The Black - The White - The Grey. The Bandh.

Part 2

The excerpts posted in bold are from an excellent article I came across. The link is given below.

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"Call me biased, but I don't think I'm the only one who has noticed that 90% of all recent senior citizen-killers, rapists and murderers seem to be from villages up north. Every TOI story I've ever read talks about the criminal being picked up in UP, or as he was boarding a train to Bihar."

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I strolled through those so-called diserted roads. No. They weren't diserted.
Women and young girls taking a walk, giggling. Boys out with bicycles. Men with bikes. Some other groups of men at random nakas, bidi jalaving, laughing. Some more playing gully cricket. Basically, a road minus vehicles, but hustling people. Something you can't help but notice is the Diwali Lanterns at most homes were switched off. They respected him. Feels good to know.

Similar scenes the next day (Sunday). Let me repeat myself; basically, a road minus vehicles, but hustling people! Yes, it is a bandh! Shops shut and public transport shut.

***A humourous incident amongst this was, a 7 yr old hurling stones at a bus. He wasn't from Shiv Sena. He wasn't from any political party. Instead, he was of the notion that "arrey bandh hain na?" And very conveninetly the on-lookers assumed that it was Shiv Sena in action. In actuality, Shiv Sena for once was grieving. (May be minus some goons)***

But then again, the world is divided in 50's. Every pack has the evil in equal quantity. But that doesn't blind the good does it?

 Talking about our 'Man in Question'. He lived 86, but Oh Man did he live it well!

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"So instead of castigating Thackeray for being communal, look in the mirror and ask yourself - wasn't he just the focal point of all our own "communal" rage? Didn't he just tap into our own "communal" sentiments and give them a voice?"

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I'd not know facts and details about his autocratic rule, but I know he was not completely black or completely white. He was grey. Just like all of us. Just like the living politicians among us, who have scams worth 300 crore to their credit. He was only grey.

Although, out of the many articles I pondered over, this one explained his Grey Rhapsody the best.  http://www.keyboardandink.com/2012/11/bal-thackeray-shades-of-grey.html?spref=fb 

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"Fortunately, we're liberal enough, and educated enough, to move past irrational hatred. To point fingers at a few misguided elements rather than take up arms against an entire community."

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I detest the 'Anti-Valentines' - horrendous act.  I do. But, on the other side of the coin you cannot take it away from Bal Thackeray, the fact that he protected Mumbai, when the rest of the country was in ashes.

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"It's worth mentioning that when he died, he was being monitored by two physicians - one a Muslim, the other a North Indian."

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Once again, NO. I don't believe in Shiv Sena, or their ideologies or their methods. What I'm rather forced to think about, is the millions of us. How we actively stone one dead man, and talk about "Mumbai being back to normal". Someone rightly said, "It's limping back to normal".

Moving on.

I may hate him for renaming Bombay - the moment the city began its decline - but I do respect him for being protective about it. Even if I disagree with his methods.

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" Now on to what Thackeray said about North Indian immigrants doing to Bombay. He said that the unchecked influx of migrant populations would be the death of the city. I don't believe he was talking about the educated classes, the ones who complete their MBAs and come into the financial capital to drive the wheels of our economy. He was referring to the uneducated ones who come in and settle down in slums, becoming taxi drivers, security guards and daily labourers. He was talking about villagers who grow up in khap societies, and bring their own (archaic) values to a cosmopolitan city."

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There's no use hating him. Because, he did good, just as well as he did the bad. There is a little him in all of us. We do good, just as well as we do the bad. Yet, we hope to be forgiven. May be his sins are a notch higher than ours, but let's accept it. He is just one pick in the pond. Be scared about the fact that the rest of them are alive.

Move past communal hatred. Move past unreasonable and unquestioned doubts. We don't know him the way our parents  & grandparents do.

Ask them the reason for their respect and you'll know a story that is buried in ashes.