My city missing a beat again...too soon!

My city is where my heart is, this is where I belong, being born and brought up here. Past few days have been a testing time for the city dwellers gripped by the 'fear' of the unknown and uncertain. Today, I simply wasn't able to be normal self - somewhere there was a lurking apprehension and anxiety, "would I return home safely, will my colleagues who depend on private and public transport make it to office?" and so on... Something has gone wrong somewhere - will things get back to normal soon? My heart overpowering my mind, perhaps my dirve to office today was the most painful one, may remain in my memory for long, as a sad reminder of the day my city missed a beat. The frequent 'bandhs' seem to have paralysed the lives of millions of peace-loving people who have made Hyderabad their home.

The familiar scenes were missing - there wasn't a soul on the otherwise bustling Kirshna Nagar-Jubilee Hills road. Every little tea and tiffin stall is closed. I could empathize with people waiting perhaps for their breakfast at these outlets. People waiting at the bus stops with forlorn looks. People stranded in trains and buses at the outskirts of the city. People waiting to reach hospitals and people faced with emergencies. Vendors who depend on us to make their daily earning. It's the people - we the commoners who bear the brunt of agitations, bandhs, strikes and other similar violent manifestations of public ire. This time it's a region that wants to establish its identity - later it would be another region that wants to do the same and this may be followed by similar instances all over the country- a country that was divided on the basis of linguistic identities for better governance- how ironical! Apparently, this was not-so-flawed a strategy for retaining our regional identities yet understanding and tolerating other cultures and religions.

Scratch a little and it's all over the place - strong feelings of regionalism, casteism, communalism - when provoked come out with true colours-making no difference whatsoever in terms of education and culture. Even the most 'educated' get a pleasure in establishing so-called 'superiority' on the basis of religion, caste, region and other parochial priorities. North Indian? South Indian? From Telangana? From Andhra?From ...endless ways to establish our identities, where are the actual issues of economic and inclusive development? Why don't people explore avenues of cooperation and collaborative development? If these were the issues on the basis of which the 'struggle' was planned, there could have been other means of achieving the goal - perhaps with less agony and destruction to the lives of common and innocent people.I'm sure my city will soon get back to normal, one can destroy the physical assets and cause similar damage but one can't kill the soul of a city that's consituted by its sincere citizens who have toiled to make it what it is today!