Atithi Devo Bhava????... Not Exactly!!!

First things first, I am not making any statements here in support of any sort of political violence (have always believed these parochial regional parties to be a dim-witted extremist group, who think they have the right to control anybody’s speech or expression)…. If any, I clearly condemn the violence targeted against any particular community. But my post is a logical assimilation of facts about why the ‘Mumbai for the natives’ finds ground with many Mumbaikars. And I know of hundreds of educated people who are equally supportive of this stance, including two of my CA friends who are also workers of MNS. Hence, my quest to find what drives educated people in my city to support, silently or otherwise, the so-called regional fanaticism? Is the fanaticism indeed misplaced?

I go with simple facts. The very existence of the dual concept of a ‘state’ (based on the linguistic prototype in our country) & a nation has been formed on the premise that every state can concentrate better & provide better infrastructure & support to the citizens belonging to that region. Nd citizens means by definition, a person domiciled in that particular state. Hence providing employment to the citizens of the state is also under the purview of the state government. So if a government decides to reserve certain jobs for its own citizens (in this case, taxi drivers) on the basis of the number of years of stay in a region, what is wrong in that? You certainly can’t have citizens committing suicides in your own state for lack of means of livelihood, while supporting the new influx of outside population everyday, right. Even Americans follow that…. as everybody knows, there are restrictions on people of one state working in other; a lawyer, for e.g., qualified in one state, needs to pass the bar-exam of another state to start practicing there. And for people who say, that jobs should be on the basis of talent…isn’t reservation the basic fabric of Indian constitution? I mean, it should be okay to accept reservation based on regionalism, atleast in jobs where no major & specific skill sets are required, when you have almost 50% reservations based on casteist politics every where else, right? You certainly can’t condemn one thing & accept another. If jobs-for-the-natives-thought doesn’t hold ground, why have states in the first place based on linguistic criteria?

Plus Mumbai is a unique case which can’t be compared with the rest of the country. No other city has seen this extent of migration & that too for so long. Wouldn't it be hypocritical to turn a blind eye to certain harsh social and political realities of Mumbai? With nearly 2 crore residents in the Mumbai & the nearby areas of Navi Mumbai and Thane, its population has rapidly grown to become greater than the combined population of nine Indian states. (official facts!) Its once-famed infrastructure is highly overstretched, lowering the quality of life for rich and poor alike. It once had the best municipal governance in India; not any more. Fifty-four per cent of its residents live in slums, most of which are so unbelievably congested and squalid that it is criminal on the part of any government to let people live in such inhuman conditions. Some 20,000 houses in the older part of the city are in a dangerously dilapidated state, the reason why every monsoon one reads about people dying in incidents of house collapse.

Mumbai, sadly is crumbling. Reeling, tottering & decaying under the ever-burgeoning population it supports. Everybody who has travelled in a local train for more than an hour everyday on one foot, swathed in sweat, will testify that. And if a person sitting in some plush office, traveling some 10 mins in a car in South Mumbai to reach work, advocates Mumbai for all…all the common man can say is ‘Shut the hell up!’ The fact remains that the city seriously can’t bear the burden of the weight of the daily migration (and that too in thousands!) on its infrastructure. But few politicians in the city, state or country are taking a serious and comprehensive view of its chronic condition, and fewer still are willing to take the tough decisions to set things right. By tough decisions, one does not mean resorting to violence— against north Indians or Indians from any other part of India — from settling in Mumbai. That certainly is wrong. But is it wrong to hold that encroachments should be stopped, that people must not be allowed to occupy pavements and places earmarked for public utilities, or that the cut-off years for regularisation of slums must be strictly adhered to?

Indeed the questions being asked are right, just they are going about in a wrong way doing the same.

And thats how it has been....

