A Sonnet of Heresy

United India... sigh!

India is a strange country. We say we are united, and sometime we behave we are. But that always seems to be at our own convenience.

Some cases of unity

1)    Lets say when India beat Pakistan in cricket matches… hockey is not even noticed and football never happens

2)    Lata Mangeshkar’s music, Sachin’s century, Yuvraj’s sixers, Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal, Shah Rukh, Amitabh Bachchan… and some others’ activities have been able transcend beyond religious and linguistic divides.

 

But for every such case we have almost always had a thousand cases protruding and screaming out why India is not mahaan yet. The recent Marathi and ‘North Indian’ clash… Things reach the heights when MNS and Shiv Sena activities beat up people from UP and Bihar who had come to Mumbai for some railway jobs.

 

This is somewhat similar to what happened in Assam a few years back when Biharies were bashed up for trying to usurp jobs which some parties believed should be given away to Assamese only. The Maharasthra scenario is of course worse. MNS and Shiv Sena seems to be forever shouting on top of their voices that everyone in Maharashtra should swear by the ‘Me Marathi’ pledge! Every one here seems to be either a north Indian or a south Indian. That brings me to a very interesting observation - something I have come across in my travels across India.

 

a)    For people in Mumbai, India is consists of North India, South India, Bengal

b)    For people in Bengal… world consists of Bengal. Rest are less important

c)     For people in South… the whole of India is North India. Ask about North East... they say ‘who north east?’

d)    For People in Delhi, they are India. North East… why bother

e)    For people in the North East… India is divided into Mainland India and North East.

f)      For politicians… Why bother about Indian!

 

This surely is one of the best symbols of ‘unity’. In diversity we stand!