Path

Which path is it that takes me to you

Thats the turn I will take to meet you

I crossed the hill road to find the sunset,

was it's beauty greater than yours?

Perhaps I will never be able to say.....

Like a storm blows away, thats how this path has passed

shied away in between.....

There must be the path that take me to you.....

Shayarana

Kya tum ne chaha tha, kya tumne paaya hai
Kya Kabhi socha, yeh zindagi ne tumse kya karaya hai

Gham mein doobe ho kyun, jab jashn ka mohol hai
Zindagi itni bhi buri nahi, baahar aane ki der hai

anondoloke

I am back

I am back after a long break from my blog. I am also back to my home in Pune. Its lovely and warm here, I love it :) I am also back to being fit and fine. Oh yes, if you thought my prediction about 26th Feb went wrong and nothing actually happened, think again. I actually had a huge incident in my own life on that eventful day. I had an anxiety attack. I can easily blame others for the stress they brought on me but the reality is the root cause of the attack was me, just me. So moving on. I am back to reading more news about Pakistan and this time I read this article written by someone I love to hate. Whom I find to be intentionally stupid and offensive for no reason. No, I am not talking about Shobhaa De. It is this journalist from Dawn named Jawed Naqvi. Below is his article in quotes and then my reply to the editor of Dawn.

"HOLI, the Indian festival of colour, was celebrated on Wednesday with joy. Though rooted in Hindu mythology, its celebration has evolved with time.

Today, it has less to do with organised religion and is more about the music and revelry that goes back to the 19th century court of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Muslim king of Oudh. There are a dozen religious legends to explain the festival but a more convincing one is that it celebrates the changing of a season.

Perhaps the most popular Holi song is the one filmed on a Muslim actress in the 1950’s movie Mother India. A Muslim director made the film and it missed the Oscar by a whisker. The song’s lyricist, music composer and singer were Muslims though until very recently it was not required to underline that fact. Indians were more unselfconsciously secular then. ‘Holi aayee re Kanhaai, rung chhalke, suna de zara baansuri’. It’s Holi again, O Krishna, time to mesmerise me with your flute, the heroine wooed her lover. The sensuous tune composed in the late afternoon Raag Mishr Piloo still reverberates on the radio as a classic.

A more traditional musical tribute to Krishna and his consort Radha is sung in an even more exotic raag called Kaafi. My hunch is that clerics of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind or any other will be clueless about this genre of discourse on Indian culture. That Delhi’s city elite applauded a leading Jamiat cleric when he had an angry exchange with Gen Pervez Musharraf at a conclave last week reveals a bit of sociology as well as a slice of history.

The cleric may not know that Muslim women from Morocco to Indonesia still love to dance and sing like women of other communities. This was the uniform practice until a puritan version of Islam (which the Jamiat propagates) struck roots in different parts of the world.

In the 1960s, when Umme Kulthoom sang on Egypt’s radio, President Nasser’s broadcast would be suspended because listeners were glued to her, so the legend goes. Belly dancing is an art form from the same region. Locations where puritan Islam spread subsequently are facing a different situation. A popular female dancer was murdered brutally by the Taliban in Pakistan’s picturesque valley of Swat. The bigots thought her art violated their religious code.

The tense exchanges between Gen Musharraf and Maulana Mahmood Madani were rooted in pre-Partition history. Jinnah had opposed Gandhi’s campaign with the Jamiat for the restoration of the Khilafat in Turkey. Many Indians would not know this bit of communalism. They believe that khilafat was Urdu for opposition. ‘Humne angrez ki khilafat ki’ i.e ‘We opposed the British’, many an MP is still heard telling parliament inanely. Very few are aware of ‘mukhaalifat’ as the word they are looking for.

Last year, the Jamiat and 6,000 muftis issued a declaration against terrorism. It is not clear if it has given up its core beliefs for the new precept. In 1939, it adopted a resolution to rebuff Gandhi’s non-violence saying: ‘We have accepted non-violence only as a policy. This cannot be accepted as a creed. This is against the teaching of the Quran which encourages the Muslims to jihad.’

