It was a usual chilly morning. I had just arrived in office and after dumping my laptop bag on my seat, headed towards the cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee. I was half asleep and still praying for the day to pass by as fast as possible without any major issues.
While the coffee machine was busy making strange noises to prepare my cuppa , I stared here and there in the cafeteria.
Suddenly my semi sleepy eyes glittered and I tried hard to open them as wide as possible to confirm what I was watching was actually true.
There lay New York Times with Barack Obama’s pic on the front cover and headline as “Buck up US , India is coming …”
Oh man what can be a better news headline to start your day 🙂 . I read the entire article how Obama had praised Indians for their hunger for growth and at the same time a warning to fellow Americans to tie their belts and pull their socks up or else Indians will overtake them. Happy ,delighted and elated I moved proudly towards my workstation.
Not even half of the day had passed that I noticed a different environment around my cubicle. Generally I take least interest what others are speaking but when words like “Obama” ,”India”, “science & technology” fell on my ears ,I too took interest in gossip session they were having. Soon I realized they were talking about the same statement given by Obama the previous day.
I too joined the discussion that followed and being the only Indian in the group of Americans ,they were more interested in what I had to say about it.
The discussion that followed involved everything from the fairy tale growth story of India in all the fields of science , tehnology,education,sports,IT,retail,ISRO…..and the list was endless.
The firangis were awed and amazed to hear it. They had heard or read from other means but hearing from an Indian gave them a different and interesitig picture .And I being the flag bearer of my country and a proud Indian boasted about all these qualities. Especially our unity in diversity , our different culture,languages,food,religion but still progressing as one nation.
Our banking system ,entrepreneurship, Tata’s nano, how we weathered the economic recession and how we are scripting a growth story for entire world were some of the topics which involved heated discussion with fellow americans.
It was more of a gd practice for me 🙂
Never before in my life had I felt so proud being an Indian, than I was that day. I had got a reason to show these firangis that they may be No.01 country but we too have the things which they may never have. Meanwhile I had invited few of the firangis to visit India once as our guests and explore the beauty of the place .
Happily finishing off the day, I returned home and told my roomie the incident of the day. He too was happy.
Couple of days later when I was having my evening cup of tea I logged into the laptop to read the Times of India e-paper. And their lay another surprise for me. The heading read as “Mumbai belongs to marathis, others should leave the state…”
My mood went off “Oh god not again” I screamed. My roomie enquired me in astonishment.
All the happiness and pride of the previous days went crashing in a moment .I sat there with a feeling of refugee -cheated, exploited and betrayed;not by any other person or country but by our own countrymen.
“How the hell can a selected group of politicians take the entire country to ransom and claim that a particular state belongs to them and people from other states should not even dare to come there??Are we not Indians first and then belong to different states? Why such people are continuously allowed to pollute the peaceful minds of the people in name of caste, religion and statehood?
In lieu of political power how dare they be allowed to harm the very social fabric of the country? Goons are let free on the street .If you say anything opposing them you are asked to apologize in public or get a thrashing or If you happen to be a Muslim you are asked to leave the country and go to Pakistan ?? I want a justification for it…”
My temper was running high, and I would have continued further if my roomie had not interrupted me “Hey chill yaar, dil par mat le….”
But my question is why not ?? On the one hand we are projecting ourselves as the emerging superpower but on the other hand we are still engulfed in such petty and menial issues and fighting like animals of stone age.
The world is welcoming us with open arms but we are not even invited in our different states of the country.
Why don’t these people understand that we are a democratic country, talibanization doesn’t work here. If they intend to continue doing this , they are most welcome to go there, why are they asking a patriotic film star to leave the country.
And who is paying the price for all this after all?? We the common people, who actually sweat out to build and run this country, unlike these bloodsucker politicians who loot us.
Even from economic point of view, I would like to mention that industrial conglomerates have already started moving out of Mumbai towards Gujarat for setting up new business. Reason is very clear, no sensible person would ever want to come to a state moored by hooligans. It is a sad irony of India that a person who keeps an AK47 with himself by mistake with no intend of killing anyone is put behind bars under TADA but the these terrorists in the skin of political parties let loose on streets, are greater threat then those people across border. Because the weapons these are using is more lethal and pose serious consequences than those bybullets.
