Bombay's nightlife: The age of criminals

What does one do when the task of upholding the law has been handed to criminals? Is it possible to lead a normal existence when the criminally corrupt misuse archaic laws to make money and harass ordinary citizens. These same criminals then sell this to the media and the under-class of society and claim that the rich are upset that they are being punished for breaking laws.

A few night ago, I went to a popular bar with an attractive friend of mine, who makes many a head turn. The owner of this place then introduced us to "some friends." One friend, a poorly educated, foul-smelling aggressive man, told the owner in an aggressive voice that we should be given alcohol permits at once.

I am not sure if it was wise of this owner to boast about the pretty girl coming there three times a week, but still the tone of voice of that friend, an excise official was despicable. He was obsviously on a friendly bribe-collection spree.

This is the age of the criminals in Bombay, a much-predicted "Kali Yuga" where the worst monsters control the state machinery. Of course, all of India is now controlled by criminals with authority. This is definitely not the liberal, free country that Jawaharlal Nehru promised the people of India in 1947. Shame on all of us, for letting these criminals seize power. Shame on us for not doing enough to spread education and enlightenment.

We, collectively, have failed India and handed it in a gift-wrap to monsters!

Lesson in manners on a local train

I love train rides in the city. There's so much of Bombay and the vibes and changing mentalities that you can see when you take a local train.

On a train ride to Churchgate yesterday, an African man got in at Bandra with his extremly attractive wife/girlfriend. A man sitting near them decided to take a photo of the couple without asking permission. The African gentleman asked him politely to delete the pic, but the man ignored him and walked away. This infuriated the African man and he followed him and asked him again to delete the pic.

After being ignored again, the African snatched the phone and asked how the man dared to take a photo without asking permission. He was loud enough to attract other commuters to the scene and they asked the man in his late-40s to delete the photo. The ill-mannered man grumbled in Marathi about why the kaala was so offended but deleted the pic when forced to by other commuters, who rightfully took the side of the African man.

The frightened "photographer" got off at Dadar. I really hope he learned his lesson. As the train went towards Bombay Central, the conversation revolved around manners and how a few idiots give all Indians a bad name. One man in his 50s said, "we need to get used to seeing more Blacks and Whites and treat them with respect. They are after all our guests!"

That was a wonderful statement to hear from someone in a city that is notorious for having a large number of middle class racists. There just maybe hope for this country, after all!

An update on the Keenan Santos murder case

The main accused Jitender Rana has applied for bail and the hearing is due on July 7. For those of you that can turn up in Sewri for the hearing, please do so.

Here is what Benjamin Fernandes had to say about the upcoming hearing and the accused and his family members.

"Rana has applied for bail. His bail plea will be heard on 7 Jul at 2.45 pm as also the charges will be read out to him and the other 3 accused. The next court date will be an important one in this court case.
The accused were brought to court today, 2 hours before the court session during which time they spent socializing with their friends and family. It looked like they were at a family picnic, every one of them were happy to be there. The accused were kept inside the police van right outside the sewri court and their families had gathered around the grilled windows and were having a long chat. I was sitting in a car with tinted windows parked right ahead of the police van, so I had a close view of the entire gathering.

When the court session was about to begin the whole group went up to the 3rd floor and waited outside the court room, none of them entered the court room though, as their lawyer had advised the crowd not to enter the court room. I sat on the first bench at the entrance to the court room, so that I could take a close look at each of the accused. And as they were were brought in, I locked eyes with each of them one by one by one as they entered the court room. Rana put on an innocent smile to the judge when his lawyer submitted his bail application, but he could not hide the sinister viciousness in his killers' eyes.

I am hoping that the bail plea is turned down by Judge SP Deshmukh, considering the viciousness of this double murder, and with Rana's connections he may well disappear and go hide with his boss in Malaysia as is usually the case with criminals on the loose."
 

This case is about the freedom that we, Bombayites, deserve. Freedom for women from sexual harassment, freedom for young people to take a walk in the evenings without being attacked by criminals. We need to stand by the families of Keenan and Reuben. Those two brave young men could have been any of us.

How scary is the fact that people with pending murder cases are roaming the streets of this city? I am talking about the Ranas and Palandes of Bombay, who use the loopholes in the antiquated Indian legal system to carry out their reign of terror with the loose backing of politicians and some rogue policemen!

While I was away

It's great to be back home to know that the bandits in uniform, the Mumbai Police have gone on a rampage to destroy this city's nightlife. Armed with 19th century laws, these criminals are arresting mothers in restaurants and accusing them of being prostitutes. Life goes as normal in Khetwadi and Kamathipura, where human beings are in cages and sold to sex-maniacs!

The police are also filing charges against a bar for over crowding (I wonder why the Western and Central Railways get away with it?)

In the meantime, you have politicians and senior police officials openly supporting this thugish behaviour. What has happened to my city? Is this the same place where I could be at a nightclub till 6 am (college days in the late-1990s)? Who are these criminals that claim they are only doing their jobs?

The job of the police is to serve and protect. And they fail EVERYTIME a bomb goes off, they fail when chain-snatchers have a free run of the city. They fail when 10 men in a boat turn up from across the Arabian Sea and hold the city to ransom.

I realise all this is nothing but an attempt to create a class war. You see, it's fine for criminal elements to blast music well into the night during religious festivals. They can disturb the public, grope women and vandalize and that's all fine.

The aim of these "authorities" is to mobilise the lower classes so as to keep the middle class from questioning them over corruption. Ironically, it's the corruption of the police and politicians that keep the lower classes poor in the first place!

There is a particular degree of arrogance among the politcians, civil servants and the business houses that any kind of behaviour will be accepted. I have news for them, this city will sink into the bottom of the Arabian Sea if enough people decide they won't take this kind of non sense anymore.