The Jamiat also said secular education was dangerous because ‘the children will be indoctrinated in such a way that not only would they be friendly to other religious groups, but they would also consider every religion of the world a true religion. This belief is un-Islamic’. In the 1980s, the Jamiat opposed the Supreme Court verdict to allow alimony for a divorced Muslim woman on the grounds that a secular court could not comment on laws pertaining to Muslims.

However, these factors from the Jamiat’s past could not be the reason for the Indian elite’s resounding applause for Maulana Madani. They were in all probability cheering the fact that an Indian Muslim cleric had stood up to Gen Musharraf, that too when the Pakistani visitor was beginning to count the factors that he thought were responsible for the growing scourge of terrorism in his country and in India.

Why was the Indian political class bristling with rage at Musharraf? One wishes it had to do with the general’s misleading claim that Muslim extremists had fared poorly in last year’s elections in Pakistan. What he did not say was that he had personally enabled the fundamentalists to gain strength in the first part of his tenure. So Musharraf could be criticised here on a valid point, but the applause seemed unrelated to it.

We can count three possible elements that have contributed greatly to the marginalisation of Indian Muslims, something that Musharraf hinted at but was unable to clearly spell out. One set of reasons are contained in the Sachar Committee report requisitioned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It vividly described the hapless state of India’s 150 million Muslims and recommended urgent measures in education and employment to stem the rot. Another element in the Muslim issue is the Shrikrishna Commission’s report on the 1993 violence in Mumbai. It found the state and police complicit in brutal violence against the city’s Muslims, mostly slum dwellers. No one has been indicted. Nor has anyone been held responsible for the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 in spite of numerous commissions and court cases that are going on. Gen Musharraf did not list these issues but he was, probably broadly hinting at some of them as factors that required focus to weed out the threat of terrorism in India.

It would not be difficult to accept the applause for Maulana Madani had he made some progress on any of the issues. One could accept the credibility of the applause if any single member of that audience had the credentials to have worked on just one of the factors. Yes it could be considered fair to tell Gen Musharraf to mind his own business and to not lecture India on how to treat its minorities. After all, the deplorable state of the minorities in his patch is all too well recorded by Pakistan’s vigilant and independent human rights commission. Musharraf’s polite suggestion to everyone to abstain from hypocrisy applied equally to him.

Yet, to applaud Maulana Madani, seemed akin to celebrating the ghettoisation of several million Indians that his group and other clerics represent. Mercifully, occasions like Holi keep India’s secularism from faltering. Neither the state nor its ally, the clergy, has been able to dampen the spirit or quell the song.n

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com "


Jawed Naqvi's intentionally ignorant judgemental attitude towards Indians is both laughable and deplorable. Let me give you one example. He writes that Indians have no idea of Gandhi’s campaign with the Jamat for the restoration of the Khilafat in Turkey. Mr Naqvi should open a 7th or 8th grade history text book to know how Indian students have learnt all about it, unlike Pakistani students who are taught to hate other communities from a tender age. Let me explain to him why we appluaded Maulana Madani. Musharraf had the cheek to lie blatantly that the ISI and army do not support, plan and finance terrorism in India, they do not misguide a few agitated youngsters to commit henious crimes of terrorism in our country. Such a blatant lie supported by crocodile tears of symapathy for India's minorities rubs salt in our wounds. That is why we applaud when anyone stands up to show hypocrites like Musharraf their right place.
Muslims in India might not be the most prosperous community but they are much better off than Pakistanis. You are talking about riots than happened a more than a decade back or seven years back. Sir, Muslims in Pakistan are killed and slaughtered everyday! It happened today in Peshawar, tomorrow it might be Quetta, Multan or Karachi. Muslims in India are much much safer than Muslims in Pakistan. Also have you had a Shahrukh Khan, Sania Mirza or Aziz Premji. No!

I have read many of your articles and you always try to say how fragile secularism is in India and how distressful conditions of Indian Muslims is. It seems to me that you and several others in Pakistan today have a hidden regret. A regret that you are not part of the Indian success story. Regret that you could have been as successful as your Indian Muslim counterpart, if only you were not a Pakistani. I understand your regrets and failures. However, this is life and you have to deal with realities.

Somethings gonna happen?

What is going to happen on February 26th 2009?