Its high time we Indians wake up and from deep slumber and make our country proud .
ShahRukh,Mukesh Ambani and Rahul Gandhi have already shown the way to do it.. we just need to follow…
We need no menacing neighbours as long as we have these menacy egomaniacs..Very true what u said…
I loved that last pic..WOW
The last pic was fab and relax dude the likes of sena will be answered in elections this is why democracy was placed in the first place so that the powers be do not forget the people.
I totally agree with you… I get frustrated at times when I read such news… why can’t these parties be banned ? why can’t we stand against these bullies ? And then we say “Mera Bharat Mahaan”.. what an irony!!
Pic bhi achi baat bhi achi,
but who will explain these things to our politicians, they are just running behind their own benefits and dividing the country. What Australians are doing with Indians is not wrong, if we are doing same among ourselves.
Jago India Jago.
good one!!
Hey nice one….But u know what even I was reading one article in the TOI related to this..and some of our “Intellectual society” posted their views on the same incident..and I was astonished to read that, there is also some number of people of our society who believe in the strategy of our “loosers” politicians and are willing to partition Mumbai from India…
Dont knw how to respond to that….But I think whole India is singing the same song…Be it Tamilians,Telenagana,or Kanadiga….Atleast I have faced this in these states….
So we cant blame only politicians now…
@ Upasana
Thanks for your views 🙂
Yes you are right that even so called educated class is singing the same song. But have you wondered who had sowed the
seeds of regionalism in their minds?? who is affecting their thought process ??
who is capitialzing the job insecurity among people ??
If you ponder over these questions you will get only one reply –> POLITICIANS to a large extent.
Instead of focussing for growth and progress for masses ( which is a tough thing to achieve)
these people resort to cheap gimmics like these to get votes and its equally sad that educated class is not able to apply their wisdom.
whatever is happening in telanga,maharashatra, chennai etc are all incited by politicians…
@Dhiraj
I have full faith in democracy but not in the politicians who have such narrow thinking…
Hope we could see more youngsters with broad minded approach entering in politics and shouldering the responsibilty of taking out this entering on the verge of mess…
@Lover boy
Thanks…
You are right , as long as such people are there in the system we don’t people across border attack us.
Hi Rajput …. was in 2 minds after reading this post on whether to comment or not I am going against my better instincts and commenting knowing fully well u may not agree with my views .. I know such issues are close to your heart n I consider u to be one of my very few intellectual friends therefore would like to give u a small advice … Embrace Logic, emotions hamper and cloud our thought process and try to look at anything from all the possible viewpoints(Its my mantra in life !!) Coming back to the post ..
I am sorry that being a maharashtrian (a small truth – my identity in Rest of India) emotion may play a minor role in the forthcoming missive I would like to implore the readers to sift through them and obtain facts and truths.
First of all let me state that like most of well-to-do and educated maharashtrians I oppose the means employed by these hard-liners , but just like rest of maharashtrians I also empathize/sympathize with their views (dodging harsh feedback 😀 )…
For those who are from outside maharashtra/mumbai a little information about the ground scenario …
For the past several years SS & MNS led by the thackerys have been agitating/ protesting mostly by violent means with anti-hindi, anti migrants (from U.P. and Bihar) and not anti-India (like in J&K -> ergo not sepratist these guys are very much pro-India) agenda. I am not going to state any opinion here but would like to put forward some reasons why this viewpoint strikes a chord with the rest of maharashtrians. After reading them pls form your own unclouded opinions.
1)A majority of maharashtrians have a firm belief in the concept of “Swarajya and Nationalism” as can be seen in the pages of history with people like Shivaji, Tilak and Savarkar; even the RSS brand of politics has a large number of followers in maharashtra. Like anyone else in India they resent any form of foreign (here out of state – rule/ slavery – economic or otherwise) interference/repression (it is viewed like mughals/british once again)…must have become a part of local genetic memory.Being a 2nd class citizens is simply not tolerated.
2)A little less known historical fact, prior to 1960 the region of maharashtra and gujrat was a single bilingual state. During the formation of states on linguistic grounds-Gujrat, Maharashtra and Mumbai(although predominantly marathi) was proposed – with Mumbai being a Union territory. This led to widespread agitation throughout maharashtra – for the inclusion of mumbai and surrounding region into maharashtra – known as the Samyukt (One)Maharshtra movement – 105 Maharshtrians were killed (a monument for them the Hutatma Chowk stands in Mumbai).
