MURDER AT NINE TWENTY

Jilted in love?
Nagged by your girl friend?
Frustrated by her behavior?
Relationship turned sour?

Don’t worry! Come to this dark and silent by lane of Mumbai for the easy way out! One stop solution for all your relationship worries! Get a big stone and hit her hard as many times as possible before her cries could reach anyone. Hit her hard on head till she bleeds to death.

Please don’t get me wrong readers. This is not what I am suggesting. This is in regards to a recent murder near my institute. Well you people must be thinking, “So what?” Murders are such a common place thing these days. Nobody raises an eyebrow when a person is killed in a brutal act of violence. Bloodshed doesn’t move us anymore. “So why I am writing about a murder?” May be because it happened when I was just on the other side of the wall or may be because the victim and the culprit both were related to our institute in the past or may be just because its all about love going wrong. May be the whole episode tugged my heart strings a little bit…. May be!!!

Sometimes I wonder how love can be so violent. A friend suggested it was not love. It was plain lust…. Still killing her just because she seemed to nag him after years of being in a relationship is too barbarian a thing to do! Was this manifestation of unmanageable stress levels youth go through? The guy must have killed her in a mental fit because after killing her at nine twenty in the night he went to the nearest police station to surrender. He was a shattered soul. That’s what I felt! Naah! I am not trying to justify his actions, not at all. Neither I want to analyze the reasons for his doing so.

I just wonder about the ephemeral nature of relations these days. Somewhere over the years that innocence in love and friendships has evaporated. Perfection is sought in each and every relation. Nobody accepts you as you are with all your flaws. In pursuit of doing away with all these flaws one may go through repeated cycles of stress. Add to it the fast pace of life, highly demanding jobs, academics, ever growing wants… What we get is a youth who can kill someone at 9:20.

Another thought to close this article - which disturbs me a lot - is that when this murder took place, people at my institute were more worried about the reputation of the institute and even media was linking the murder to the institute as if it is accountable for it. Come on give me a break!!! Somebody has died…..

MUMBHAI-2

26th July, 2005 – Lord Indra (The Rain God) unleashed his fury on the city which is still reeling under the after effects of that hellish night. That’s another matter of fact that the very next day newspapers carried articles proclaiming that Mumbai has bounced back and is again on its feet. That’s great, but I personally feel that this bouncing back phenomenon was restricted to the few areas of Mumbai and to the few sections of the society. Don’t worry friends I am not going to mull over this phenomenon in this article. My area of concern is entirely different. The question I am going to address here is “Why Lord Indra was so angry and cruel that day?”

I chewed over this question for a long time and then all of a sudden I realized and identified the culprit. No, it’s not the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation. Neither the criminal is any disaster management cell nor is Mumbai police. It’s not the government. It’s not the administration. So who is at fault? It’s none other than Mr. R.R. Patil. His one mistake has made the entire city to suffer. Everyone knows that Lord Indra loves the dance performances of Manekas! How can be someone so stupid to estrange the Lord himself by banning all the Manekas of the city? How can he just enforce a blanket ban on the dance bars? I don’t think the man is in his senses. A lots of pujas and yaganas need to be performed to pacify the Rain God, but it doesn’t ensure 100% success. Why not revoke the ban? Why not let these girls earn their livelihood with self respect? Why this stupid self styled champion of the masses is encouraging prostitution?

These dance bars were highlight of the Mumbai night life. It was the mere source of entertainment of the middle class men and earning source for lakhs of people. I know people might argue that these dance bars are haven for crime and criminals. Prostitution, drug peddling and various notorious activities of the omnipresent BHAIS of Mumbhai are linked to these dance bars. But I believe not every dance bar is a Deepa Bar, not every bar girl a Tarannum, not every customer Aditya Panscholi or Muralitharan or a cricket bookie. There are bars where bouncers and owners ensure that girls stick to dancing and there are no nefarious activities. There are bar girls who have been dancing for years now to feed their big families and who have their self respect intact. There are customers and many of them who just go to dance bars for a drink or two and have their share of entertainment because they can’t afford to go to costlier discos (which incidentally were not on the radar of Mr. Patil) where girls are semi clad or semi nude, where everyone is not high on drinks but is flushed with cocaine or whatever they call it, where there is no concept like prostitution but one night stands and sex with mutual consent (of course under the effect of drugs) is a norm. I fail to understand the double standards of Mr. Patil. Or may be he reflects the mindset of our society where dance bars have some infamy attached to it while these discos have a snobbish aspiration value.

