Ghettos of our mind

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Drove through Wassipur on my trip to Dhanbad. Cousin asked me not be be trigger happy with my phone camera. We took a leisurely drive on a Sunday through the main road.As we drove I remembered crossing it in my childhood a few times. We never dreaded it as we did not know much about it. Later after passing my school, I came to know it was not a very safe area. No riots happened there, no murders that were reported. Lot of iron work, grill making karkhanas/workshops, car repair garages, Madrasas and Doctors lined both sides of the street. It was a really sleepy street on a sunny afternoon. My tour guide said when a car is stolen, it is dismantled here overnight. The tiny by lanes ran downhill and I assume they ran into the lower economic strata houses. There were spare truck tyres in all lanes. Used old torn tyres lined the tree less lanes and still balanced themselves in those slopes. Had a glimpse of the railway line passing from there through an empty patch. The movie Gangs of Wasseypur had left a massive impact on me and the way the world/ India was viewing it. Though they never got any permission to shoot in Dhanbad. On coming out of the main road, I saw road signs showing Wassipur. This was not there when we were growing up. It was normal people with normal households doing the work they specialize in. Just a community with their own beliefs, living in a  Ghetto.

In the world all over, we are living in a ghetto mentality. A maid came looking for a job and her cousin wanted to know my surname. All around media is panning one political person because they feel he is not a North Indian. The North Indian politicians who were a part of the Sikh riots post the assassination of Indira Gandhi, went scot free. The North Indian politicians do not want South Indian politicians at the Centre. India is multi lingual and multi cultural but Congress in bent on dividing it and proving that they are pro the minorities. The moment you call people by a different name, you start dividing them. Congress has managed to do that for years. Just read an article by a journalist who said he doesn't want India to be vegetarian and teetotaler so he doesn't like a politician from Gujarat. His argument was after years we have come out of that and we would not want to go back to it. He actually wrote that how will NaMo stand with Barack Obama and talk to him. Gosh, we are so obsessed with the West. What's wrong with being a vegetarian and not drinking alcohol? As if the Government imposes laws on our eating habits. The lady councillor in Mumbai banned mannequins wearing undergarments on display. We shall do anything for a few moments of fame. The women candidates chosen by Shiv Sena for BMC have all been useless and just taken foreign trips at the cost of people's money. The second party against North Indians in Mumbai, is busy making concrete building compounds in my lane.The idea is to locate dilapidated buildings occupying large lands. In a few years, these buildings will be ready for redevelopment and one can guess which construction company will get the contracts. Divide and rule is what even mother in laws do in a joint family system. Its sad but we just do not want to live in peace. I am sure even a politician wants to lead a peaceful life but his actions do not speak that. The trick is to keep passing the buck. Blame the system, blame the nation, Blame the West, Blame the British, Blame our politicians, In Mumbai, Blame the North Indians, Blame the Muslims, Blame the construction mafia, Blame BMC, Blame the Congress at the Centre which never does anything for Maharashtra, Blame the Gandhi family. .....

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