India’s Saviour
Somaiya College ground, where Narendra Modi spoke last week, was packed with enthusiastic supporters who had waited for four hours to hear their leader speak. Some of them though had been mobilised by new BJP entrant Ram Kadam. There was an audience of around 30,000 and some 5,000 were denied entry because there were no seats. They complained that the party should have put video screens outside the venue. Many went back home disappointed.
One lucky Mumbaikar who happened to get a seat was 83-year-old Pravinbhai Mehta from Ghatkopar who had come with his daughter. Proudly sporting an orange BJP sash and the lotus symbol on his white kurta, Mehta said that he had been an RSS-BJP supporter for decades. He even got a little emotional while talking to this diarist, saying that after Gandhiji, only Modiji could save this country. “Congress has ruined this country in 60 years. And look at Modi. He has taken India on an international level,” Mehta said in a choked voice.
Soon, to this correspondent’s surprise, the octogenarian started blaming the media for defaming Modi. He said that the entire country’s media had been bought by the Congress and so, it would never say anything good about Modi. “Tum log Modi ke khilaf ho,” he said, wielding his walking stick, and this correspondent chose to leave the scene not knowing what to say to the agitated old man.
Remembering M V Kamath
This diarist’s interaction with the prolific writer and veteran journalist M V Kamath was short, but very pleasant for the most part and after every phone call received from him in the last few months, she thought, what a thorough gentleman. This happy circumstance was because she had the privilege to handle his Thursday column, ‘Odd Man In’, in this newspaper. The first time she spoke to him was about six months ago, when he called to find out why he was not receiving his daily copy of the paper. There were some technical issues that had to be sorted out and eventually, the situation was rectified, upon which a prompt thank-you call arrived from Mr Kamath. Reading the e-paper was not an option, this diarist surmised. On another occasion, he enquired if there was any feedback on his recent columns and a reader had just written in about his column on the interlinking of rivers and he was immensely pleased to learn that the reader and this diarist shared his trepidation on the subject. ‘Please accept a hug from me for that,’ he said and this diarist felt honoured. Some time after this, he called up and said he was very embarrassed to say so, but could we please send him more books to review? This diarist referred him to the person in charge and she informed him she was just in the process of doing so. A thank-you call to her followed and he asked to speak with this diarist. He joyfully declared,’I am going to be up for the next five years, reading through the night’. As delighted as a kid in a candy shop, this diarist remembered thinking.
The last time she heard from him was on September 30. He sounded anxious and he said he was sorry he would not be able to review the book he had recently received, his doctor had advised him complete rest for a few weeks, but he was sure he would be fit enough to resume writing and reviewing in two weeks. Having just received two columns and two book reviews from him the day before, this diarist told him to rest easy. He was deeply touched. ‘Thank you for the love,’ he said, bringing tears to this diarist’s eyes, but she had no reason to think he wouldn’t be back in two weeks’ time, just like he had bounced back in December 2013, after being briefly indisposed. Thorough professional that he was, he had followed up that phone call with a letter to inform the editor. His columns and book reviews always came in well before deadline, he was so particular. He meticulously typed out his column and in the event of an occasional ‘typo’, he would have corrected it in his beautiful handwriting upon reviewing his copy. Little did we know.
Safety First?
It is well known all over the world the scrutiny that people have to go through in the US in the name of security, post 9/11 attack. However, one wonders what has possibly changed in Mumbai post the 26/11 attack. A railway commuter repeatedly comes across the announcement “ Agar aap ko kahi bhi aparichit ya sandehajanak vastu dikhai de toh use na chue, karya par upasthith rail athva police karamchari ko itala karein”(Please do not touch any suspicious object you notice. Inform the railway police immediately.)
Recently, this diarist was travelling from Vile Parle to Churchgate station. Since it was post the peak hours there were few passengers in the first class ladies compartment. Once the train reached Charni Road a woman sitting at the left corner of the compartment got down. The diarist noticed a black bag below the seat where the woman was seated. It obviously did not belong to her as she wasn’t carrying anything with her when she boarded the train at Bandra. The diarist started to feel insecure, as there was only one woman apart from her seated at the adjacent side of the compartment which made it apparent that the bag didn’t belong to that lady.
Hurriedly, the diarist got off the train at Churchgate station and stormed towards the exit to caution a ‘policewala’. This police security guard had a gun. After asking a series of questions he shuffled towards the first class ladies compartment. He could have asked the motorman to halt the train till he checked what the suspicious material was but he did not do so and was ambling towards the compartment. As expected, the train started and he turned around. Disgusted, the diarist left the station feeling more insecure than ever.
Swaraj in Dharavi
At a public meeting held on a Thursday afternoon in Dharavi where External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj was going to address the residents of Dharavi, her speech regarding the development of Asia’s largest slum was hardly the topic of interest.
Of all the public meetings that this reporter has attended during the ongoing election, this was the first one that was held at a crossroad and not on a ground.
The stage was set at a turn of the road on a footpath and plastic chairs were arranged at another footpath exactly opposite to it.
There were hardly 250 people
present at the meeting, most of them being women. When Swaraj arrived, an hour late, at the spot, the very
first reaction of the women was, “She looks so different on TV. I can hardly recognise her.” Her arrival was
announced by two men dressed as sentries from the Maratha empire, who sounded two bugles as she got out of her car and climbed up on the stage.
After Swaraj settled down on her seat at the stage, it was time for the women to settle down. Still mumbling about Swaraj’s appearance women struggled to make themselves comfortable in the crammed area and some even propped up their legs on other chairs. By the time they were settled, the local leaders had finished speaking and Swaraj had come on to the dais to speak.
During her approximately seven-minute speech, the women listened to her only for the first four minutes, because during the last three minutes packaged water in plastic glasses was being distributed. Forgetting Swaraj, the women started fighting and arguing about who got which or how many glasses of water.
And as Swaraj got up to leave, the sentries sounded the bugles again, and all the women got up and rushed to have a closer look at her, because – “Sushma Swaraj looks very different in reality than on TV!”
Tailpiece
A Facebook comment from Dr Arshad G Moh’d:
It usually takes five years for a tree to produce nuts; but this isn’t true of certain (political) family trees!
Contributed by Tanvi Deshpande, Geeta Bhagat, Sneha Salian and
Sindhu Mansukhani.
Compiled by Anil Singh.
SHOW OF STRENGTH
Police conduct a flag march at Grant Road near Gamdevi police station ahead of the October 15 assembly elections, in Mumbai on Sunday.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
No one shed a tear for Manohar Joshi when he was booed out of the Shiv Sena’s Dussehra rally at the very ground where he was felicitated as the party’s first chief minister. One of the reasons for his downfall was his lust for money. Even when he became the chief minister, he functioned like a cut-throat builder. Not only in Pune but also in Dadar, where he lives.
Lower middle class Maharashtrians living in dilapidated one-room tenements thought Joshi was their man and could solve their problems. They invited him to their chawls to find ways to redevelop the buildings without the involvement of shady builders. Joshi would visit them on weekends with his entire team and hear them out in detail. Then, his team would take over and do exactly what a shady builder would do; maximise his profits and shortchange the residents.
So unpopular had Joshi become in Dadar that he lost in 2009 from this Lok Sabha constituency, considered to be a Shiv Sena stronghold. He may have made great strides as a builder ever since but the people of Dadar have not forgiven him.
— Anil Singh Oct 21, 2013
M V Kamath
