A UP-wala who loves Raj Thackeray

The Star Screen awards this year would have definitely taken a big toll on me if I had not the company of some really quirky people while working on it, apart from some of my colleagues that is. Leading this list is a man called Babu, a UP'ite who drove me around Lokhandwala, Versova and Seven Bungalows on Day 1 of what would be a tiring exercise delivering invites to celebs as well as non-celebs to turn up for the awards, slated less than a week away.
Babu was an atypical driver. He was dark brown, with a balding patch in front of his pate and his reddish brown mouth gave ample evidence of his paan chewing addiction. He is also convinced that every watchman in all the towers and decrepit buildings to trudged to in the above mentioned areas are Biharis. He tried to conceal it first but as the day wore on and he realised he could not keep making long distance calls to his hometown, he slowly opened up about his hate of Biharis.
Babu is from Jaunpur in UP and has been driving cars for about seven years now. He left a lucrative business and came to Bombay in search of more money than his farming could give him and his extended family of 17 members. He lives in a decrepit one-storey building with a roommate, paying about Rs 2000 as rent per month. Babu believes Biharis come to Bombay and do not pick up its ethos. That they in fact, bring their own culture and force it down the throat of people here. "Take Chhat Puja for example. They celebrate it very differently in Bihar and here too, just to have their show of strength displayed, they somehow conduct this ceremony haphazardly. What's the use? They do not realise how important this festival is," he rants.
His disgust of his fellow Hindi speakers is evident in the way he talks to them in uncouth language and with scant regard for their background, adopting the familiar twang in which the language is spoken up North. What really got his goat an event playing in his hometown. His sister's brother's daughter was being married off on the same day as our card distribution was occurring in Bombay. After coming back from delivering a card to Archana Puran Singh's house, I found Babu pacing outside the rented car and pointedly speaking into his tobacco stained handset. His tenor, like his sudden gear jerks, went up and down with every other sentenced. When he was finally done after a good 15 minutes, he said he was threatening as well as cajoling someone from the groom's side who were demanding a bigger car to get the groom and his family to come to the venue along with a few more "essential" items packed into it. He spat out the words, "Goddamn fucking Biharis." Needless to say, the groom was from Bihar.
As the afternoon sun gave way to twilight and the temperature dropped considerably, so did Babu's temper. He did have something interesting to say before he quit the subject though. "I feel Raj Thackeray is right in beating up Biharis. Stupid, mean bunch of people deserve to be beaten. I wonder why he's stopped now," he said. Tell him that Thankeray's people had attacked cab drivers from UP as ell and he says cryptically, "He must understand we're different from these lowlife Biharis. I think he knows it already."

PS - I did not know Babu would be featured in this blog, else I would've had a photo for readers' benefit.

PPS - I have made this promise and broken many times, but I hope to continue this blog and give it a direction and flow in the days to come. More on the Screen Awards coming up in the next few posts. Stay with me and pray for me .. Thank you