Me Mumbaikar. Really?

It's ironic,believe me : the titles of my previous blog and this one.

I wasn't all that serious about the hue and cry around the North Indian migrants created by Raj Thackaray and his gang. But the recent police shootout wherein Rahul Raj was shot, and subsequently the train incident wherein a worker from UP was beaten to death in a local train had me thinking. Am I an outsider here? Am I going to remain an outsider forever ? Had these incidents occured at a different time, I wouldn't have cared much about them, but at this time I do because somewhere, they all seem to be related.

What bothers me the most is that so far I haven't seen any prominent(or even not so prominent) Marathis come out in support of North Indians. I don't know if it's fear or an agreement with Raj Thackeray's view, but somewhere it makes me uncomfortable.

I was traveling in a BEST bus this Friday, and it was a short ride of about 20 mins. The seat i had was the one just behind the driver in a double decker bus(wherein you enter and exit from the rear side of bus). So practically, i was at the farthest end of the bus, and all people around me seemed to be Marathis talking in Marathi. A sudden fear ran through me, something that I had never felt in the 5 years i have been in Mumbai. What if these guys start bashing me up for being a North Indian ? What if I am beaten to death in this Bus ? Probably the fear wasn't justified, but I did feel it, and I was relieved when I alighted from the Bus.

I am not sure till when this tirade will continue. I am not even sure what really is the issue. One fine day, Raj says no Chatt Puja in Mumbai, and then later on says that he is not against Puja but only against 'politicising' of Chatt Puja. One day he wants all the North Indians out because they are eating up local jobs, another day he claims its an issue of Marathi Asmita and that Marathi language and culture should be respected by everyone who comes here.

Being an election year, the politicians tend to find something or the other to hype up their campaigns. But is this only that ? Or is this more ? Well I am not sure. Till then, I am going to avoid buses and trains as much as I can and trust my bike. After all, I am a bhaiyya.