Mumbai Diary page: Thursday Theme

Footie fever on the feetIts been over a month that Germany lifted the football World Cup crown in Brazil and the impact of the tournament has led to a quantum leap in the following of the sport not just among football fanatics but also young players who follow their stars on televisionOne such case was evident during an interschool football match at the Cooperage ground yesterday For a semifinal match for his school a 14yearold footballer purchased shoes worth Rs 25000 The youngster plans to play with those shoes for special matches As this was an interschool match played on an astroturf surface for the first time he couldnrsquot stop himself from showing off his priced possession The bonus was that his school won the matchFilling it upWhat do you do with a pothole Put it on Google Maps perhaps When the roads of Mumbai are dotted with so many craters that they resemble the surface of Mars road users have no option but to stretch their creativity Some twowheeler riders choose to ride on the pavements which are in slightly better shape And some wield their skills to weave around the potholes a la obstacle course racesWords cannot do justice to the irony of this image PicAmit SangoiWhen it comes to manholes however it is a different story Twowheelers cannot risk braving them and people are at real risk of falling in and being lost to humanity perhaps forever We see a thriller film plot here if anyone from Bollywood is listening The sensible thing would be to place a warning sign at a manhole which has been opened for maintenance or other official purposesOur city being what it is however it is all too likely that the sign itself will be lifted for its metal or plastic value So we jugaad experts have gone one better as in this instance at Malad the manhole is marked with a poster stuck sideways into it drawing attention to both the yawning gap and the message on the posterHeads up IDay is hereYou cannot pass a traffic signal during this period without seeing the familiar tricolour in different sizes and avatars It can be a simple paper flag on a bamboo stick which people put up at their office cubicles or a slightly more robust version that goes on the car dashboardThe flag seller ahead of Independence Day Pic Harit JoshiThen there are attractive metal pins that can adorn a shirt pocket or hold a dupatta in place Miniature flags are also in vogue as they can be stuck just about anywhere Come August 15 you wonrsquot be at a loss to find some variant of the tricolour for your surroundingsFor this young vendor of the flags balancing his wares on his head serves two purposes better visibility as people in cars can see him from afar and his hands are free to pass the goods on and receive his earningsTurn timeA little boy was overheard asking his mother for an answer amidst the hurlyburly of Churchgate station The local train was stationary and was filling up as it neared peak hourThe mother and son had found seats and the boy kept asking his mother ldquoWhere does the train turn How can it go backrdquo while his mother tried to patiently explain to him that the motorman can drive the train from both ends so it does not need to turn around to go back in the direction in came from ldquoNo turnsrdquo said the little boy quite incredulous to the amusement of passengers all aroundItrsquos OfflineA common lament nowadays is that ereading devices are replacing ldquorealrdquo books Publishing house Penguin India has taken a dig at the issue with a ldquodisclaimerrdquo on a recent release ldquoThis book is an entertainment device and does not require batteriesrdquoPhone toneMobile phone users are being plagued with a new sort of nuisance calls from international numbers which ring for just a second or two so that there is no time to answer If you call back your phone balance gets debited big time with the amount getting credited to the dialled numberLocal providers are warning their customers about such calls and we thought wersquod do our bit too The calls often come from numbers beginning with 2 or 3 Eastern Europe or Africa in most cases And they tend to come at odd hours of our clock such as 2am and 3amOf course Mumbai being a city that never sleeps there are always those of us up if not about at that hour And if you see the ldquomissed callrdquo think twice before calling back As our cellphone company said in its warning message ldquoThese may be fraudulent calls and will result in higher chargesrdquo