Oye Meera...

Guys. This appeared in Bombay Times yesterday. As you can tell, I have been writing and writing and writing over the past few days. But I did manage a short break in Alibag, where I watched 'Paris' starring Juliette Binoche. What a terrific film. A tad too long, with several parallel tracks. But who cares?? Baudelaire and Voltaire made the City of Lights look even more luminous. The dialogues were so quintessentially french ( complex and over-intellectualised), you want to hang on to every word and sentiment. Pink champagne heightened the experience, i can assure you! I also went back for more lamb confit at what is rapidly becoming my favourite deli for a late saturday afternoon lunch (Indigo). 'Tis the season for crabs, and my husband ordered a beauty ( female, of course - smaller but tastier). The previous night at the beauteous Mandira's artistic home, we'd enjoyed a Bong speciality called 'Bhappa dohi," with mango. 'Bhappa' means steamed, and 'Dohi' is dahi. I haven't done too badly in the food department. Well ... writing needs the right nourishment. That is my excuse - what's yours?
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Read my lips : No more compromises. No more bhashans! Only action. It is fascinating to monitor just how pro-active the next election is getting, especially in a political slumbertown called South Mumbai, where the only party worth supporting has traditionally been the cocktail party. Suddenly, South Mumbaiwallahs have woken up to their ‘duties’ and ‘responsibilities’, which is a good thing. And the one binding factor in this newly acquired social conscience is 26\11. That horrific experience has woken us up from our customary stupor and caused alarm bells to ring – no, clang! Qasab is not a phantom. He exists. He is right here. And the unspoken fear is that there may be another attack, another Qasab. How ready are we to deal with it?? South Mumbai is looking for a candidate who can lead from the front, and be a visible, credible individual the people can trust. To find such a candidate is not going to be easy, given that most of the usual suspects are compromised and\or corrupt. Everybody knows as much. In the past this may not have been an issue. Today, it is. After all, it’s a matter of the city’s survival. And so many months after the attack, we still don’t know who is in charge. Nor are we aware of a cogent disaster management plan - does it actually exist? The scenario remains grim. We may have outstanding individual officers performing a herculean job, but when the police force itself is divided and demoralized ( hello … haven’t you been following the DGP shenanigans?? Now, we have two guys for the same job, but with conveniently divided responsibilities – one manages the elections, the other manages security!). Our chief minister is largely invisible – very few people have access to him. The people of Maharashtra knew his father, but nobody knows this Chavan! All this is a sorry indicator of a headless state, with non-stop buck passing and no decisions. In such a chaotic scenario, we get a few brave souls who decide, ‘Enough is enough’, and take the plunge regardless, knowing full well the odds are stacked against them.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Meera Sanyal – as South Mumbai as you can get. A Sydenham college girl, a Malabar Hill Memsaab , who made a name for herself in banking circles. Now that her hat is in the ring, let’s see how her campaign shapes up in the coming weeks. Of course, ‘people like us’ will lend the lady all the support she needs. But this is not about tea and crumpets, as I’m certain Meera herself knows. She will be thrown into a vicious jungle, slugging it out with slumdogs and slumlords, competing against money and muscle power. She says she will put herself on the line, spend no more than the stipulated 25 lakhs on her campaign, and go flat out to convince the voter she’s the one. Good luck to Meera. It is one thing to convince corporate India, but how does someone with her credentials win over the ‘other’ voters?? The ones who play hardball with candidates and extract whatever they can during elections – mainly money. But also, more permanent perks that legitimize their lives. How will Meera battle the dalals and criminals who ruthlessly cut deals with political parties, intimidate and threaten those who refuse to toe the line? I’m sure Meera has done her homework and is fully aware of the murky side of netagiri. Mumbai is not New York. And South Mumbai, for all its aspirations and pretensions has been converted into a huge slum, ready to compete with Dharavi in terms of numbers. It is a dangerous and complex constituency, with thousands and thousands of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants running several rackets that are hard to crack. Geeta Nagar and Moorti Nagar are virtually inaccessible to ‘outsiders’. Even the cops think twice before venturing into those narrow gullies. And this is but one such area Meera will have to visit. Convincing Cuffe Parade residents won’t be difficult. But how many of them will bother to turn up on D-Day? My guess is this year will see a respectable turnout. But that won’t swing the vote in Meera’s favour either. Even so, the lady must be congratulated for following her conscience and doing the right thing. She has taken the lead in a meaningful and constructive way. The rest is up to us. Are we ready to do our bit??
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Shouldn’t the evil Tantrik and rapist father of the two tormented girls hang for their crimes? And what about the devilish, unrepentant mother? Guess what?? Your views or my views have zero value in a case like this, since incest is barely recognized as a major offence in India. The cops have an uphill task ahead of them. Chances are the three perpetrators will receive a light sentence as and when the trial begins. The media will lose interest. And those two young girls will be doomed to lead a life of shame and sorrow.Sad.