To be or not be...with someone

Peace, ambition and happiness

Bollywood has always inspired me to break unbroken boundaries and explore what was previously unthinkable. This might come as a surprise to someone who thinks that Bollywood is only a name given to a kind of cinema that portrays a make believe world, not representing reality. Nothing can be further from the truth. Actually, it depends on your ability to decode scenes and interpret suttle actions and gestures of characters into something more meaningful. Understanding what motivates some people to do what they do. Trust me, I am still speaking about Bollywood.

So what does this article have to do with my title? Yesterday I saw Luck By Chance (LBC). The movie raised quite a few vital points. Is there a difference in being content and happy? My interpretation was always that if you have no aspirations, you are content and you will be happy. I have discussed about this in few of my earlier articles written in 2006. However, LBC goes a step further and says that being content is in your hands. You choose in life that the life you are living, would you call that a success or failure. If you believe in what you do, make yourself believe that you are a success when compared to others who have been a part of your past, then you choose to be successful and thus happy. For instance, if you are a married woman and a working as a French teacher at age 28, the choice is yours, to decide if you are successful or not. You could convince yourself that you are a failure in life because you have a childhood friend who works as an IT manager and earns much more than you do. Or you could be successful by interpreting your life as that of being successful in your family life (good marriage) and doing a job you love to do. Will that IT manager be able to say the same? Maybe not, after all who dreams of becoming an IT manager as a kid. What do you mean by success, becomes terribly important. Is money the only parameter? Or is love for your family and work a more important factor? The choice is yours to make. You choose success in life, not your destiny.

Achievement is only a state of mind, you can achieve it.

Dreams, to be achieved

I dedicate this song to myself!

Is pagle ko kaun bataye
dhoond raha hai jo tu jag mein
koi jo paaye
man mein hi paaye

Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina
Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina

Aise dagar koi agar jo apnaaye
har raah ke wo ant pe raste hi paaye

Dhoop ka rasta jo pair jalaaye
Mod to aaye chaaanv na aaye
Raahi jo chalta hai chalta hi jaaye
koi nahi hai jo kahi use samjhaaye

Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina
Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina

Naina re naina re
Naina re naina re

Door se hi sagar jise har koi maane
Paani hai wo ya ret hai ye kaun jaane
Jaise ke din se rain alag hai
Sukh hai alag hai aur chain alag hai
Par ye jo dekhe wo nain alag hai
Chain to apna sukh hai paraaye

Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina
Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina

Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina
Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina

Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina
Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina

Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina
Sapno se bhare naina To neend hai na chaina

Patient, yet

If you truly know even one bone of me, you would agree that patience is not my virtue. Impulsive, intuitive and action prone, those are all the words that truly describe me. I have rarely been able to play the waiting game. I still remember how I was asked by my team mate at Nihilent to be patient enough to complete two years before I quit the politically charged workplace. I was the first to move on for better opportunities. Not the last though, the tide had just turned. I did not wait for long to pursue an MBA. Took up the first opportunity available. I never regret being impatient, it always paid off. However, this time round I have shown unusual patience to wait for the right opportunity. I wonder why! Maybe Canada has changed me in many ways, for good. However, patience should never act as a cover for lack of courage. Courage, to take the right step. I am sure my roots will always guard me against that vice.

This week I have also gone through another strange phase. I have been remembering one of the greatest leaders India has ever had.

Indira Gandhi

.
Today, we seem to lack the courage and shrewdness she epitomizes, to change the course of destiny of millions of people. Things she did, would change India, her enemies and the world forever. Just imagine, how the world would be today if we had two epicentres of terror on both sides of India. Good heavens, she was not patient enough with the Pakistani army and its atrocities in East Pakistan.

Strange Intutions

Since last two weeks I have been having this insane premonition of a big earthquake. It feels as if there will be a huge natural calamity soon. I don't know the exact place but it feels like a place near Pindi in Pakistan. Its strange I don't why but it just feels as if I am waiting for the big one!

Passion misplaced

Have you ever waited with baited breath for a phone call or an email, from someone special, who was a complete stranger till sometime back? That usually signals start of a new relationship. You feel excited, nervous and elated about future prospects. Until ofcourse you realize that call or email is not coming anytime soon!

