Akse, Shalimar et. al.

On Sunday i.e. 17th the Seva Niketan gang- me, Antonio (Doc), Lakshya, Oneal and Mayank went to Akse beach situated about 5 KM from Malad railway station near INS Hamla. The road leading to the beach is bordered by lush greenery. The board bearing the warning that it is dangerous to swim at the beach doesn't deter people from doing so. The last occassion on which I went to this lovely beach was in June when I spent some groovy time at this beach with Vivek. The beach appeared as appealling to me (as it was in June) and Mayank was also impressed by its vastness and the rock formations which imparted a pristine look to it- we took of our T-shirts headed towards the sea. Lakshya joined after sometime. Doc and Oneal refused to venture into the waters - the doc cited a tendency to develop rashes and Oneal refused because he deemed it an insult to the great beaches of Kochi to venture into the murky waters of the Mumbai Sea. The water, the sunshine, the rocks all made it a great experience. Another thing about this beach is that unlike Juhu and Girgaon this beach is not so crowded (thanks to the fact that it is relatively less known) and it's much more vast. Having spent some great time at the beach we headed towards Byculla and decided to dine at Shalimar restaurant, Bhendi Bazar (near J.J. Hospital). The claim to fame of this restaurant is (1) you can get awesome Mughlai food here at very reasonable price and (2) it is owned by Azmi Junior, the son of Abu Azmi the Samajvadi Party unit president and also a Rajya Sabha MP- I understand he's the current boyfriend of Ayesha Takia. The food here was really good and filling- especially the rabri and the banana-shake. However, as the cliched saying goes- all good things muct come to an end; my stay at Mumbai is drawing its end. It feels really sad to leave my Seva Niketan buddies but at the same time I feel happy at the thought that this stay turned out to be really meaningful- I earned the acquaintance of so many nice people, the internship was a relly good learning experience and last but not the least I received the news of Pankaj Bhaiya's placement as a senior consultant with E & Y. I'll leave the great city of Mumbai tomorrow with sweet memories.

Hatred, politics and violence

A new mesiah for Maratha manoos; Raj Thakeray has been born and the recent spate of violence against fruit-vendors, taxi-drivers etc heralds the onset of what seems to be a new era in the politics of Maharashtra. The other day I read an article by Rajdeep Sardesai ( if I remember correctly) wherein he had argued that what's common between Bal Thakeray and his nephew is that both have concentrated on propagating hatred for certain communities- it was initially Gujratis, peopl e from souther states, Muslims and then North Indians (an incorrect term going by the classification of states according to the zones ; Bihar falls in the East Zone and Uttar Pradesh in the Central Zone- the only basis seems to be terming anyone from a state lying north to Maharashtra as North Indian). I guess this applies to the whole country- in almost every state one can find political groups (claiming to be flag-bearers of some or the other cause) projecting a community as the sole reason for all problems faced by the state (or the city in the case of Mumbai). Whether it be Shivsena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, BJP, BSP (in its earlier days when Behen Mayawati vehemently urged dalits to assault people from so called higher castes with shoes- the phrase used was tilak, tarazu aur talwar; inko maaro joote chaar translating roughly to- Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas deserve to be beaten with shoes). Before concluding I'd just like to mention the unfortunate incident in which a Maharashtrian rather a Marathi speaking Maharashtrian Haribhau (an employee of HAL) was killed as a result of stone-pelting by MNS activists and all the MNS chief had to say was sorry- I wonder how one can claim to be what Raj Thakeray claims to be with such scant regard for human life. If he was really serious about being the saviour of Marathi Manoos perhaps he would have probably urged his workers to name the accused instead of trying to pass on the blame to someone else.

New friends

I have not been able to post anything of late- have been kind of busy and on other occasions when I could have posted something I could not because now that I have to pay for accessing internet I use every moment possible to chat with friends.
Friends ... have earned the acquaintance of so many people - really nice people thanks to Seva Niketan. It's really amazing how you become friends with other people- it's not part of a plan - (like a cliched line often used in Hindi movies although in context of love). I happened to meet these people in the canteen - was introduced to these people by Anurag (my ex- roommate here) ... Mayank, Lakshya, O' Neal, (Dr.) Antonio .. thay have become really close to me. We share jokes, food and our thoughts on random issues. The stay at Seva Niketan has turned out to be a good experience. However all's not well- the most important person in my life has been very sad of late and it's really hard to put a mask of happiness while in the company of my new friends.