3)Maharshtra is one of the most economically advanced and progressive states in India – the credit of which does not all go to migrants and mumbai. Although maharshtrians are the most socio-economically progressive in nature, the common perception of a Marathi speaking person is a lazy, illiterate, highly violent, capable of doing only menial jobs – as depicted in most Hindi movies (corrupt cop, kaamwaali Bai, lazy peon – bureaucrat etc.) or summed up in a single word as Ghati (originally meant as a person from across the western ghats)- but now a highly derogatory term used for maharashtrians commonly heard in mumbai locals in the form “Tum saale ghati lok”. This perception is present even in the highly educated – rich, pseudo-intellectuals of South Mumbai whose only contact with maharashtrians is the Kaamwaali bai. The perception is only partially true with its own set of reasons.
4)Marathi is now a linguistic minority forming less than 40% of mumbai’s (capital of marathi speaking maharashtra) population. The jobs generally followed by many linguistic groups in mumbai and maharashtrian sentiment towards them – Punjabi (highly assimilated very cordial) mostly engaged in self owned buisness, Taxi-owners; gujrati (don’t hate don’t love (neighbourly)- older generations assimilated); South Indians – (Cuturally Similar, respected but agitated against as monopolized class 3, white collar jobs through lobbying and favoritism in 1969) – holding white collar jobs mainly in banks, schools etc., hindi speaking migrants mainly from U.P and Bihar (Behavioral conflict, no effort at assimilation – very much resented) – any odd jobs, from hawkers to chowkidar to construction labour,local transport and railways is dominated;Maharashtrians (locals) – presence in almost everything(predominantly government & banks) – except buisness owners but percentage is decreasing with a large number of local educated youth being unemployed. Was heavily employed in the textile industry – but with the mills being razed to make way for malls and resulting jobs being doled out to migrants – disgruntled/ disaffected therby being influenced by these politicians.
5)Reasons for current agitations(thoroughly muddled by media as well as the agitating parties (MNS & SS)) :-
1)Shahrukh Khan :- made a statement supporting inclusion of Pakistani players.(Why should he or any Indian sympathize with any pakistani?? It is an enemy nation(recently hosted a gathering of 40 terror groups who are plotting against india – pakistani governments envoy – Hamid Gul – ex ISI chief) and should be treated as such by severing all ties… those who advocate peace and cordial relations arguing for co-existence of terror and sports pls spare a thought about the families who hav lost members due to this conflict, will they be able to watch IPL – KKR team with pakistani players ??
2)Rahul Gandhi- Made a statement implying that the commandoes who defended mumbai during 26/11 attacks were from UP and Bihar. Why werent they told to get lost by SS and MNS?. I feel that this statement is highly irresponsible and dangerous from the future PM of India. Defence of my country knows no region,language, caste or creed. The armed forces are Indians, in fact they are more Indian than us civilians plain and simple .. What was he thinking? I had a bit of hope from him but it was also dashed.. he too belives in divisive politics (he was canvassing for the Bihar elections)- play one region against another….
3)Current spate of anti-hindi agitations:- 5000 taxi permits were to be renewed in mumbai. rule by government that in order that they should be given to locals the basic criteria would be knowledge of the local language – marathi and knowledge of the city mumbai. Opposition by the taxi lobby – most taxi drivers (not punjabi – most of them speak excellent marathi) migrants who have refused to assimilate (few have stayed for almost 10 yrs in mumbai – most do not know even the basic geography of the city) do not speak marathi. Result:- Rollback from the government saying hindi, gujrati are also local languages.
Rajput I am sorry for the length of the comment but I would like to request all the readers there are always 2 sides to a coin – in an ideal situation there would be no conflicts of interests or opinions, happiness and cordiality would prevail, but in this world there is always more than 1 side try to look at it too b4 forming opininons..
ye apna dost anand hi hai naa??? aur koi ho to sorry… par maharastra pe itn detail mein yehi likh sakta hai 😀
Great to read the article. I wish every Indian read this and learn from this.
What a great blog and revealing post.