To Hell with Raj Thackray

I landed in Mumbai this morning only to be greeted by the news of the arrest of Mr.Raj Thackray, late in the night. Fellow travellers on the flight from Delhi were talking in hushed tones about how Mumbai will come to a standstill, thanks to the thugs of Mr. Thackray running amuck.

Sure enough, as soon as I stepped out of the terminal, I noticed a strange kind of calm all around. There were hardly any cabbies jostling for fares and Mumbai seemed to be uncharacterstically orderly. After a while I was able to hail a cab, who agreed to take me to my destination albeit at a whooping Rs. 400. (the normal fare is Rs. 150)

‘Sir, all of us are scared of Mr. Thackray and his goons. Taking the taxis out is fraught with risk. You never know when someone starts pelting stones or worse set the cab afire’ said Ramnaresh, my taxi driver who as it turned out hails from Ballia in Eastern UP. With a start I realised that Ramnaresh is exactly the kind of guy Mr. Thackray and his cohorts are targetting.