Marine Drive musings

There's something which takes my breath away when I think of Queen's Necklace. Whether you look at it from the Oberoi (rather what's now called the Hilton!), from Governor's Beach, Hanging Gardens, The Revolving Restaurant, or just anywhere on Marine Drive it just makes my heart skip a beat. That's one of my lasting impressions of Bombay, much like looking at NYC at night from just across the Hudson, on the bridge near the Tunnel. Although I'd put Chennai and Bangalore ahead of Bombay on my list of favorite cities, when it comes to breathless moments, Bombay takes the cake by miles. This is the city where I grew up for 15 years...I did all my schooling there...I learned my cricket there...I got my nickname there...I did hazzaar things there...As my cousins and I might say (and A will concur with me on this) "Every lamp-post in South Bombay has its own story"....Sunday evenings on Marine Drive, munching on bhutta. The late night drives to the airport, when we'd cover the entire stretch between Air India building and Walkeshwar in 5 mins flat! To use a much cliched expression, you can take a guy out of Bombay, but u cant take Bombay out of a guy.

The daily dekko (the theme of which is sad and disgusting. I dont have words to express what I feel - rage, disbelief, whatever): Uma Mahadevan-Dasgupta on the Marine Drive incident.
With all due respect to civilized society, I think the cop should thank his stars that he is still in one piece. I can only hope he gets his due for his crimes (both past and present). But yet I have this gut feeling that we havent heard the last of this. Uma's comparison of this to the Central Park incident a little more than a decade ago was (to say the least) eerie. But in the end, the culprit was found guilty and did serve his sentence, although I'd say he got away relatively scot free.
I cant but help see this issue (and I pray and hope it doesnt happen) turn into a bit of a fiasco. I suspect the Shiv Sena might throw its lot behind the cop (after all for them, there's nothing like a nice, paan chewing pandu havaldar. And let's face it, with the Shiv Sena, all Mr. More has to say is "Jai Maharashtra!" or "Jai Balls Thackeray", and he will get "protection" from the SS! After all, the victim is [probably] an "outsider". God knows what the Congress will have to say in that scenario!
I fear the worst...prove me wrong please!

What's buzzing:
The iPod's on shuffle this weekend! :)