It wouldn't usually sting you that bad if you are also looking for a way out or get the feeling pretty early on that the other person isn't really looking for anything serious. Better even if you know the person isn't really interested in you. Atleast there are no expectations. However, what happened to me a few days back was just baffling. I am still trying to figure out if I got dumped and imagining the reasons for it. I knew things wouldn't work out before fixing up the date. However, decided to take the chance. I tried hard to remain disengaged but got drawn in by an apparent interest on the other side. A few intimate moments and deep secrets shared meant that I had dropped my initial inhibitions. Little did I know that the result would be this. Why would one want to share their deepest feelings and fears, when there is no genuine intent to get close? Isn't it really painful when you are initially not interested, then get drawn in due to the other person's persuasion and then eventually get dumped.

I fail to understand why someone would take the effort to make something beautiful and then just break it in a moment. Still wondering, was twenty six hours of pleasure worth days of distress. At least it makes for interesting reading.

Its a grey world

When will there be some good news?

In the subway last night, I saw this man reading a book titled, ''When will there be some good news?''. Precisely my sentiments. There is a limit to perseverence. How long can one sustain without any sign of success? How long can one fight depression in times of crisis? Many questions, without answer or hope. My option for hope was to go back to India. However, when I told my parents about coming back, I could distinctly hear the voice of disappointement. I don't understand why it is such a status symbol for Indian parents to have their kids abroad. It just isn't worth wasting our lives here. India is a lively and beautiful country. In many ways one understands its beauty only after staying away from it.
Yesterday I met someone who I thought would give me some career advise. I thought, this guy was also a recent MBA graduate and had landed up with a plump job in this bad market. So he can guide me well. However, reality always sucks. He told me how he had blatantly lied on his CV about doing things which he had never done before and asked me to do the same as well. Can ou imagine my horror when he told me the full details of how I could go about scammimg people with my falsehood and lies! I don't say that I have always been truthful in my life. I have lied but under circumstance where I had little option. Yes, I have lied but thats when I felt I was being meted out unfair treatment and need to hit back. However cheating innocent professionals is just not acceptable. It is not the right thing to do and I will not succumb to any such temptation in times of hardship, I will just not do it.
''Life gives you two paths, the right one and the wrong one. Wrong one looks simple initially but will ultimately give you failure. Right one seems tough initially, you will face many obstacles but will succeed ultimately''. I wish Adi Chopra would make more movies like DDLJ.
Everything has just been plain bad lately, on job front, on country front, movie front and all other personal fronts as well. Life this Christmas resembles rubbles of Kandahar, builiding a Toronto on it is not an easy job (no pun intended, whatsoever!).

Pakistan: Would you like it Stable or Unstable?

Some smart aggression

Bleed India until death surely seems to be the motto of many powerful people in Pakistan. For us Indians, it becomes imperative to understand, who is our enemy? Not all Pakistanis but a selected lot, for sure. Should other Pakistanis suffer for actions of some? I am sure there is something about it written in the Bhagwad Gita but I haven't really read it, so wouldn't know. However, what I do know is that to save India we need to think of our own self interest. So priority should be India and then anything or anyone else. Let us now try to understand, who is the enemy? The terrorists, the people who fund them, the people who sympathize with them and the ones who manage them. If you wreck the management, the company will eventually declare bankruptcy. So go for the management. Now, who manages them? The ISI, Pakistani army and a few in Pakistani political circles (read many in PML-Q). Now, that we have a clear identification of the enemy, how do we destroy them? Notice that I am using the word destroy and not weaken because I believe that second chances are given only to freinds not foes.

