For the past year now, there is a large pothole just outside my house. I see it a few times a day as I am driving by and sometimes when I walk to my mother's house around the corner, I scamper around it. A few weeks ago, it was filled to the brim with rain water and the baby shrieked and yelped as the prodigal son took a long twig and made the muddy water in the pothole swirl round and round. Needless to say, we are so used to it that it has become almost like a family member where the three of us have even given it a pet name. We affectionately call our pothole, Gaddu. Lately, I have noticed a lot of changes around Gaddu. Someone stuck large coconut leaves into him, then I saw he had been caged behind a grill and there was fresh cement all around him, then he had a withered stick poking out of him and finally, yesterday, I saw Gaddu just lying there, all open again, bravely smiling at the sun beaming down on him. After giving it deep thought, I realised that since potholes are not going to disappear, we might as well adopt them as they can be almost as delightful as our other pets like tortoises, hamsters and dogs.

Listed below are just a few of the many advantages of embracing our potholes. 1. Save enormous sums of money: End your subscriptions to expensive country club golf courses and just putt your way all over the most pothole ridden suburbs of Andheri. 2. Earn blessings: On a long journey of five kms, that may take 50 minutes, play an interesting game with fellow passengers. Every pothole that your vehicle goes into, is a signal to sing a religious song. By the time you get home, you will have lost your voice but will have managed to please every single one of our 330 million gods and goddesses that the Scriptures claim invisibly loom over us. 3. Get lucky: Fill your family pothole with Nirma powder, some water and do your daily laundry while melodiously singing detergent jingles. If your stars are aligned correctly, the scouts of India’s Got Talent may just walk by and offer you a spot on their show. 4. Learn to be a leader: Walk up to your adopted pothole, stand and stare at it. Within 11 minutes, there will be 83 people gathered all around you, standing and staring intently at the pothole as well. 5. Start a new religion: Carefully place an odd-shaped stone smeared with sindoor inside your chosen hole, a few marigold flowers, some 10-rupee notes and sit beside your pothole. Before you know it, it will become famous as Holi Pot and will have 70,000 followers. 6. Save the Earth: Plant a tree in your pet pothole. This will both, save people from tripping head first into the crevice and produce more oxygen for the planet. 7. Practice for Halloween: Hide inside your adopted pothole only to suddenly jump out and startle children and old people by screaming 'Mitron' into their unsuspecting ears. My whimsical suggestions aside, the fact remains that there has been a 250% increase in potholes in Mumbai this year, which comes as a surprise as the BMC claims to have spent more than Rs 2000 crore in the last few months on repairs.

Even the Bombay High Court this year, in a landmark interim judgment, stated that the right to good roads is the fundamental right of citizens. But as nothing seems to change, in the spirit of finding the silver lining to our dark, tarry cloud and making peace with our bumpy roads as they don't seem to be going anywhere and nor are we; I suggest you select your own Gaddu and take part in the 'Adopt a Pothole' campaign. Moral of the story: When life gives you lemons, you must thread it with chillies and hang it on your rear-view mirror as that is as much protection from the bad roads as we are going to get.