Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Tale of Two Towns in One Malegaon: Muslim majority town in Maharashtra

Where else you will hear such names? Except, in Malegaon, the unique Maharashtra town.


Tension Chowk= Rumours emerge from here, spread in the city and cause tension

Achanak Nagar=Things happen here suddenly, Hindus had to move out suddenly from here





ChaoN ChaoN Road= No Chinese food this, due to the cacophony and hungama, 'yahaan hamesha chaaoN chaaoN machii rahtii hai'.

In Indian Express Anuradha Nagaraj did a good story on Malegaon. The names of the localities apart from the abovementioned are:

Rishwat Nagar, Ayodhya Nagar, Bajrangwadi and Islamabad, Tashkent Nagar, Tamba Kata and the river that divides the Hindu and Muslim parts of Malegaon is known as Mausam. Prashant Nadkar has taken good photos for the feature.

The team of Sahara news network that visited Malegaon recently also presented a good story on the town. They reported well about this city, its uniqueness, complexities as well as insecurities. 



'When asked about rumours of a body that had fake moustaches, recovered by police, some Muslim youths said that it is no big issue, as Faqirs came from all over the country on Shab Baraat so not unusual to have a Hindu fakir trying to appear as a Muslim and hoping to earn more'. The paper praised the youths for maintaining sanity in the hour of crisis.