16082014 toim mp 02 1 col r1 - mumbai ultramumbaiultra.in/mediacoverage/times-of-india.pdfbengali,...

Mumbai: It takes a little whilebefore Subramaniam K agrees.He hems and haws, and tries tosegue into talking about gram-mar instead. Finally, the Chem-bur resident relents. “Mi Mum-bai madhe khup vel rahatoy,” hesays, chuckling. “Mhanun Ma-rathi shikayla gele.” The 68-year-old’s enthusiasm for thelanguage more than makes upfor the slight mix-up in conjuga-tion. It is also what has him com-muting every week to the Mum-bai Marathi Sahitya Sangh atCharni Road, for lessons fromprofessor Minakshi Jaykar.

Elsewhere in the city, Kalya-ni SK decided she had to learnTamil to better communicatewith Amma—a dear, grand-motherly family friend—whospoke no English and used ges-tures to communicate with Ka-lyani. “Her husband, who Icalled Appa, knew English and Ihad promised him I would learnTamil for Amma,” recalls Ka-lyani. “He passed away recently,and I knew it was time I fulfilledthe promise.” The 43-year-oldentrepreneur has been learn-ing the language from TamilSangam teacher, Shyam SundarIyer. At the condolence meet lat-

er this year, she hopes to conveyher memories of Appa in Tamil.

There is also the Maharash-trian retiree who learnt Bengalibecause of a keen interest in thestate’s literature, the Gujaratiwoman who decided to be fluentin her Sindhi spouse’s lan-guage, and the Malayali busi-nessman who gained an edgeover competitors by conversingin Marathi with his clients. At atime when Hindi and Marathiare being made subject of muchfurore, these Mumbaikars aredipping into the conversationand culture of another commu-nity, without any political mo-tive.

With a growing number ofinter-community marriagesand lucrative job opportunitiesin another state, more Mumbai-kars are interested in master-ing a regional language, saysSuhasini Kirtikar, who hastaught at the Sahitya Sangh forover three decades. “In case ofMarathi, we have students whowant to build a rapport with col-leagues, especially those whohave recently been transferredhere,” she explains. “Some stu-dents have married Maharash-trians. There are also those whojoin purely as a hobby.”

Apart from the MMSS head-

there.” The institute’s roster isalso kept packed by newly mar-rieds, hoping to make an im-pression on their in-laws, andthose learning a language justfor the love of it.

“I give a challenge to stu-dents that by the end of the lec-tures, all will be able to read Ta-mil,” says Shyam Sundar. Hisclass buys copies of the local pa-per Marathiya Marasu, andwatches Tamil TV. “Speakingtakes time,” he adds. “I tell stu-dents, listen to Tamiliansaround you—in buses, shops—to understand how they talk.”

Sandeep Hariani, who con-ducts Sindhi lessons at VZoneAcademy, says that because thelanguage has an Arabic-basedscript, most students prefer toonly learn how to speak it. “Weuse Devanagari to teach accentsand pronunciation,” he says.

Septuagenarian Aruna Ju-vekar learnt Bengali at a localcentre of Kolkata’s BangaBhasha Samiti, out of a passionfor Satyajit Ray’s movies. Shewent on to have a decades-longteaching stint, introducingmany to the delights of Bengalicinema and literature. “Learn-ing the language is the best wayto get closer to any community’sculture,” says Juvekar.

owner of Iyer Language andAcademic Classes. “Rapport(with the local market) developsthrough language.” His insti-tute has conducted individualand group sessions for employ-ees, especially those in the hos-pitality and BPO industry.

Languages like Oriya andTulu have also found severaltakers. “Tulu doesn’t have ascript, it mostly depends onKannada,” says Iyer. “We havestudents who are going to Man-galore for work, for example,and want to be able to speak it

quarters at Girgaum, classesare conducted at branches ofthe Bombay Tamil Sangam inSion and Chembur. “We havehad students who are Tamil,Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi,”says Minakshi Jaykar. “Manyhave some knowledge of Hindialready, so they are familiarwith the Devnagari script.”

