Mumbai

I saw Mumbai meri jaan yesterday.
A much critically acclaimed film, catching the essence of Mumbai.
A story of many people:
A cop who cannot tolerate injustice, another who has adapted to the ‘accepted standards’,
A tv reporter who is famous for her prompt 'breaking news',
A company executive and his pregnant wife,
A computer salesman who thinks all Muslims are terrorists,
A coffee vendor from Chennai who wants to have a taste of the riches,
And, a series of train blasts, affecting their lives.
A story beautifully told, refrained from any bias from the directorial point of view, this movie captured my heart. We have amongst us, people who have lost much in the blast. Still, life goes on.
Often I wonder, when I hear things like ‘mumbai marathichyanchi!’ etc. Or the recent drive against the North Indians, or the compulsion for Marathi sign boards. I ask myself,” is this really necessary? With all the city’s resources used up in this, is anyone’s life improving?”
We conveniently shut our eyes to the injustice caused by such society hooligans. Just being Marathi does not give us the right to see justice being massacred like this. Somewhere, the city is suffering much from this.
There are many pressing issues in this country: floods, violence, generalized disorder. Do we really have to spend our resources on this? Why are only caste/language related sensitive issues taken up? Why is there abundant media coverage for all this vandalism? Why is such breach of law being tolerated by the Law makers?
I am a Mumbaikar. I was born and brought up here. Whatever I have, Mumbai offered me. Still I have a question:
Is it really necessary to state a claim on the city to reside here? Can a man not just stay here, not being frightened to display his identity and talk his own language? Is this not something against our fundamental rights?
Maybe someday, we will get the answers.