Monday, February 4, 2008

Mumbai on alert after violent incidents in the tinsel town

Early in the morning today two persons hurled glass bottles in the direction of Big B's residence Prateeksha. It has become debatable now whether nationalism should get the upper of regionalism or vice-versa. It should not have been debatable at all. But a famous scholar once said of India that for every thing that is true in India, the opposite is equally true.
Now it is a case of Marathis vis-a-vis Non-marathis. The term non-marathis has been existent years before too but it has gained prominence off late. Tension is simmering all across the country and more so in Mumbai and the state of Maharashtra. Raj Sena is of the radical view that migrants from Uttar Bharat have come as guests and they must not have the audacity of assuming or amusing themeselves as hosts in any way. The allegations are manifold. The row is majorly over the fact that the migrants have blind allegiance towards their roots and that they are not loyal to Maharashtra. It seems to be nonsensical to think on these lines. Even in UP we know that Sindhis, Bengalis, Sardars, Punjabis et al love to be in their own flock and vehemently celebrate their own festivals and not so much the local festivals of UP. We do not cry hoarse about that. In the US of A, the Indians are infamous for showing off their loyalty towards India and the Indian Independence Day is celebrated by the Indians in US with more gaity and fervour than the American Independence Day. Probably an Indian child in America may forget 4th July as the American Independence Day but ask him the Indian Republic or Independence day and quickly will the correct answer pop up. Does America take umbrage of it?
No. This is perhaps because they are truly global and cosmopolitan in outlook than us despite all our efforts to globalise or to ape the westerners. Mumbai is supposed to be the most western or pseudo-western city in India. We believe in the oriental backdrop we can only manage to be pseudo-western. We used to be skeptical of Delhi's ambition of becoming a world-class city because of so many reasons and perhaps a tad justifiably so. It is supposed by few that Delhiites are uncouth, rapists, criminals, dirty politians, garish, parochial ans so on and so forth. The only city that was good in India as per the western standards too was Mumbai and not even Blore, which is somewhat sleepy in comparison.
I can recall the horror with which I and my Purabiya friends used to witness at times a Bihari being beaten on Delhi roads by a dominant Jat. And we used to shrug off and say that this happens only in Delhi. Little were we aware that Delhi is perhaps a lot more respectful of its migrants than Mumbai or ay Chennai. Barring a few cases, we never felt that we are not in the mainstream of Delhi. I do not mean to eulogise Delhi as it has too many weak points of its own. But the status of a migrant is better in North India despite all our failigs on other fronts. We play a perfect host. That we are loud is not because of our illiteracy. It is because we are warm. That North India is more corrupt and crime prone is not because an average North Indian is bad. It is because of the dominance of a selected few and because of the infamous politician-mafia nexus. An average north indian is still possibly a better person than an average Indian. We do not deserve this kind of maulings on foreign shores. It is high time we gave them back the taste of their medicine.

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