“Learning foreign languag-es used to be popular, but today,with corporate companies set-ting up branches everywhere,regional languages are in greatdemand,” says Ganesh Iyer,

Tamilians learn Marathi, Maharashtrians BanglaMithila.Phadke@timesgroup.com

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TIMES CITYTHE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI | SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 2014

Maharashtra ch-ief minister Pr-ithviraj Chav-an turned “tou-rist guide” for

Independence Day, when hetraveled with mediapersonsalong a route which has seenflyovers and the Metro come upover the past several months.

Facing anti-incumbency,Chavan’s team came up withthis tour on Friday to impressvoters and mediapersons forthe assembly elections, aboutnew projects in Mumbai,which saw a 0-6 verdict in theLok Sabha polls, in favour ofthe saffron alliance.

Chavan arrived near Bhak-ti Park, on the showpiece East-ern Freeway, at 1.15pm. Accom-panied by MMRDAcommissioner U P S Madanand other senior officials, Cha-van took the front seat. He andMadan alternately explainedthe benefits of the projects toMumbai through a specially-fitted audio system in the bus.

Chavan, though not fromMumbai, displayed goodknowledge of the city’s geogra-phy as the bus headed from theEastern Freeway to the SantaCruz-Chembur Link Road, themost delayed infrastructureproject of the city.

Aware of the ignominiousrecord, Chavan explained, “Wehad to rehabilitate 4,000 housesfor the project. Moreover, it isdifficult to executive the pro-ject in a congested city likeMumbai.” He went on to eluci-date the difference between a‘brown field’ and ‘green field’project, something he does inall his speeches at infrastruc-ture project launches.

Thanks to the CM, this wasprobably the first time a bus didnot halt at any traffic signal.Traffic was halted wheneverthe bus was about to cross anintersection. It left many Mum-baikars wondering why traffichad to be held up for a bus.

As the bus was about to takethe Sahar elevated road, Cha-van spoke about the difficulttask of constructing the Milansubway, as the viaduct had to bebuilt across railway trackswithout disrupting suburbantraffic.

The only slip of tongue bythe ‘VIP guide’ was that he mis-took the Sahar elevated roadfor the ‘Milaan’ (Milan) sub-

way. Chavan told mediaper-sons how the connection to theinternational airport T2through the Sahar elevatedroad would not lead to peoplemissing flights due to traffic snarls and shorter con-nectivity.

Chavan stepped out at theworld class T2 for a photo-op fora few minutes. The bus thenmoved toward the Western Ex-press Highway’s Metro station,where some Congress minis-ter, including cabinet ministerand local MLA Suresh Shetty,welcomed him. He greeted par-

ty workers for a photo-up butabandoned plans to enter theplatform due to paucity oftime. He explained the decision with a nugget that itwas the highest of the Metrostations.

The convoy then proceededtowards Sahyadri guesthousefor a luncheon meeting withthe mediapersons. As the tourended, it dawned on mediaper-sons that this was the first timethe chief minister had traveledwith them by bus.

CM takes media on bustour of mega projects

Manthank.Mehta@timesgroup.com

MALHAR PAINTS THE TOWN REDHemant Shirodkar

RAISING THE PITCH: As many as 13,000 students from all over the city and Pune attended the first day ofMalhar, the annual St Xavier's College fest. The day showcased events like Pitch Perfect, a cappella singingcompetition, Folk Fusion, a folk dance show, and the Malhar Parliamentary Debate

�See also P5

Mumbai: The crime branchcan now fly to any place in Indiaif they have information that arunaway criminal is headedthere by train. A governmentresolution was issued recentlyauthorizing the city policecommissioner to sanction im-mediate funds only for crimebranch officers’ airfares afterthey said it was useless chasingcriminals by train.

In fact, the August 4 GR hasalready paid dividends. Acrime branch (unit IX) teamflew to Delhi to track one of theKhar senior citizen’s killers,and nabbed him after he alight-ed from a train.

Earlier, the police had an in-formal practice of requestingvictims or their kin to fundtheir travel expenses if theywant to ensure the quick arrestof an escaped accused.

The police complained tothe government that if theytake the next train after crimi-

nals fled the city, it becomes dif-ficult to trace them. The crimi-nals mostly travel to theirhometowns or relatives’ placesafter committing crimes.

