The Great "Bombay" Divide

Of late, all I hear of is .. a shop being demolished.. a man being beaten up .. for no fault of his, on 

the mere accusation that he's spoiling the "culture" .. Does our culture include beating up people, destroying valuable property, enforcing illogical rules on others without having the right to do so? 

The recent occurences by the MNS activists has developed great dismay amongst all 

Bombay (I prefer calling it that!) citizens.. 

Maybe, Mr. Raj Thackeray is doing this for getting the Marathi votebank, but little does he realise, this is making him lose his self respect in the society.. if he had any! 

The activists started with beating up immigrants from UP.

Then it was with cinemas showing only Hindi and English movies.. He made it compulsory for 

every theatre across the street to screen a Marathi movie. If that wasn't enough, he forced people to change their company/restaurant's names from Bombay to Mumbai.. Its so ridiculous changing names like Bombay Blues , Bombay Dyeing, Bombay Scottish .. to Mumbai Blues and the like. Its not even his right to do that.. No one even bothered to take action against this. 

And then he came up with what he calls "the Marathi revolution" .. He forced shop owners to 

change their hoardings from English to Marathi, with the Marathi font larger than the English one. It was a rule by the BMC, agreed. But who gives this party a right to take it in its hands? A 

deadline was given, and after this deadline, the BMC took action, fair enough. Was the drama 

created by these MNS activists necessary ? 

And then again, at the music release of the Bacchan movie "Drona" , Jaya Bacchan chose to

 speak in her own mother tongue offering sincere apologies to Marathi folks asking them not to 

feel bad. This was interpreted as an insult by the MNS activists.. How can they even think of 

something like that? Moreover, he banned Bacchan movies being shown in theatres.. If this wasnt enough, he went ahead and asked everyone to stop using products which the Bacchans endorsed..  All this... and the government is doing nothing but look!!

When the Mumbai commissioner rightly said that Mumbai does not belong to anyone in 

particular, but to anyone who resides in here , he passed a harsh comment against this 

commissioner too !!

He's really a hypocrite.. he had himself taken up German in college, and he chants Marathi slogans while he sends his son to Bombay Scottish!

They'll soon ban English too! All in the name of statehood..!!

I say, he should be arrested for provoking communal violence. 

Why cant they do something constructive instead of all this ???

Recently with the Ganpati celebrations going on, in VileParle, a man requested for the volume of 

the Bhajans to be turned down since his dad just had a heart operation.. He was beaten up by the Shivsena activists of his society! 

This is not even humane..!! 

I am very passionate about Bombay, and I love this city for the freedom it offers, for

 the way 

people of different communities live together in harmony, celebrate festivals together

 irrespective of what religion they belong to..  

Even during the 11/7 blasts and the 26/7 floods, no injured Maharastrian asked for a helping hand from another Maharashtrian... we left it all behind cuz when it comes to humanity, nothing else matters!

My college group consists of Punjabis, Gujaratis, Muslims, South-Indians me being one myself,  

Maharashtrians, North-Indians, and I love it when we all have our dabbas together during breaks.. I love it when I'm never asked for my last name, and when I'm asked where I'm from, I proudly say Bombay!

But with the current scenario, I wont be surprised if all of us would be kicked out of here soon.. i 

already don't like the look of it anymore.. its really sad..