What the hell is happening to Bombay?

First the name was changed.. to Mumbai. I mean ok.. the character will not change and all.. and so we told ourselves that just by changing a name nothing changes.. what's in a name right?

Then the airport and then VT and now I have lost count of how many names have changed. Slowly bit by bit moral policing started. No holding hands, no wearing sleeveless to colleges, no short skirts, no wearing the colour red(!!!), first in one college, then in colleges across Mumbai.

Ban books, ban movies, ban posters, ban rock groups, ban music videos, ban movie posters, ban prime time telecast, ban movies based on real life incidents, ban telelcast of movies on satelite televsision and now the latest- ban dance bars.

First the Shiv Sena does it so people of Mumbai (no Bombay!!!) got together and tried and elect some other less corrupt politicians but little did they know that even Congress and Nationalist Congress had the same menial and mediocre mentality.

Its scary... a lot of my friends are in Mumbai because it is safe.. safe for women, safe to travel alone at night, just generally safe. It was like that because every did your own thing and did not interfere with some one else's business. May be it callous and indifferent to a point. But compared to this horrid alternative reality, that indifference was better. Now, of course, its everyone's look out that one bachelor in the building brings a girl home. "Is he going to marry her?" What business is it of yours?

Then there are college professors who sue television channels for showing crap. Ok. Yes those famous K serials are absolute rubbish and yes they should be sued for subjecting us to such mediocrity. But for alleged moral corruption?? Give me a break! Only television rating points (TRPs) count and they aren't even thinking morality. When college professors take such extreme measures, instead of teaching their students the real meaning of the freedom of choice, it is scary.

It is the right to freedom of expression that is one of the fundamental rights in our country so everyone has to right to say what they think is wrong but to take one step further, misuse your ill gotten political clout and go and ban it, is dictatorial.

Whats astonishing is that nobody in media is talking about how Mumbai is being fed to these pseudo-society watchers? Except for one story in Midday and this story (first in a series) in Indian Express, I am yet to come across any in prime time or main stream media. I guess, until the stranglehold on the media increases, nobody in that fraternity will protest.