Ever since we had grown up to the age of being told bed-time stories(for me it was in a Bengali family) Shivaji Maharaj used to be a well loved hero, whom we tried to emulate .... in our child like understanding .... mostly copying the
moghul styled headgear he adorned and imitating the beard he sported. Bombay was a dreamland .... a city of fantasies. The city was synonymous with so many things - Swami Dayananda's Arya Samaj, the "freedom is our birth-right" chant of Bal Gangadhar Tilak - his Ganesh Utsav - his rendering of the Bhagvadgeeta, and then the Cinema of course.
As days passed and we grew traces of real beard ... we heard of the Shiv Sena, (and at some corner of the heart took pride that the symbol they had chosen was a Bengal tiger) .......Hardly did we know that Shiva would soon be declared a Marathi deity - not to be worshiped if you were a non-Marathi, the tiger to be renamed - 'Panthera Mumbaikar' and the Bhagvadgeeta declared a copyright of Maharashtra.
If this surprises you .... we are really not too far away from when this might
actually happen. How can the martyrdom of the 105 members of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement be quoted so inappropriately, when Tendulkar feels proud about being an Indian first? The struggle that had been quoted was against Bombay being shared by Gujarat as an integral part. Sachin, by no means suggested or supported any such arrangement, did he? Why can't some people take pride of their city being loved by all Indians, nay - the people of the world
!!! Shiva bless them.
moghul styled headgear he adorned and imitating the beard he sported. Bombay was a dreamland .... a city of fantasies. The city was synonymous with so many things - Swami Dayananda's Arya Samaj, the "freedom is our birth-right" chant of Bal Gangadhar Tilak - his Ganesh Utsav - his rendering of the Bhagvadgeeta, and then the Cinema of course.
As days passed and we grew traces of real beard ... we heard of the Shiv Sena, (and at some corner of the heart took pride that the symbol they had chosen was a Bengal tiger) .......Hardly did we know that Shiva would soon be declared a Marathi deity - not to be worshiped if you were a non-Marathi, the tiger to be renamed - 'Panthera Mumbaikar' and the Bhagvadgeeta declared a copyright of Maharashtra.
If this surprises you .... we are really not too far away from when this might
actually happen. How can the martyrdom of the 105 members of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement be quoted so inappropriately, when Tendulkar feels proud about being an Indian first? The struggle that had been quoted was against Bombay being shared by Gujarat as an integral part. Sachin, by no means suggested or supported any such arrangement, did he? Why can't some people take pride of their city being loved by all Indians, nay - the people of the world
!!! Shiva bless them.