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!!!!!!!