Earlier, a policeman’s flightrequest proposal would go tothe home department for ap-proval, which would take sever-

Asif Khan (20) and NazimKhan (18) had killed MaheshBafna (69) in his godown inKhar (W) on Sunday night.Asif, the key accused, hadcaught a train for Mathura thenext morning. The policelearnt that Asif was the lastperson to communicate withBafna over the phone. TheKhar police had registered themurder case and the crimebranch was conducting paral-lel investigations.

The investigators got infor-mation on Asif ’s train details.A Khar police team caught atrain to Mathura and decidedto visit Asif ’s native place inAligarh, but they were unsureif he was heading there.

The unit IX officers, howev-er, decided to fly there as theysuspected that once he walkedout of the railway station, itwould be difficult to trace him.They caught Asif when healighted, interrogated him,and then arrested his associate,Nazim, from a Bandra slum.

sized the urgency to reachMathura. We discussed the is-sue with the commissioner,and he immediately grantedsanction to fly to Delhi. It will bevery helpful to nab runawaycriminals” said K M M Prasan-na, additional commissioner ofpolice (crime).

al weeks or months. So theywould avoid making the re-quest. The Khar case was thefirst instance where the crimebranch arrested a killer as theyreached his destination beforehim.

“Our team had the train de-tails of the killer and empha-

Crime branch gets wings to catch criminalsVijayv.Singh@timesgroup.com

KHAR CASE | A businessman and astrologer, Mahesh Bafna (69), was found murdered in his godown on Monday morning. His mobile phone was missing

THE ACCUSED | Asif Khan (20) and Nazim Khan (18)

THE OPERATION | Asif, the key accused, boarded the Paschim Express and planned to alight at Mathura. A Khar police team followed him in the next train. But a crime branch unit IX team flew to Delhi, from there they reached the railway station, in a vehicle. They caught Asif as he alighted from the train

ON GUARD: Cops at the godown in which Mahesh Bafna was strangled in Khar on Monday

FLIGHT TO SUCCESSFile photo

Mumbai: Parents of the 14-year-old boy accused of attack-ing Nishant Shukla, a class Xstudent of Fatima Devi Engl-ish School, with a blade, are fa-cing a tough time finding a newschool for him. The Malad sc-hool had given the teenager hisleaving certificate last week.

“It has been over twomonths that schools have reo-pened; some have also complet-ed their first unit test. Thenews about the incident hasspread in the vicinity, soschools aren’t welcoming,” the14-year-old’s mother told TOI.

“The BMC schools in thearea are only up to class VIIand there are only Hindi medi-um night schools. Going to a pr-ivate school is not an option aswe will not be able to pay dona-

tion or the high fees,” she said.The Malad school has been

kind and made no adverse re-marks on the teenager’s leav-ing certificate. It states the rea-son for leaving as “parents’wish (shifting residence)”, andmentions that the boy had a“fair” conduct in school.

“The school called us to col-lect the leaving certificate. Wetried to convince them to let me

mission this year, it will be diff-icult to get him back to schoolnext year too. We are lookingfor private tuitions so that hedoesn’t lose touch with studiesuntil we find him a school,” shesaid. As a last resort, the par-ents plan to send him to aboarding school in Baruch,Gujarat. “As we are not able toget admission to a school in Ma-lad, we are looking for otherplaces in the city. Sending himto a boarding school will be thelast choice,” said the mother.

The boy, who has been ch-arged with attempt to murder,has to attend hearings of the ju-venile justice board. He insistsit was an accident. “The class Xboys came to me and a fight en-sued, but I did not attack any-one with a blade. I had previ-ously also complained to theteachers about these fights, butno one paid heed,” he claimed.

stay, but the principal said theparents of other students haddemanded my expulsion. Ateacher also spoke in my sup-port, but the principal did notagree,” said the boy. Followingthe incident, several parentshad demanded that the schoolsuspend the boy.