Covert military option should always be an open option whenever we have any intelligence about terrorist bases near the LOC or the international border. This will result in these operations moving into the heartland of Pakistan. Now, we have the global clout to cripple Pakistan economically. Let us use that intelligently, to dry up the coffers of the Pakistani army. Use American friends to do it. Obama has actually already done half the job for us by giving a plump post to Hillary Clinton. She has to be used aa a strategic asset in this mission. Join the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Offer Canada to replace it's army in Kandahar. They have been desperately looking for ways to get out from there. We do not need to rush our army there in haste. We need to understand the situation on the ground, ask Canadians for feedbacks from the ground and then move in gradually. In this phase, Indian embassy in Kabul needs to create a favorable ground for India, in and around Kandahar. Kandahar is important as it could serve as a base to support Baloch rebels. Nushki could serve as an entry point where India could establish its presence. Proximity from Quetta helps. Now, although Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan, majority of the population there are not Baloch but they are Pakhtuns. This can work in our favor. Pakhtuns are agitated with the Pakistan military in Waziristan. This sentiment needs to be spread to Quetta and surrounding areas as well. The Afghan government should also be encouraged to get back Pakhtun dominated areas from Pakistan as Pakhtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. However, alienating Pakhtuns might be hard as they hold key posts in Pakistni military and federal government. However, every opportunity created by the US strikes in NWFP should be utilized. A Baloch and Pakhtun unity could mean doom for the Punjabi dominated Pakistani army establishment. A Pakhtun rebellion in the army should also be looked at as an opportunity waiting to be exploited.
The US has its hands tied when it comes to acting freely against Pakistan as its troops in Afghanistan depend on Pak food supply and military help on Afghan Pak border near NWFP. Here, Tajakistan comes into the picture. India has already established an aircraft base there. Now, whether food supplies can take a route from there into Afghanistan can be looked at. Russia could be a very important player here. India might have to do a difficult, rather unthinkable task of bringing Russia and US closer. However, its worth giving it a shot. If that can be done, then Central Asia could be used by US and allied troops to launch attack against terrorists inside Pakistan. This hugely diminishes the influence Pakistani army has with America.

All these if done simultaneously, can bleed Pakistan to death. Seperating Balochistan from Pakistan could mean cutting of 50% of its energy and land resources. It would mean a strong Indian ally breathing right besides Karachi, Pakistan economic capital. Hence in the long term it becomes important that Pakistan becomes a weak and fragmented state, so that we Indians can live our lives in peace. Who says we need war for peace, we just need some smart aggression.

Opportunity in Tragedy

Pakistan was in the midst of terrible economic crisis when the terrorists attacked Mumbai on the dark night of 26th November. Now, coincidentally it was the same day it received the IMF fund, which was a bailout for this economically failing state. However, it needs more funds to keep it running.

India has progressed a lot in the last decade. Its global clout has strengthend. It established many important contacts in organizations around the world. This clout needs to be used to squeeze aid meant for Pakistan unless they keep elimianting terrorists and their infrastructure. This is a historical chance. A golden opportunity of sorts. If we do not nail them down now, we will regret forever.

Surgical strikes also should be in store. If nothing else works in the next 45 days, then strike Pakistan where it hurts. A common fear is a full fledged nuclear war. However, if we put ourselves in Pakistan's shoes, war seems like an unlikely option. They are crumbling economically. Any war means certain death for them. Taliban has gained stronghold in NWFP. If Pak army moves away from there, these guys are ready to enter Eastern Punjab. Kashmiri terror groups are already supporting, they will help them takeover parts of POK too. PAK army knows this very well. They know they need to finish these elements from SWAT valley else, Islamabad might fall.

They cannot afford war now. Neither can US or EU. Their troops depend on PAK army on the eatern border. Lets tell the West that if they want to prevent a conflict and protect their troops, India will have to be rewarded. No compromises.

Who is living in denial?

Pakistan elite & middle class: They seem to think terrorists are not part of their society but something that happens only in Afghanistan,tribal areas and Kashmir. Wake up, your army and inelligence agencies train them and use them over and over again. People in Pakistan deny that they resent India's progress so much that it leads them to support destructive plans.

Indian people: These terrorists could not have succeeded without local help. What drives people to such things? Fundamentalist religious techings, vested political interest which does not stop extremist organizations and communal politicians like Advani, Narendra Modi, Karunanidhi and Mulayam Singh. These 3 factors need to be eliminated, no matter which side you stand on. Madrassas need to be stopped, deal toughly with Bangladesh, Nepal and ofcourse Pakistan. This is probably the only denial Indian people have come out of. Now, almost everyone knows that Pakistani conspiracies are threating the very concept of Indian society. Pakistan today is economicall crumbled, politically divided, militarily in a wek position due to desertions. This is the time to act shrewdly. Don't declare war. Fight a proxy war. Use your contact in IMF and World Bank to attach Indian interest strings of the loans Pakistan need, wthout which they can not survive. Strike terrorists with blasts in their offices, terror camps and the malls which the underworld owns and runs in cities like Karachi. Strike them where it hurts. Hack Pakistani websites which promote movie and music piracy. Block all sources of revenue for them.

