Hindi poet versifies mill workers’ strike

"Kehte hein railway stationo ke bhi bhaag jaagte hein…/ Unke bhi din phirte hein… Jaise Lower Parel ke phire…”

The issue of the mill workers’ strike is usually associated with the Marathi manoos. Political parties cashing in on the vote bank politics around the mill workers always talk of their betterment in the Marathi perspective.

However, this line of thought is being broken by a young Hindi professor. Hubnath Pandey, who teaches Hindi literature at Jogeshwari’s Ismail Yousuf College, has penned a book of poems in Hindi, titled, Lower Parel.

The book has some scintillating poems composed in the backdrop of the 1984 mill workers’ strike.

Speaking in fluent Hindi, and equally good Marathi, Pandey explained the idea behind writing a book on a subject often considered as close only to the Marathi community.

“I have been brought up in an area which was full of mill workers. My grandfather worked with the Mumbai tram service, while my father worked with BEST. I was also working in the Wadala depot of BEST as a fitter while studying. I have observed the change in the lives of the mill workers, and often felt I should write about it. It was a group of my students who finally managed to compile many of my poems,” said Pandey.

The first poem, Lower Parel, highlights the changes in the area, which earlier used to be a railway station frequented mostly by mill workers, and then turned into a station connecting the high society areas which have transformed Girgaum.

Another poem, Phoenix, talks about the changes that the Phoenix mills has gone through and about its current format of a swanky High Street Phoenix.

Pandey says that he considers himself a Maharashtrian more than a North Indian. “I belong to this city. I simply cannot relate to UP any more. I cannot make a political comment on the sons of the soil issue, but I can say that my feelings towards the mill land are straight from the heart,” Pandey said.