grumbled. Finally, with a huge heave, the ocean came up to the shore and vomited up the stuff that was making it feel so sick. What a relief! 

On the shore, pieces of half digested Ganesha murthis mixed with the crap that nearby slum dwellers had deposited that morning.  It shamed the ocean to see what it had been forced to do, but the discomfort in its belly had left it with no choice.  It just couldn’t have borne the pain any longer.

And as the ocean tried to digest what remained in its belly, it ruminated on what had brought it to this sorry state of tummy sickness ….

Once upon a time, it remembered the beach used to be a quiet place, where people came to enjoy the evening breeze and brought their children to play.  Sure, nearby slum dwellers used the rocky outcrops on the beach to do their morning business back then also.  But the ocean could handle that – after all, it believed in the maxim of “dust to dust”.  Organic matter did not give it a tummy ache – in fact, it fed some of the marine life it housed.  Hearing activists scream at people doing their morning business on the shore, and then having those same activists come and drop chunks of plaster of Paris in its tummy made the ocean snarl at the hypocrites.  How it wished it could speak in the human tongue and tell them so

As the ocean continued to spasm gently with the indigestible mass in its tummy, it wondered when this practice of dropping huge big chunks of plaster of Paris in it had started.  After much thought, it remembered.  It was somewhere around the time when people used to shout slogans against the British Rule.  It remembered hearing the name of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who used something called Sarvajanik worship in the bylanes of Pune to break down ancient caste barriers and unite people to fight for independence from the British.  Clever Tilak – he had realized way back then that this was a work around the then prevalent British ban on public gatherings.  And so, the practice had caught the imagination of a nation (or at least, Maharashtra) and the annual event had taken on a life of its own

The ocean thought it didn’t mind at first.  After all, it understood the need for an “India for Indians” and was willing to do its bit for the cause.  But why was it continuing now?  As it understood it, it was now many years since the British had left the country.  Why then was this circus continuing – nay, growing?

The ocean forced its aching head to figure out this puzzle.  The sickness was making it irritable and unable to focus its thoughts, but it did want to get to the bottom of this mystery.  It shook its head to clear it and the people on the shore shouted to see the spray flying up from what they perceived as an extra huge wave.  And with the shout, it was like a light bulb went on in the mind of the ocean

But of course, it was still those ruthless political manipulators using the excuse of a religious extravaganza to mobilize people and funds.  Some of them were politicians in local or central governance, while others used these events to achieve positions of power in community forums.  And as the master psychologists they were, they offered pomp and show, a display of religious fervor along with the promise of free food as “Prasad” and the opportunity to enjoy shortened work days in the name of worship. 

The ocean knew it had hit the nail on its head.  Ouch!  It felt like there were multiple nails in its head.  As it held its head and groaned, out popped a sharp edged decoration that had been designed to look like the rays of the sun or a halo behind some murthi or the other

Happy at having figured out the puzzle, the ocean decided to rest a while.  It noticed a group of agitated people at one end of the beach and decided to offer them the calming influence of a surging and ebbing tide at their feet.  It gradually crept towards the group and noticed that they appeared to be cops in uniform.  It could not help but listen to their conversation as it tried to soothe their agitation

And what it heard was this – “Have you heard?  There are rumours that a terrorist group has entered the city and is planning to plant a series of bombs at various Ganesha mandals.  The ATS doesn’t know where all to plant their plainclothes men and detection squads – there are so many pandals in so many places.  What is worse, if an incident occurs someplace, the access roads are so chock a block with pandals, there is no way for any Emergency Response Team to make it to the place in a hurry.  Or for that matter, get any victims out of danger and to medical assistance”

And the next guy said – “Forget that.  I was on traffic duty yesterday and it was horrible.  Traffic was crawling along, and all because vehicles were slowing down on the flyover to have a peak at the Ganesha pandal visible from there.  There were any number of minor collisions, and of course the moment a vehicle was involved in a collision, both the drivers and passengers forgot all about Ganesha and started fighting about who was at fault.  I tell you, I could not for the life of me spot the divinity in man while I tried to resolve about 10 fights yesterday”

“Fighting is one aspect”, said the third guy.  “Our station head was grumbling about the diesel budget for the month.  Seems with all this slow moving traffic, we’re getting barely ½ the mileage we normally get on all our police vehicles.  If this is what we achieve with our flashing lights, driving on the wrong side of the road and / or pavement at times, I wonder what these civilians manage to get with their vehicles”

The first guy weighed in – “I bet that’s why they chose this time to raise petrol and diesel prices.  People’s travel increases to get from 1 pandal to another.  Plus their mileage decreases due to the traffic woes.  I’m sure all the petrol pumps are making a killing this month.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they start running dry unless the distributors increase their refill service frequency”

“Yeah, and then the politicians can all talk about the cost of oil and the balance of payments.  Bah, what humbugs they all are”

“Don’t talk to me about politicians.  I had one visit the pandal where I was on duty yesterday.  And to make sure he drew enough crowds, he brought a shapely young Bollywood star with him.  You would not believe the kind of Z-class security that accompanied him and how much chaos it created in the pandal.  You were talking about the rumours of terrorist activity earlier?  I am telling you, those guys could easily have entered the pandal in the midst of all this chaos and done anything they wanted to do.  There is absolutely no way we can plug every possible avenue at times like this”

While its belly was more at ease now, the ocean was more upset than before.  It felt its shoulders droop and its head hang as it quietly withdrew from the shore.  And as it withdrew, the people on the shore cried out at the amount of debris that was revealed and how the tide had gone out further than ever before