It is time to march….to towns!
I know that all of us have failed somewhere in our duty. The political leaders have failed in compromising our security and we have failed allowing them to have their corrupt way in everything. The caption of an article in ‘The Hindu’ says it all!
I am feeling very helpless now. Is it possible to live a quiet undisturbed life in Mumbai? Certainly not. Shiv Sena had already called for Mumbai Bandh on December 1 to bring all activities to a grinding halt. Thankfully, they have called it off now.
Every year a certain political party organises a public meeting in early December. About a hundred thousand are brought in to attend the meeting. It plays havoc with commuters’ traffic. People leave offices early to avoid delays and disturbance.
The anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition follows. The security is tightened. Every year I fear and so do many others that a bomb may explode anywhere in Mumbai on that day. This year the fear will be at its worst.
Political parties are spreading hatred among Indians; the Government is a silent spectator to it because they do not wish to lose their ‘vote banks’, their reluctance to act emboldens the miscreants.
South Mumbai was considered to be one of the safest places in Mumbai. Partly because the Secretariat of Government of Maharashtra is located there. Now we have realised that it is not a safe place. As a child, I often went there on New Year’s Day and also on the Republic Day. I will be afraid of going there now. I had happy memories of that place, now no longer.
Mumbai is no longer a great place to live in and other metro cities are no better. It is time to march to a town!
Vivek
Sir, you and I should not march to a town! If at all, then for creating a revolution by rallying people around or joining some persons who are of our ilk and thinking.
No more of this nonsense should we tolerate. Let’s rise to the occasion and act.We can.
Thank you so much for striking a cheerful, if cynical, note on a very depressing occasion.
Marching to a town may take us off the terror map temporarily, but as the SMS which is doing the rounds says:
“We can be saved from the devil who comes in boats,
But who will save us from the devil who comes for votes?”
They come to towns and even villages, you see, though only once in every five years or so.
Yes Sir !
Yes lets march. And go to town with the message that we shall overcome. Lets go to town with the microphones hollering and throats crying hoarse for change ! May it fall on all ears. Some ears will be the right ears. And those need not be people who are / in power !
Lets go to town with the message change !
Vivek,
Mumbai was never really a great choice for living , if you exclude the early 60’s.
But circumstances and the business of earning a living brought many of us here.
If an army commando with zero roots here but infinite patriotism can fight for us till his last breath, the least we can do, is stay on, study and change the system , by democratic means , within and without….
Like someone said, things sometimes have to reach rock bottom , before they rise up again.
lets hope our rise up again has slowly but surely commenced.
When you are feeling low, you tend to see everything negative in a situation, perhaps that’s what happened to me.
Many thanks Iyer, Kavi, Sucharita [I liked the sms] and Ugich Konitari [I agree with you, we have to stay on and fight and not give up at all].
Vivek