Attended the rally along with a zillion others. We were talking about it later with a bunch of friends, and i guess most of felt the immense surge of power and potency that a vast gathering of single-minded people generate. Dont think something has happened on this large a scale in most of our active memories, and it was great to just be a part of that.It kind of sets you thinking about the huge lack of any standard of politician in the city. If ANY one of the corrupt, inept and generally dyslexic bunch had been there that night, they'd have been lynched.
Without respect for badge or label. Irrespective of Z+ security. You cant afford to mess with the entire city and not plan for a whiplash. The city showed itself larger and scarier than their worst nightmare come true.
I think everyone felt the surge. The feeling that something CAN actually change, and hence the desperate attempts to harness and protect the feeling, not let it dilute, keep it going. Its something that can swing a generation into action.
The Catalyst was provided, the action was there. Im sure none of the politicians slept easy that night. They probably kept awake the way we did when the terrorists were rampaging.
The MOST refreshing thing was Bombay's one-liner summaries of events. Precise and super. And cutting and sarcastic across the board.
Equally refreshing were the clarifications of the so called "Marathi Manoos". There were superb marathi signs clearly denouncing Mr.T's divisive brand of politics. This is a point of immense importance. It is SO important for us to NEVER associate the leaders with the public. Just becuase Mr.T is Marathi, he does NOT speak for the population at large. When statements like "Marathas feel that..." are made, they are addressed ONLY for the handful of nutcases employed by him to do his bidding. Its an easy point to miss in a generalisation. And we are the shorthand generation, generalisations save time. Its easy to categorise and label, rather than stop and understand each subtle difference. The rally made that clear in more ways than one. No generalisations, leave us ( the true Mumbaikars ) alone. Do NOT include us in your overall estimations, in your vote calculations.
You guys do NOT represent us. You've lost that privilege. Its time for new faces to step in, and we are going to be critical. No taken-for-granteds. You gotta prove your shit, or get the hell out of there. However, the other side of the fence has to be acknowledged too.
Its also really really important to understand that the politicians do NOT represent a nation. Just the way we cringe when we see Mr.Deshmukh snoozing in an ATS meeting, or our beloved local politicians debasing the memories of slain heroes in just 4 days by rushing madly for the empty chair, Pakistan must surely be having its share of cringing. I cannot believe that we are that diferent. It hasnt been that long, and we're just WAY too similar. We just need to step out of our country, to Boston, to Dubai, to Singapore, and the differences and politics literally evaporate. They are so much like us its not funny. Listen to the same music, see the same movies, abuse the same politicians. The blind warpath is NOT the solution.
It just means more pro-active citizen level initiatives need to happen. If the leaders of the nation cant stand up and unite us, we bloody well get out acts together. It happens everywhere. In Institutions, fed up with the lack of faculty, its just important to write to whomsover is required, and request them ( politely ) to get their butts there irrespective. The system does exist, but it can be bypassed with clear and open motives. Nobody can doubt us if we are secular. No-one can say its a bad thing. So misdirected anger is kinda a spanner in the works, not a solution.
The guys who got their banners up at the Gateway know this.
4 comments:
Why is Raj Thackeray singled out every time? He is a politician- like all others. Why he is 'worse' than even lalu and mulayam or narendra modi for that matter?
Just because he speaks about marathi- a language and culture you so desperately want to perish?
Just because he may insist that the sons of the soil of maharashtra get their rights- just as the locals in other states get?
He doesn't play 'divisive' politics. He only wants marathi people's rights to be protected. But I guess in this country..you people do not want marathis to have the same rights in maharashtra that tamils have in tamilnadu and malyalis have in kerala.
Would really like to understand the "rights" you speak about.I am yet to understand how anybody's rights are protected by vandalism and outright, senseless actions.Are u referring to reservations in public offices, government services? I think the way to protect a people and a language is infinitely more challenging and layered than he would have you believe.
I suggest you question how many schools Mr.Thackeray has set up, how many colleges, how many libraries, how many educational centres been popularised, how many local artists / talent / writing / literature he has promoted?
Sir, that is the way to promote a culture.I fail to see the co-relation between kicking Biharis out of the state, burning Taxis, public property ( which YOUR taxes have paid for ) and holding a city shut ( not too unlike the Terrorists )and promoting a culture.Sincerely doubt that the Marathi Manoos even FEATURES on his agenda.
Do have a look at other minority or even lesser-than-minority-status communities, and how they're protecting themselves. The Parsis, the Aga Khani's, the Bohras, there are examples all around.Look at the hospitals, the housing provisions, the theaters, the libraries - and that's mostly philanthropic.
It just takes imagination and a little thought.A quality that Mr.T severely lacks. And he has SO much potential. He is really proactive, and seems motivated.
Maybe he's just burdened under the legacy of all that has happened around him.We really look for fresh leadership, and he needs to understand that his agenda has an EXTREMELY short life.Do read this article by Vir Sanghvi on a little historical correction of the T Family's agendas.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=86221037-beaa-4f3c-ade9-703dc0790eee&&Headline=Counterpoint+|+Thakre+%26amp%3b+Thackeray
Paraphrasing Vir Sanghvi, God bless his soul
"In 1980, when he ( Balasaheb ) first pushed to change the name of the city, he was able to joke about it. At the time I was editor of Bombay magazine and publicly opposed to the proposal. “Don’t worry,” he told me, “you won’t have to change the name of your magazine to Mumbai.” Over a decade later, when the Centre finally dropped its opposition to the change and Bombay became Mumbai, he was still quite happy to allow the Bombay Stock Exchange and the rest to continue using ‘Bombay’. His own grandson went to Bombay Scottish School.
On the other hand, the Lankans don’t get hysterical about the use of the term Ceylon tea. The Iranians do not demand that every Persian cat be renamed an Iranian kitten. The historical contexts are all unchanged: it’s still Persian art or a Persian rug.
But the Thackerays don’t understand history — or consistency for that matter. As my colleague Sujata Anandan wrote perceptively in the HT’s Bombay edition on Wednesday, this new-found zeal sits uneasily with Bal Thackeray’s own record: if he’s so keen on Marathi usage, then he should use his real name. It’s Thakre not Thackeray, in the manner of William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair. Not only does Thackeray use the anglicised spelling, he even pronounces it like the English author, who, as far as I know, was not a Marathi manoos.
Worse still, I don’t think that either Bal or Mini-me really care about the issue anyway. They just need a cause that sounds emotive and chauvinistic enough to motivate the goondas in their cadres. Thackeray is now old enough to recognise that this kind of platform is not sufficient to hold a party together in the long run. But faced with the threat from Raj, he’s had to go back to the primitive chauvinism of the Sena’s early years.
It would be a tragedy if the people or the politicians of the city of Bombay allowed this rivalry between uncle and nephew to change the traditions and heritage of this great metropolis. The only way to handle the Thackeray campaign is to hold firm and to tell the old boy to sort out his family disputes in the privacy of his own home.
We are certainly not changing any more names only because he can’t handle his nephew."
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