It has been a long time since I was here last. I know that because it is my blog (obviously) and because I had forgotten my password. Actually, I think I remembered the password but had forgotten the username. So, I couldn't post. Nyways the crux of the matter is I am reminded of good'ol Arnie in the Terminator, wielding the heavy machine gun & rising from the ashes like a phoenix (proverbially!) screaming I M BACK!!!! Hallelujah :)

I am now in Bangalore, jobless after 5 yrs of mentally fatiguing work, waiting to move to NY & trying to come to terms with the fact that I am no longer a Mumbaikar. Nd also trying to figure out why Bangalore is topographically sooo confusing...I mean I wonder who was the guy who came up with the brainwave of having a road identification system consisting of a 'Cross' nd a 'Main'. Surely, there is no dearth of leaders in India who can help simplify the road-identification process by lending the streets their esteemed names...

What warms my heart is how the locals smile benignly at me, like the friendly neighbourhood Santa Claus or your all-forgiving favourite uncle/aunt, when I try talking to them in the altogether distinct dialect of Marathi-mixed "Belgaum Kannada", with a strong Mumbaiyya overtone and frequently accompanied by lots of hand-gestures. Like the other day, I was trying to tell my driver about the need to go to Marathalli, when he said I reminded him of a school teacher from Dharwad who used to catch hold of every mischief-begetting student by their ears & shout "Ayyo, Mangya-Magane" (Translated, Oh son of a Monkey) Whatever!!!

Also, what warms my heart but for entirely different reasons, is the slothful, greedy, overcharging, meter-rigging gang of auto-rickshaw fellows. You come across a rickshaw stand and no-one is willing to take you where you want to go. Finally one agrees at a price that makes you wonder if you are making a monthly transaction. Then 7 minutes of haggling and a tripping ride over some 3 flyovers that look the same. And that's when you think of your years in Mumbai and how that prepared you for the world. And you sigh!

Now coming to the question often asked to me these days. Hows married life? Often accompanied by a big joking smiley (:P). As if !!!!

Theoratically, a Taurean & an Ariean are not supposed to get along with each other (Thank u, Linda Goodman!).We can prove u wrong, Linda. Amply demonstrated by the simple fact that would have never even thought about (let alone implement) preparing bed-tea for ANYBODY in the morning a year back!

Usually I talk to P really late into the night. (Please mind the usage of the preposition to.Implies I am seriously preparing for my GMAT) That is the only time we get to talk to each other. (There are snatches during the day, but they don’t count because then, we don’t fight and we don’t make up.) After a half hour of the routine arguments where he’ll keep saying, ‘What ARE you talking about?’ and not give me a chance to tell him what indeed I am talking about, we settle down and be very sweet to each other. We’re at this phase when both of us are blessed with bad memories, and I am quite grateful for that. I do know this is just a phase though. Otherwise, he never forgets and I never stop reminding – it’ll be fun to see where all this sharp memory will take us in the future.

But all things said & done, what I always love hearing from him is the , ‘How was your day?’ I think the reason my heart tugs at this question is because it is innocuous enough, but it seems weighted with care. It’s only a day and it’s over when P asks me about it.Sweet na! Gives me a chance to vent my feelings about my Houdini-incarnate maid who does the disappearing act every time there are lots of greasy dishes piled-up! Grrrrrr.....

Marriage gives you the right to preach to somebody. So, its ever-so-clumsy me, lecturing my hubby about leaving a tap "accidentally on" which flooded the entire kitchen. Or my perennially messy hubby lecturing me about how-he-cant-stand-a-messy-bedroom. However somethings seldom change. Still like to read on thousands of issues & debate it out. Earlier it was with the unsuspecting junta who were co-erced into reading my blog. Nowadays it is with my equally-enthu-about-debates-bring-it-on-hubby, with topics ranging as far & wide as commodity markets to the Jewish exodus from Egypt to the future of casteist leaders in the country to the latest one, theoratical physics!!!

Also never knew before marriage, that the simple weekend exercise of watching a movie can be made more entertaining by the usual- who-was-instrumental for--being-late-for-the-movie hall blame-game. Sometimes, I think I see more histrionics before entering the movie hall than after. Lolz.

Now who was the wise guy who said "married life is boring"? Bring him on!