Do we need this?

The past few months have been tumultuous for the world but especially for our city. We have witnessed attacks against 'outsiders', gone through 2 elections, wondered about whether we really need a 350 crore statue or better infrastructure, endured a spate of festivals, besides struggling through everyday life in our metro (the name of which is still a topic worth debating about apparently)..

The one thing that bothers me especially is the growing polarisation amongst communities. As a civilisation, we have a history of discrimination but this is now going beyond all bounds. The recent attacks on north-indians and the politicisation of infrastructure issues to create resentment against poor hardworking people is the sort of low that is expected of politicians but one hopes that the people of our country are by now wise to these gimmicks and that they will not allow themselves to be affected by these. This, however, does not seem to be the case. Even educated and intelligent people are falling prey to these hate speeches and are adopting these as their own philosophy.

I know of a number of people who hate chennai as a city as no one there speaks any language other than Tamil (my experience of the city is wonderful), and yet they insist on doing the same here by not speaking in any language other than marathi and trying to justify it by quoting Chennai as an example. Is this really justifiable? Are you not practising the same principles that you profess to hate? (On an aside, the whole issue about names of cities is really funny too because while the rest of the world calls it chennai, the people who actually live there still refer to it as Madras.)

I remember when these attacks on poor north-indians were happening, a lot of labourers left sites and fled. No local people came up to claim these jobs or to earn wages by working as the labour class. Sites were empty, construction was delayed in a number of projects, there were fewer taxis on the roads, factories in pune and nasik faced big problems with meeting deadlines on orders and suffered losses due to non-delivery of goods in time. The strangest thing was that these factories, taxis, construction companies belonged to local maharashtrians. So really, it didn't matter who suffered so long as the party got mileage and yet no one saw through this.

At that time, it was a crime to be north-indian.. or any outsider for that matter. There was groupism within companies where locals formed one group and the outsiders formed another and there was an air of suspicion and resentment for the other. Did we need this? But if you ask any maharashtrian what they feel about this, you get very guarded answers about how it is unfair and that the city belongs to all but at the same time interests of locals must also be taken care of.. How?? is what I ask. Why can they not appear for the same competitive exams and excel at them? Why can they not hone their skills as carpenters and take up work on sites? Why can't they study and work hard and become leaders in their field as so many of their counterparts have done? How can one local rise to the seniormost position in Citibank but the rest want it handed on a platter? What will happen to merit and excellence? Are we not heading towards mediocrity? One only values what one has to work hard to get.

There is a very good article by Anil Dharker in Times of India dated October 18, 2009. In that he says that this city is a place where people come to make money and those who are willing to work hard at it will make it while those who wait for it to fall into their lap will.. well.. wait. That's about the gist of it. I wish we'd learn this lesson soon so as to lessen the damage we inflict upon ourselves.

The surprising thing is that in older times there was discrimination between the four castes where the fourth caste was untouchable. Then, we had other religions come in and we united against them and it became a fight of Hindus against Muslims and Christians. Then came the British and we all united as one against them to form one India demanding independence. Once we achieved that, we went right back to fighting each other.. first it was hindus against muslims, then it was based on territory, and today it has come down to Brahmin fighting Brahmin based on the language they speak.. one ganesh mandal fighting against the other mandal (for what i do not know.. maybe it's about who plays the loudest music or who gets the most followers or collects the bigger donation or gets the bigger idol.). I'm beginning to think we're looking for excuses for violence. Maybe it's the pent-up frustration that comes as part of living with the constant stress of the city.. but do we need this. Is it not upto us to create a better environment for ourselves?

I remember the time when, as children, we would celebrate all festivals. Be it holi, diwali, navratri, dassehra, baisakhi, basant, christmas or eid... every festival was enjoyed with equal fervour. We would celebrate christmas in school and visit friends' homes and eat sweets. On eid all our neighbours would bring sevaiah and biryani (made veg especially for hindu neighbours) and on holi we would all come together to soak each other with colour. On navratri we all played the garba and dandiya and on Diwali we all exchanged sweets and lit diyas together. Not many knew about the sikh festivals like baisakhi or lodhi but there was no resentment about it. If someone asked, we explained.. if they didn't we celebrated it anyway. No one said that 'you didn't participate in my festival, so I'm not sharing yours'. It was a wonderful childhood and has helped bring us up with not only a healthy respect but also love for all religions, castes, gender, you name it.

Today, it seems to be the exact opposite. We don't want outsiders in the city.. not only that; we also don't want them in the same building. There are exclusive housing colonies for communities. The courts condone this as well. It's unbelievable. How, then, are we justified in condemning attacks on Indians in Australia? They are doing to outsiders what we are doing to our own people. Are we not going there and taking away their jobs? Have we not taken away jobs of number of Americans through our BPO industry. Are they not right in resenting us and demanding job protection? Why are we so hypocritical? Why does logic not figure anywhere in our thought process? I recall a mail about this which talked about how technology for communication has improved but inclination has declined.

Today, we also don't have time for anything or anyone else. In earlier times, and I'm talking about the pre-globalisation era, everyone was happy. No one was super-rich and no one was super-busy. Today corporates decide that a person will get 10 holidays in a year of which 4 or 5 will be fixed holidays which are usually the standard independence and republic day and Gandhi Jayanti type of holidays. The rest of the holidays which are associated with religious festivals are optional holidays which one can take if it is a festival of one's own religion. So what ends up happening is that all muslims celebrate eid together and all hindus celebrate ganesh chaturthi and diwali. This itself causes polarisation of communities.

Do we really need this? Why do we allow others to take over our minds?

I wonder why we are all forgetting what it is like to live life.. Not to endure it and struggle through every day but live it to the fullest with love, laughter, warmth and inclusiveness. It is not difficult. All it needs is a change in the mindset and soon the Bihari who is usurping jobs will not seem like a threat but will be the inspiration to work hard even if it means moving out of the comfort zone, leaving your family behind and seeking new horizons. We find this inspiration in ants but fail to see it in our fellow men. Let us use language for what it is.. a means of communication. Not as a tool for hatred.

Back again

This is my first post since January this year.. After the spurt of emotion post 26/11 (a term i'm using simply because it's well-understood.. ) I had subsided into my own shell..

As Vivek had rightly stated in a comment in one of the previous posts.. we will all raise a hue and cry for a little while, sometimes for a short time, maybe for a little longer.. but we will all get back to our world and will not bother beyond a point..

I'm not sure if that's the reason why I haven't written. It may be part of the reason but at the same time, there was so much happening that it all became too overwhelming. When one is writing about social issues one tends to notice things very minutely and it becomes a disturbing obsession, being critical of everyone and everything. I think I had fallen into that mode and needed to get out of it to look at everything more objectively.

The long break has not stopped me from observing but has allowed me to stop and think and then decide how I feel about it and form an opinion after serious deliberation instead of rushing out and posting a commentary about it.

I hope whatever I write will come across as such..