2020 will become the year that the city that never sleeps came to a sudden stop. When the “locals” weren’t running and crematoria were as busy as train stations. Of small weddings and smaller funerals. No dabbawallahs or bhelpuri posts. Learning from home and online for those lucky enough to own “smart devices”, a lost year for those who don’t.
When doctors, nurses, health workers, policemen, conservatives and ambulance personnel were the army defending Mumbai. Like the year in which thousands of migrant workers who had come to the city in search of a better life were more afraid of hunger due to confinement than disease, and decided that it was better to walk hundreds of kilometers back to their villages in other distant states.
It was a year in which Bollywood had to deal with the pain of losing its best characters and seeing its most prominent personalities involved in extensive drug research. A cyclone did everything it could to contribute to annus horribilis, which was not without some positive aspects.
Despite predictions that the city’s health infrastructure would collapse, it held out as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation quickly added more facilities. Unlikely, Dharavi announced Mumbai turnaround in the battle against Covid-19 in the last quarter of the year. The trains returned to the tracks.
And despite dire predictions, Maharashtra kept political instability at bay despite the difficulties of an unlikely coalition between the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress took over the state and held together. 2020 will be the year that Mumbai will never forget.
Infection control rules at Covid hospitals prevented visitors from meeting patients even in their last moments. Health professionals found themselves in the heartbreaking position of not only providing care, but also comforting lonely patients.
The protests remained an integral part of the political landscape in Mumbai. The year began with protests against the CAA by students and activists outside Gateway of India in January to protest the attack on JNU students.
Actress Rhea Chakraborty became the main character in a Bollywood tragedy that became a national obsession involving political parties, central investigative agencies and partisan television channels. While allegations that Chakraborty instigated the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput have been unsubstantiated, the 28-year-old had to spend more than a month in jail on charges of allegedly acquiring drugs for the late actor before the court awarded her bail. More extensive investigations are being carried out on the sale, purchase and use of drugs.
Environmental activists won a rare victory when the state government ordered the car shed on Metro Line 3 to be relocated from the Aarey forest to land in Kanjurmarg. However, the move to Kanjurmarg is now uncertain. The search for a new site has started.
The Covid-induced closure of interstate borders left many fishermen stranded off the coast of Maharashtra. More than 600 state fishermen, who were stranded off the coast of Gujarat, had to spend weeks on their boats before the state government granted them permission to land.
The role of the head of the CPN, Sharad Pawar, in conspiring and facilitating the ascension of Uddhav Thackeray to the post of Chief Minister of the state last year makes him the most powerful man in Maharashtra. His greatest political achievement so far has been ensuring the survival of the unlikely triumvirate of Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena, who has served a year in power and emerged as the man behind the throne of the MVA government.
In global politics, the children of top politicians, including Donald Trump, have earned a reputation for annoying the opponents of their powerful parents. In Maharashtra, however, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had to do everything he could to defend his son and minister in his own cabinet after his name was dragged into the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
The world’s most popular product this year, the medical mask, helped power Mumbai intrepid small-scale units like this one in Byculla to capitalize on increased demand.
The national shutdown on March 24 and the disruption of all public transportation led to millions of migrant workers in cities losing their jobs overnight. With no income, little or no savings, and no apparent bailout from the government, thousands of workers and their families left Mumbai and its satellite cities for the roads, on foot, on bicycles, in buses, taxis and cars to return. to their villages. While the start of the Shramik Express special trains in May provided some relief, the trains were full. Many contracted the infection along the way. But the fear of infection on the way was less of a concern than starving.
Photographs: Deepak Joshi, Nirmal Harindran, Ganesh Shirsekar, Prashant Nadkar, Narendra Vaskar, Amit Chakravarty, Pradip Das
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