Pakistani Media: This is the most evident and biggest group in denial. They love to spend energy in targeting Indian media for being patriotic but fail to concentrate on terror camps and operations in cities like Lahore and Karachi. Why so? Is it not safe for them. Thats BS! BBC is trying to find these elements in recent reports, although not very succesful yet. How can you explain a white lady reporter reporting form interiors of Pakistan and local media not doing it. Pakistani media truly in denial!

It hurts

At India Gate in Delhi we have a tribute for the unknown soldier. That is where Indian heads of state pay tribute every Republic Day. However tonight, I pay tribute to the martyr whom is not unknown to me, my best friend's father. I also want to pay tribute to all those unknown people who died, trying to fight the terrorists in Mumbai. Tonight Mumbai was attacked by terrorists again and perhaps the worst attack the city has ever seen. The attack is still very much on, as news trickles in about more blasts and more bullets being shot at the army, police and civilians. The streets of Mumbai are a battleground tonight. The Taj is burning, the Oberoi is under seige and the Marriot was not spared either. From Borivali to Nariman Point, the whole city has been terrorized.

Neither is the city stranger to terrorist attacks nor am I. However, this time terror has shattered someone very close to me and that hurts, real bad. I do not know what will be the consequence of this attack. I just hope and pray that my city comes out a winner at the end of this dark night.

Just Do It

These are times of uncertainty and change. None of us know what will happen next, what our world will look like in 2009. But again, when have we known the future! I wish I knew what will happen next. Come to think of it, how boring would life get then if I knew evrything. No suprises.

Lately I have been very disturbed as I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. I don't know if this is the worst financial crisis we have seen in last 100 years but this crtainly the worst period of time I have had. No Job, no family, a career thats lost somewhere in the middle of a large ocean of financial distress. I have always taken the safe options in life, to avoid the struggle.
Growing I acted in many skits,plays and dramas. I was often complimented for my acting and dancing skills. Infact till date I meet people who remember me for the roles I enacted on stage. If it weren't for the fear of failure I would have ended up in the entertainment world today. Perhaps, in front of the camera. I was this unknown fear of struggle that led to do an MBA. My logic was that the 2000 internet bubble burst could happen again and I would be without a job then, unless I was in a position where I could fire others, rather than getting fired myself. The answer was an MBA. Become the boss. The only problem was that my imaginary recession came much faster than I actually thought. So inspite of planning my whole life I ultimately couldn't stay away from struggle. So if you are thinking something might be too risky to do, just shutup and bounce coz life will give you wat it planned to give you anyways. So just go ahead and do it.

Raj's faux pas

This agitation by MNS chief will certainly hurt North Indians in the short term. However this will cause grave damage to Maharashtra in the long term. Firstly, new investments might be affected. In today's India when invetsments by Indian and foreign companies are coveted by all States, Maharashtra cannot afford to sully its image with regards to law and order. And these incidents are targeted directly towards the working class, the ones who make industries 'low cost', thus enhancing their profits and boosting their market value. If there is a sense that cheap labour is being driven out of Maharashtra and government can't stop it, it could be dangerous for industrial growth. Look at what happened to West Bengal. Mamta Banerjee's agitation not only led to a loss for farmers there but also has given a bad name to the State. Indian industrial houses are thinking twice before investing in ruarl areas of WB now. Gujarat ofcourse was quick to capitalize on Mamta's faux pas and rightly so. If they wouldn't, someone else would have done it.
This agitation has also hurt the image of Marathi Manoos. No matter how much you might cry foul against the Hindi news channels, the fact remains that people across the country are sympathizing with the poor taxi driver whose cab is being smashed and the poor guy is being mercilessly beaten up. And finally the worst nightmare of the Thackreys. Eventually, maybe not now but within a decade, demands will be raised to make Mumbai a union territory. Probably a FCR, Financial Capital Region, which has its own state government and law and order is responsibility of the Centre. If these things actually happen (the second one is already happening), the biggest loser will ironically be the Marathi Manoos.