Another Pigeon Post

I have been wanting to share this for a while :) When in Mumbai, as you may all know that I had pigeon abodes at almost all of our house windows. Watching the babies is so much fun because they make funny kind of moments like standing up and sitting down again when  they see humans or maybe when they are scared. A pigeon baby takes around 25 to 30 days to grow up fully and fly away. Once the pigeon learns to fly, the dad doesn't allow it in the abode, I guess maybe he has started preparing for another round of children.

Another interesting thing about pigeons is that they are very individualistic. Like they keep switching their partners after every round of children. And as soon as the pigeon learns to fly, the parents stop feeding it by mouth, hinting that the pigeon should find its own food from now. Sounds very American, doesn't it? Even in the evening when they rest at the terrace area, they don't like a fellow pigeon intruding their area. I don't know how they demarcate their space, but they start dancing (some strange ritual ) as to establish their personal space. Almost all of the babies are very eager to fly. After the 15th day they start taking small jumps to test their wings every now and then. Once they make it out of the window, its pigeon day out!

Then when I shifted to Mylapore in Chennai, the house windows did not have any extensions, so no pigeon abode :(. But just opposite to my window, there was a window sill with some extensions done for a/c box, where to my relief a pigeon couple lived. In Chennai, you will always find pigeons below the a/c boxes. Its like even they need a/c ;).
This window sill was kind of 10 feet away from my window, so couple gave birth to a little one. Around the 20th day pigeon had fully grown and almost ready to fly. So I thought in a few days it would be gone. Then I checked back around the 24th or 25th day and saw that the baby had grown to the extent that it was difficult to differentiate between mom and baby. Then checked at the 30th day, fully grown baby pigeon still happily occupying half of the nest that it was difficult for mom to be there. Then checked again after a couple of days and still it was the same! At one point, I was like grrrr fly man don't you wanna explore!!! And to my disbelief the parents also did not kick it out and even fed it. Then at the 40th day finally it was missing from the nest, so I thought finally pigeon thinks it has grown up. But after a couple of days it was back resting at home, whereas the parents were not to be seen. I thought, great so you are so lazy that you don't wanna find a home for yourself? And by this time the parents had started to prepare for the next round of children because they had started with their dancing rituals. But baby was still happily taking its noon nap. Finally, I guess around the sixtieth day baby was finally not to seen.

I don't know if its one off incident but I couldn't help resist drawing parallels!!!
Mumbai People/Pigeons:
1. Very ambitious
2. Eager to explore
3. Love their space
4. Change partners frequently

Chennai People/Pigeons:
1. Grow up late
2. Love to laze around
3. Can't live without a/cs ;)
4. Love to live with their parents!

Battle of the Cities

Every time I go to Bangalore, I love it all the more. For a person coming from Chennai, its like being moved from a heater to a cooler! Its so cool and awesome. Dunno why Chennaites have a problem with this place, they keep saying: Everything is bad except the weather. Come on, this proves that they haven't been to a city before! And comparing Bangalore and Chennai is just not right, Chennai is a very old so-called metro and Blore has seen all this growth in just 15 years. But anyways this post is not about either of these cities.

This post is about Delhi and Mumbai. Delhi unlike the other metros was left untouched by the British. Hence, apart from being a political capital it had to rebuild itself from scratch. Till the 80s Mumbai was the best bet for both entrepreneurs and workers because Kolkata had destroyed itself with communism, and Chennai had language issues, due to which no one outside TN invested in the city. But Delhi has seen an amazing growth in the last 20 years, some changes owed to political will and the rest because the economy had opened up to the delight of entrepreneurs. Today, its been debated whether Delhi will take over Mumbai as the financial capital because both investors and financial institutions have a marked presence here.

This also connects to the other debate of whether NSE will take over BSE. An apt debate here puts across the comparison of both the exchanges. Till the 90s BSE was almighty and ruled over by the select few Mumbai based companies, which was also one reason of its rigidness. And then saying no to derivatives also hit it badly. Though recently Madhu Kannan is planning for a comeback, the message we get is that the battle is on!

As for infrastructure Delhi gone way ahead than most of the cities. With the Delhi metro and the mushrooming of the nearby satellite cities of Gurgaon and Noida, it has the most reigning factor that Mumbai does not have: SPACE. And Bangalore and Hyderabad have even come up with their second airports, Mumbai realized the need for second airport in 2007 which leaves many things to be said about the infrastructure status.

And the other aspects like food, culture, and shopping Delhi is at par with Mumbai if not better.

Another interesting aspect is about Bollywood tilting towards Delhi. Just count how many movies have you seen recently with a Delhi-centric plot. Delhii Heights, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Dev.D, Love Aaj Kal, Do Dooni Chaar, Aisha, Break ke baad, Band Baaja Baraat, Pyaar ka Punchnaama and of course, Delhi Belly! Well Bollywood has definitely studied its audience unlike BSE. And for MTV, Roadies and Splitsvilla are so loaded with contestants from Delhi and Chandigarh, I am starting to wonder if MTV still conducts its auditions in Mumbai. I won't be surprised if it shifts base to Delhi. Same for Channel V.

The problem is, since 80s Delhi has striked the right chords and Mumbai the wrong ones. The Shiv Sena backlash on the immigrants (Its worst mistake was to target immigrant entrepreneurs); the 92 riots (again the temple was 1000 kms away, no other city reacted and the ripples were felt in a big way here. Leaves a lot to be read between lines); the underworld nexus (somehow the worst criminals are created here! no idea why); the crouching CM and the hidden Deputy CM have not done anything good for the city yet (the slums still exist and keep growing). Just two days gone after the blast and we are still waiting for the government to act, but this too shall pass. Another one will come soon.

With the regional hatred breeding in and growing each day, Mumbai is going nowhere. Actually, its a strange thing about being a city. If you don't welcome people you stop growing.Take any city from ancient Florence to today's New York. These places have become cities only because they were melting pots of different cultures and thrived on settlers. It doesn't happen when you are ethnocentric and biased to people from different culture. This is the same reason why Chennai and Kolkata still have trouble claiming the status of a metro.