The teenager’s mother isworried that he might drop outof school. “If he doesn’t get ad-

Blade attack on student: Accusedteenager can’t find new school

Vinamrata.Borwankar@timesgroup.com

On July 21, a class VIII student of Fatima Devi English School in Malad allegedly

attacked Nishant Shukla, a class X student,

with a blade. Shukla suffered a deep wound on the right side of neck and was administered 25 stitches

SCHOOL LEAVINGCERTIFICATE SAYS...It mentions the reason for leaving school as the parents’ wish to shift residence. It does not make any other adverse remarks. The certificate also says that the boy had a fair conduct in school

THE INCIDENT

Thane: An 18-year-old girl fromShil suffered a bullet injury onthe chest after a hoodlum firedin the air to threaten the resi-dents of the Ashirwad buildingin the plush Green Park housingcomplex on Friday.

Rashida Sayyed was the in-nocent victim of a feud betweenthe residents of Ashirwad andthe goons summoned by one Ab-dul Khan to terrorise them.

According to the police,Khan had recently bought a

ground floor apartment in thebuilding and was making alter-ations to the flat without the so-ciety’s approval. The neigh-bours complained of noise dueto the work and urged the socie-ty office-bearers to stop it as noprior permission was taken.They also objected to the struc-tural changes and demandedthat the work be stopped. Khan,believed to be an office-bearer ofa self-promoted ‘Human RightsAssociation of Mumbra-Kausa’,refused to relent.

On Friday, an argument en-sued between Khan and the oth-er society members, the policesaid. It’s learnt that Khan’sfriend Javed Siddiqui drovedown in his car along with threeother youths on motorbikes.When Siddiqui intervened, thesociety members told him toleave as he was an outsider. “Sid-diqui pulled out a revolver andfired three to four rounds in theair. One bullet hit my sister,” saidHasib, who deals in scarp mate-rial. The girl is stable, cops said.

Bullet hits girlas man fires toscare residentsof hsg society

Sanjeev.Shivadekar@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: The city’s first ultra-marathon on IndependenceDay saw 124 people run for 12hours in a non-commercialevent which involved neitherregistration fee nor prize mon-ey. Over a thousand people ac-companied the ultra-mara-thoners, running for a fewhours along the route.

“It’s like appearing for anexam and checking your paper.We didn’t measure who ran themaximum distance. This wasnot a race. The idea was to getpeople to run 12 hours at astretch to send out a message tothe city that this is not a bigdeal. Anyone can run,” saysPranav Mehta of the ShivajiPark Marathon Club, which or-ganized the event. Many run-ners who were part of the clubonce suffered from chronic ail-ments such as diabetes andasthma, but are now free of

medication thanks to running.The run involved loops of

12km between Shivaji Parkand Worli Seaface, with run-ners attempting to complete asmany loops as they could with-in 12 hours, from 5am. In theabsence of sponsorships, theorganisers received voluntarysupport, from the police and

Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation to doctors andphysiotherapists.

“There were physiother-apists at four stations along theway, and doctors who mea-sured BP and weighed us afterevery loop,” says MithikaD’Cruz, from Watershed Orga-nisation Trust, working in

drought-prone areas, whoclocked 80km on Friday. Sheeven had a shower in the mid-dle of the run, at the swimmingpool area in the Mayor’s bunga-low, which was opened up forparticipants.

“The organisers took intoaccount little things runnersneed... I ate a watermelon overthe course of the run,” saysD’Cruz.

The race drew amateursand professionals. India’s fore-most ultra-marathoner, ArunBhardwaj, covered 103km. Hehad ran from Kargil to Kanya-kumari. The government ser-vant from Delhi runs 27kmfrom his home in Dwarka towork at Parliament Street.

Abbas Shaikh, a jewellerypolisher who works 12 hours aday, covered 100km. “Abbaskept getting stronger witheach passing hour,” says hisfriend Ninad Tipnis, who ranthe last three hours with him.

City runs on I-Day, 12 hrs in one go

FREEDOM RUN: Participants in the 12-hour ultra marathon fromShivaji Park to Worli on Independence Day

Inter-Community Marriages, Job Transfers Prompt Them To Take Up Regional Languages

A lesson in progress at the Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh

Hemant Shirodkar

Pic: Rizwan Mithawala

Uma Kadam

Anil Shinde

The car of the man who opened firewas later damaged by residents

TIMES NEWS NETWORK