Long Walk To Freedom……

People describe it as a long walk,

But with my people’s support,

I felt like a stroll in a Park,

Twenty Seven Years in that tiny cell,

Could have been worse than hell,

But I was determined not to give in,

The ray of light through that thin slit,

Always ignited the flame of hope deep within me,

It made me resolute not to raise white flag,

As we were fighting for colors,

We needed white, black, brown, grey & all,

To built to built this Rainbow nation,

Had a dream, dream rubbished by the guards,

Mocked at by inmates,

Lived by me,

I had to win by winning hearts,

History has seen biggest wars are fought for Love,

But I fought my biggest war with love,

If I was never deported to Robben island,

Never would have discovered Mahtma deep within me.

PS:- I was inspired to write on Mr. Mandela after watching the movie Invictus

Who Owns Mumbai?

I wrote this piece 3 years back, Just came across it so thought of posting it again on Whimsical Life


Land of million opportunities, where million dreams are buried and born every day, home to Bollywood testimonial to thousands of scripted success stories, witness to many, ‘Big Indian Dreams ‘coming true…,Maximum City, City that never sleeps…it can be associated with many such adjectives.
The city is Jewel of all Metros , Mumbai contributes 10% of factory employment, 33% of income tax collections, 60% of customs duty collections, 20% of central excise tax collections, 40% of India's foreign trade and rupees 40,000 crore (US $9 billion) in corporate taxes.*
But the big question which we have is, who really owns Mumbai? Is it the Men who Rule it, or self proclaimed Political leaders, or‘We The People’, wait a minute who comes under the purview of so called as we the people, is it the ‘Marathi Manus’1 or North Indians . If we dig deep within ourselves the answer is as clear as a crystal ball, Mumbai belongs to men and women who build this great city. And who are they, they are no one but common men and women who had a dream in their eyes and worked hard and chased it, and even if they were light years from fulfillment of destiny, they had a smile on their face.
And this ‘Stupid Common Man’ is tired of ‘Raj-giri’, pardon me for my language and use of famous phrases from recent bollywood flicks. Common man is crushed between some myopic and petty political actions, and pressure of earning daily bread. These actions actually may not give great deal of political mileage to a nascent Political Party, only it would play in hands of the ruling party. Let me not get my hands dirty by writing about our Politicians.
Talking about Marathi Manus, is against North Indians , I do think so, any stupid common man in Mumbai is too busy to care about stuff like that , here everybody has to think about their daily bread and any man Marathi, Gujrati or Bengali, tries to keep away from the mess. I have a serious doubt, if our leaders say that Marathi Manus is not getting his rights and a place that he deserves, I will ask who is Marathi Manus? Is he Milkha Singh that speaks better Marathi than Punjabi and has been a domicile resident of the city for 25 years or Rambharose who prepares better Puranpoli’s2 than a Marathi brahmen cook, or is Sheikh Nadeem who dances in Ganpati procession of Lalbaugcha Raja3. Even I was at the receiving end of things a very good friend of mine from Jaipur commented on a discussion on a b-school in Nagpur “ Sir your home is getting all the big ticket intellectual Investment”, I replied “Sir my home is the same as yours and we call it India”. This may sound to dramatic but this was the only reply I could think at the point of time.
I am Gurathi, and speak fluent Marathi and proud of the same, and I don’t believe that since one man went against the non Maharashtian’s the entire Marathi community should not be blamed. ‘An Eye for Eye leave all the residents of Mumbai Blind!.... As I always say.Revenge is sweet , but unfortunately not Fruitful!
* Mc Kinsey Report Published in 2005 in association with NASSCOM. http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/india/mckinseyonindia/pdf/NASSCOM_McKinsey_Report_2005.pdf

1 The Common Maharashtrian Man.
2 A Sweet delicacy from Maharashtra.
3 Lalbaugcha Raja is the oldest (75 years) Ganesh Mandal in Mumbai, They say all your wishes are fulfilled by lord Ganesha. This Idol has a first right of visarjan . Muslims in Crafford Market area, during the last day do a complete Pooja and then lead the procession before the Idol is immersed in Girgaum Chowpati in Mumbai.