Smita- Hey Pops! I’m leavin’.

Bal Thakeray (BT)- What! You haven’t even made my khichdi yet. You can’t leave.

Smita- I don’t care about your khichdi anymore. I’m leavin’.

BT- OK OK! Never mind. I’ll tell Raj to make it. He’s actually very good at making khichdi. See the way he has made a khichdi out of Marathi Manoos. Do you know I taught him that?

Smita- I wish you had taught Udhav also the same thing.

BT- I thought you were leaving.

Smita- I am.

BT- While on your way back get 250 gms dahi for my raita.

Posted on November 28th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: bal, BJP, Congress, Hurriyat, Raj, Shiv sena, Smita, Thakeray. Comments: 3

Bal Thakeray had to do what he did. There was just no option left for him. His own protege Raj Thakeray was running away with his Marathi Manoos agenda. And it was working for Raj like the way it originally worked for Bal Thakeray with the result that Raj was being talked about as the new Bal Thakeray. How could he allow another Bal Thakeray to take his place in his own lifetime? Also, he was getting increasingly desperate what with his own son whom he chose over the more popular Raj proving to be quite a dud as far as taking control of the Sena and its future was concerned. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong occasion and the wrong person to reinvent his own ideology. Sachin Tendulkar was the wrong person to be picked for this exercise. Not only is he a thoroughbred gentleman but he’s also an absolutely non political icon whom the entire country adores. But it was not to be. In his exuberance to make amends for wrongs of the last few years when he allowed Raj Thakeray and his MNS to hijack his own agenda Bal Thakeray has shot himself in his own foot. Sachin may have said those few words as a proud Indian but they have triggered a sequence of events which have some far reaching implications. Here are some of them.

Posted on November 17th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Amitabh, bal, BJP, Bollywood, Congress, Cricket, MNS, Movies, Raj, Sachin, Shiv sena, Thakeray. Comments: 5

Kamleshwar, the late Hindi writer and commentator once said,” Kitne Pakistan”. How many Pakistans do we have within India? He was so right. Pakistan is right here inside us, meaning that we are our own worst enemies. Even as we keep hearing of discrimination against people from North East, subjugation of Muslims in Gujarat or other such biases MNS took this enmity to a completely new level when they assaulted Abu Azmi of SP in the legislative assembly for taking his oath in Hindi. The bias itself may not be anything new but the way it came to the fore it was a brutal slap on the faces of all right minded Indians. For me it signifies the beginning of Talibanisation of Maharashtra where you could see them trying to impose their brand of Maharashtra on others.

Posted on November 10th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: assault, assembly, BJP, Congress, MLA, MNS, Raj, Shiv sena, Thakeray. Comments: 10

BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!!!!! It was 7 AM Thursday, 22nd October. Election results. Where was the remote? Where did I leave it last night? Holy shit! Aleena was sleeping on the remote. And the damn thing was wet. Aleena had done susu over it. Goddamnit!!!! Can’t help it. I wiped it clean and switched on the TV. Dish TV welcomes you!! Bullshit, get lost. Where was Times Now? There it was.

Posted on October 23rd, 2009 under India calling. Tags: elections, Marastra, MNS, NDTV, Raj, results, Thakeray, Times Now. Comments: 6

Mumbai is surely a city of superstitious people. And they consider 13 as an unlucky number, quite religiously (pun intended). Otherwise how can anyone explain the dismal 45% voting in the city which has nearly 70 lakh registered voters? I mean we are talking about a city which witnessed the bloodiest terrorist attack in the history of this country but still does not care about who comes to power in the state. Quite ironic if not ridiculous. It’s ironic because I remember watching lakhs of Mumbaikars protesting against the failure of the govt to prevent these attacks but when it came to making a choice they backed out, rather meekly I’d say. Or may be it was just that that they are too superstitious about number 13, holiday or no holiday.

Posted on October 14th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: arjun rampal, campaign, elections, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Raj, Thakeray, vote. Comments: 4

KJo has apologized. It’s Mumbai and only Mumbai, we know now. Well, in my opinion these so called Bollywood bigwigs should stop embarrassing themselves in this manner. I remember it was Anil Kapoor initially who made ridiculous statements like Jai Maharashtra, Jai Mumbai, while at the Oscar ceremony where Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar for Best Picture. I really wonder what was so great about the city or the state as far as this movie was concerned. If anything, it was the other way round.

Posted on October 5th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: Anil Kapoor, apologize, Bollywood, KJo, MNS, movie, Raj, wake up sid. Comments: 5

Some of our politicians have provoked these incidents. Others have fueled fire in them and there some others like Vilasrao Deshmukh who have done their bit by just keeping quiet when they were supposed to speak up. I mean when things were so bad in Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh was just a mute spectator from his hometown in Latur.

Posted on November 1st, 2008 under India calling. Tags: advantage, Amar, castes, chaos, chief, citizens, community, country, cultures, deputy, deserve, Deshmukh, diversity, divided, equal, example, fact, fire, incidents, India calling, Indian, interests, Kumar, Lalu, languages, leader, Maharashtra, marriage, mileage, minister, Nitish, oppurtunities, Patil, pattern, peacefully, Political, politicians, position, practice, pride, race, Raj, regionalism, shame, Singh, slip, spectator, subscribe, symbolizes, Thakeray, theory, tolenrance, traditions, unity, Vilasrao, violent, vote, Yadav, zero. Comments: None

The fact that the cops fired a total of 11 rounds, out of which four hit the boy, proves that the aim was not to take the boy alive. You would appreciate that anyone can be incapacitated by just one or two shots. Firing four shots into this boy’s body was either because the cops were scared or they just wanted to make sure that their aim was achieved. I think it was the latter.

Posted on October 28th, 2008 under India calling. Tags: bullet, bus, encounter, Maharashtra, murder, Rahul, Raj, shooting. Comments: 3

That’s what people are saying. They say that this entire game has been played out by Congress to undermine Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Initially he was ‘instigated’ by Congress to highlight certain issues which have been very dear to Shiv Sena.

Posted on October 22nd, 2008 under India calling. Tags: approval, bars, benefits, Congress, cool, Deshmukh, elections, enthusiasm, executed, gain, games, Home, India calling, instigated, issues, Maharashtra, man, minister, operator, Patil, people, play, popularity, power, question, Raj, regionalism, scene, Sena, Shiv, Shivraj, Thakeray, trap, Vilasrao, visible, young. Comments: 2