Tuesday, February 16, 2010

'Soni ka chawl' and other short stories...

I saw 'My Name is Khan' which has Shahrukh hamming often about how Hindus and Muslims are not different, and that there are only two types of people - good and bad. No doubt he is right.

My first story in this series also concerns Hindus and Muslims, particularly those belonging to 'Soni ki Chawl'. The story is neither necessarily true nor is it inspiring or uplifting, its just a story.

Soni is Chawl is a residential area located around the heavily industrialized Rakhial and Odhav areas of Ahmedabad. The area got its name from the 'Soni' community which apparently settled down here many years back, then the outskirts of the city. The community thrived and became prosperous. However, a few years back some Muslim families also shifted there; my story teller had no clue why they shifted into a completely Hindu background. And slowly this new migrant population grew and they pushed the Hindus out, so much so that its now a completely Muslim neighbourhood. As I mentioned earlier, this story has little meaning. Its just a tale told. My autowalla told me this story while we passed through this area, assuming me to be a pious Hindu, despite my beard and disapproving glances. There was no need, it was just a mindset revealed to me, the story was just a media.

The other story also happened on the way, and this one happened for sure. I crossed Ashmia mills and remembered my last visit to their compound. I had gone there with Nakul and our dear professor A B Patel from Nirma, the reason was to request Ashima to become the main sponsor for the dream that we lived for the entire semester - Ingenium. We did realise it too, despite the riots in February which stopped our work for a long time and scared away a few potential participants. Ashima never agreed and finally Suzlon became our event sponsor.

More stories as time goes by.

4 comments:

  1. and why did u feel like telling this story to us?

    ReplyDelete
  2. well no specific reason bhavin, i have been collecting stories that i hear from people thinking i will write about them. just to share perspectives that are not necessarily mine. this post is just the start...i will share more real/ fictional stories as and when i hear them.

    all stories have some meaning and i would leave it to the readers to decide that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. this new article in Indian Express today is interesting in this context.

    http://www.indianexpress.com/news/home-alone/582073/

    ReplyDelete

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