When the Lion Spoke.

Shiv Sena’s Dasshera rally is among the most highly anticipated and widely attendant political rally in Mumbai. It is famous for its large crowd, the environment it creates, but the single biggest highlight of the rally is the speech of the leader of the Shiv Sena; who is arguably the most controversial political figure in India Mr. Balasaheb Thackeray.

As a resident of Mumbai and having been a student of journalism, it was only natural that I decided to attend the rally.

Unfortunately my excitement was severely dented last year as the Sena decided to cancel their rally owing to various reason, the main reason of that being the health of Bal Thackeray. The cancellation of the rally had only made me more eager to personally attend the rally, and get a first hand look at the legendary address of the doyen of Marathi politics, in his home ground at the center of the Marathi heartland Shivaji Park.

Bal Thackeray’s speech has been one of the most controversial, passionate and witty speeches that you can ever come across, or at least that was most of his admirers and surprisingly some of his staunchest opponents say.

His speech has always been touted as the precise combination of humor, with a steady dose of sarcasm and rhetoric mixed with a slight pinch of political and personal slander.

People travel for hundred of miles to get to hear him. Mr. Bal Thackeray’s reputation and political clout has been built around his captivating speeches heralded by a very successful career as a caricature artist in media.

So, now the big day was upon me. I reached the rally well in advance, but unfortunately Mr. Thackeray was expected to arrive only latter in the evening. But that did not dampen my spirit. I was too eager to let a small disappointment bob me down.

I impatiently waited and tried to pretend to be paying attention to all the other speakers, but after what seemed like an eternity the announcement that I was waiting for was made. Mr. Bal Thacker had arrived on the impressive platform especially prepared for the rally. I tried to control my emotions as I believed myself to be a neutral and didn’t want the emotion and the surrounding created by the rally and primarily Mr. Bal Thackeray to take me away and lose my focus and take me away from the main reason for why I was there. To get to know and understand the secrets behind all the stories which have now become folk lore and about the man himself whom his admirers call the King of Hindu hearts.

The noise around me was deafening which chants emanating from all the corners the packed Shivaji Park Maidan.

At last the mike was handed to the Mr. Thackeray, the crowd erupted once gain and chants of various meanings arose from all over, but no sooner had the Lion of Marathi hearts spoke, the entire crowd went quite as if dumbfounded by the voice which they were ready to follow to any ends to. It was that voice whose single utterance can bring the whole of Mumbai to a standstill.

As his speech continued I soon realized the basis on which the legends were created. He didn’t sound like the persona that has been created around him, he didn’t sound like the invincible, highhanded and sometime ruthless politician that I had known him to be.

His voice had the power to connect with you and communicate and more importantly relate to you on a personal level. It wasn’t his exceptionality that made him unique, but he was unique because he was unexceptional. It sounded to me as an elder speaking to me, who understood what I wanted to hear and who knew the trick of delivering it with panache and style that only he can.

But the think under the intense rhetoric and mudslinging dawned on me was that the person that I was hearing, although still very impressive, wasn’t at his best today. Age had slowly but surely started to catch up with him. I also slowly began to realize that if this wasn’t at the Dasshera rally and there weren’t elections looming in the horizon, the chance of seeing the great man or even diabolical for some, the chances of seeing him action would have been extremely remote.

The voice still had the power but it somehow lacked conviction. Although he wanted to energize his supporter his body wouldn’t allow it. But being there that day was something that I wouldn’t have missed for anything in the world, especially when it was one of the last one where anybody will have the opportunity to hear the man in this setting in which the man reveled in.