Finally, my very own blog..here's why!!!

I have been wanting to do this for a while but just couldn't find the initiative to start. However, the last few months have been so full of events that I had to find a way to vent out my thoughts; thoughts about where Urban life is headed on a global scale. How safe and comforatble are we, living in cities, where law, order and planned development should ideally be promising us the best living standards?
Being an Architect and Urban Planner, I am compelled to first think about the physicalities of a city which work or do not work for it's occupants; which is precisely one of the reasons that made me choose the issue of flooding in urban regions as a dissertation topic for my Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning. The second reason was that, being a resident of Mumbai, I had been at the recieving end of one such flooding that the city had witnessed in the monsoons of 2005. In my own way, I wanted to determine the underlying problems that had led to the destructive consequences of this event. Having done that, I wanted to suggest solutions that could reduce, if not totally eliminate the after-effects, if such an event were to recurr.
However, this blog is not just about that. Like I said, the last few months have been really eventfull for me as an Urban resident. The terrorist attack that shook the city of Mumbai on 26th of November in 2008 made me think of how safe I was living in a city, not just Mumbai in particular. Terrorism, I would like to believe, is a global issue that is faced by every city in the developing world. However, as is always the case, one does not feel its gravity until one witnesses it in person. Although the 9/11 attacks in New York never fail to shock me to date, it was the attack in Mumbai that truly stunned me and it's because I have been a first hand witness to this event. It made me reconsider the state of disaster managment mechanism and the law and order in the city.
But, on a positive note, I was amazed at the way the citizens reacted to this catastrophe in unison, an act that reflects the true spirit of Mumbaiites; kind of a deja-vu for me, as I am drawing similarities here between the New Yorkers and the the Mumbaiites, in the event of their respective mishaps.
Thereby, this is just a pad for me to pen down my thoughts on these events and urban life, in general.
Hope you like it!!!!!