Mumbai, the once so called 'Financial Capital of India!'

I read an email in last week's edition of 'Outlook' magazine's Letters to the Editor:

'My dharma tells me to treat all who come to my door as godlike guests and feed them. My dharma also tells me that I must provide succour to my children and that when I do not have enough to feed them both, my children get higher priority and I must ask the guest to go elsewhere, especially, when my guest brings with him not just his family, but his brother-in-law, his third cousins, their friends and the village barber.'

I am sad our country is not made up of so many states with so many languages anymore. The states are becoming like individual countries. People like Raj Thackeray are behaving like despot kings. Slowly it is spreading to other states also - e.g. Karnataka.

Here, in Chennai, I have got a neighbour who is from Chatthisgarh. We are living near the IT Highway and I see so many different types of people from all over India - even sardarjis, who have come here to work in the Infosys, TCS, Sathyam Computers etc. The IT bhoom has made this happen. Even I am from Karnataka. All youngsters are going everywhere. Are all Thackeray's family members live only in Maharashtra? Do they speak only Marathi? Don't they go abroad? Bal Thackeray's first bahu was producing Hindi films, I remember. Bal Thackeray is (or was, because he cannot say so loudly now!) a great fan of Amitabh and Shah Rukh Khan.

What will happen to Mumbai if Ambanis, Tata, Birla and other business people leave Mumbai/Maharashtra. Should Bollywood produce only Marathi films? Should only Maharashtrians act in the films produced over there? The MNCs or any business people, think twice before starting a business in Kerala because of the labour unions. Now same thing will happen to Mumbai because of the problems created by the Thackerays. I will think twice before sending my son to Mumbai, for any kind of job. I have seen what happened to the students who went there to attend the Railway entrance exams. They must be in their late teens or early twenties. This will affect them and they might hate Maharashtrians forever.

Only a strong Central Government can bring some sort of peace. All our political parties are into promoting their own parties. We have sent Chandrayan to the moon and proved to the world that we are coming out of the 'Third World Country' label. These Thackerays are pulling us back into that label again.