Saturday, March 08, 2008

Discrimination outside and inside

We haven't quite forgotten how bollywood babe Shilpa Shetty felt sidelined for her Indian skin tone and her Indian ways, a lot of noise was made from all corners then. Recently there was a nationwide opposition towards Andrew Seymonds and Australian cricket team
in general. They came across as rude and discriminating . But while all this happened , were some Mumbaites keeping mum? Because they were doing the same thing at home against fellow Indians. Eminent political figures of Maharastra and their staunch followers this time around, were not covertly discriminating against the north Indians, they did it openly and on camera. They got an outlet in guise of Raj Thackeray who either really harbours irreconcilable anger towards north Indians or seems to be playing it as a trump card in the electoral world . He wants to capitalize on it. At least he wants to. So what he has done and the spark that he has ignited, is it wrong? Dont think so. He has said what many of us might have felt or sensed.But what many of us may feel, does not mean that what we feel is correct or justified, example: We may feel like sinning sometimes. NB: Sinning has various connotations, not just one.Anyways, in short, majority may win but majority is not always right! Would not take rocket scientist to figure out that Thackerays could not quite crack it this time.In the long run, nothing short of magnanimity, accommodation and being in the right side of the accepted behaviour will help. So its no crime to feel cold and alienated in your own home if it gets flooded with guests but the idea is to make space for people in your own space, to let go of this possessiveness, because you would not be able to save 'your own illusionary territory' from outsiders for long in anycase. As long as Mumbai has anything to offer, people would come here, they have a legal right to move about freely in their own country. Let them come , dont stop the process, this will only disturb the self-correcting mechanism of the place towards achieving equilibrium. Thanks to the massive population, Mumbai is so ridiculously expensive already, not many people would take the decision to shift to Mumbai these days. The city seems to have become a place for very rich, and perpetually struggling other classes. I think the point I want to make is that we Indians are brilliantly hypocritical, we make noise at something we are so rampantly doing ourselves, whether it is the mentioned racism, or opposing West's decision to cut jobs for Indians but what we do at home, is disgraceful. We are discrimination at every which level, class, caste, colour, creed, you name it, we have it, here in India. Talking of colour , we dote on white skin (but scream blue murder when a white guy says that white skin is more attractive, now, this might be a boon for black female tourists who thankfully don't get raped by our white-skin lover males but this isn't a great news for white women, sorry girls, you are vulnerable considering our countrymen's orientation and tastes). . Anyways....the tip for the T-team is that no body votes for people whose election campaign deals in sabotaging three out of six fundamental rights. I would say that what you have done in the past few days is sheer lack of tact. You could have promised the local people that if they vote you in, you would ensure provision of a fixed quota of jobs for the localites and make Mumbai a pride infrastructurally. Golden Rule: Niceness rules and people who feed a dragon end up in their stomach. So don't do anything that reflects your narrow horizons. I mean, what kind of a jerk is your politcal advisor? why dont you fire him and keep a bihari instead? Dont worry we wont tell anyone(Shhh!! ). Biharies and north indians have a greater kautilya acumen. you have got to face it.

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