Things have changed fast since this ban. There is news of exodus of these out of work bar girls to sexually starved and inhibited cities of Gujarat. In fact prostitution is on rise both in Mumbai and outside. But there are certain other ramifications. One of them is that the sound of “Sheeeeeee Sheeeeeee” which I talked about in my last article will get fiercer and will keep disturbing me. I think after dance bars the massage parlors are next big thing in town. Let Patil think! For us as usual, WAIT AND WATCH! Pity the Lord Indra!!!!!!!

MUMBHAI

Its now more than 2 months since I landed up in Mumbai. Though I had been to this city many times before either on pleasure trips or for work related to my job, it is for the first time that I am living as any normal Mumbaikar would live in Mumbai enjoying its life as much as facing the asinine struggles it presents. I was deliberating since long on what should I write about. I still don’t know what I am going to write in next paragraphs but one thing is for sure it would have to do something with this city. The city which conjures so many images at the same time. The city which is an amalgamation of good and bad, ugly and beautiful, vigor and lethargy, vitality and mundane. The city which is a great leveller. The city which has seen a utopian dream to transform itself into an Indian SHANGHAI. The city which is as famous for its celebrities as for its BHAIS. So much so that I am tempted to call Mumbai, MUMBHAI!!!

“Chhhheee Chhhheee” or “Shhhheeee” and “Puuuuchhhhh” are two sounds which seem ingrained in the ethos of the city. Don’t start wondering what it is all about!!!! It took me some time to figure it out. In the wee hours of that morning, I was feeling really sleepy so I called it a day and thought to go back from my college to catch some sleep. I came out of the institute. At 4 a.m. in the morning roads were seemingly wide and silent. I was waiting for an auto. All of a sudden I heard the sound “Chhhheee Chhhheee”. I turned around and the first thing that came into my mind was AIDS. You people guessed it right. It was a prostitute. A 20 something starved looking girl with deep probing eyes trying to figure out her prospective customer. She was really garishly dressed with heavy make up on. Moments later an auto arrived. Ignoring that girl, I just boarded the auto. The sound of the engine was unable to muffle the sound I heard few minutes earlier. It just kept resonating somewhere inside. That was not the end. The sound came back to me at many more occasions, whether it was a late night stroll on Juhu beach or me coming out of a late night show. Also the sound was not restricted only to prostitutes. The sound was useful for gigolos, gay sex workers, lesbians and surprisingly some children (both boys and girls) offering oral sex services. It sounds sickening but it is the reality of the city camouflaged by neon lights, large well lit hoardings looking down upon you and page 3 parties. So now whenever I hear this sound the first thing that comes to my mind is not AIDS, but suffering, hunger, lack of morality, helplessness, hopelessness, wretchedness……..

“Puuuuchhhhh” is the other sound which presents another facet to this insomnia afflicted city. Mumbaikars use this sound to call one another. May be people here don’t have time to remember names or may be all faces are nameless, all having similar expressions and emotions. But this sound is really useful to call for another roti in a dhaba or to stop an auto or to call your friend who is lost in crowd. The owner of shop uses it to keep a check on his aides. Salesmen use it to best effect to track their customers. Everyone and anyone can “Puuuuchhhhh” you any time! Back in Punjab calling someone this way is considered an insult. You reserve such behaviour only for pets. But here nobody minds it. Actually nobody has time here to massage his or her false pride. This sound represents the character of Mumbai to me. Crowded, fast, tolerant, resilient, ever on move, and capability of bouncing back from any disaster….

Mumbai has so many things to write about. So if I get a nice response to this article, I may come out with a sequel to it. Till then SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!Zzzzzzzzz!!!!!