Tired of communal politics & mudslinging in Maharashtra?
Tired of debating endlessly on communal tension in Mumbai?
Have you started religiously hating someone because of him being a localite or vice versa?
Why do you think this is happening?
Around a week back, I was chilling in my balcony, sipping delicious masala chai, enjoying the 3 am breeze, before being rudely interrupted from my ‘half awake’ state by one of my roomies.
“I hate all of this communal bullshit in Mumbai” he proclaimed.
I turned to find P, M & Patty engaged in a rather heated conversation involving Mumbai’s political scenario, complete with facts & figures thrown around, with swearing loud enough to make my rather docile gujju neighbors raise an alarm. Having a sizable number of Maharastrian & ‘non-Maharastrian’ friends, I’d been through this situation so many times! A wave of déjà vu hit me as I sat there silently thinking about all the hate & paranoia encompassing us.
As I sat there listening to P joking about declaring Mumbai as an independent country, my mind raced back in time. It brought back innumerable questions put forth to me by my Marathi friends. I’ve listed down a few which actually seemed justified to me.
To make it very very simple, locals are unhappy. Why? Now that is `the` issue we need to address!
I see every minute and not-so-minute issue been taken up and blasted way out of proportion everyday by the media.
I see politicians with magnetic personalities give inflammatory speeches which drive people into a violent frenzy!!
Why glorify or hate people who misuse civil unrest?
Instead, why not address the core issue.
Till date, I have only seen hefty accusations & anger-invoking insults being flayed.
I hope this post does not invoke similar responses here. Rather, I would like to open up this forum so that people can talk about what’s bothering the ‘Marathi Manus’ and probably come up with some useable and feasible solutions for the same.
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