I am a master in India

Chapter 300 Regaining Power
Bar Thackeray was nearly seventy years old, his hair and beard were all white, and his energy was not as great as before.

He's recently become obsessed with cigars, often seen gazing at them in a daze.

Perhaps it's because he's getting old, but he often thinks about the past, about his childhood.

His father was a teacher and was strict and demanding of him.

But like most children who idolize their fathers, Thackeray always maintained that respect in his heart.

He believed his father was a great social reformer, writer, and omnipotent.

Thackeray's mother hoped her son would become a civil servant, which was a prestigious and respectable job at the time.

But his father said, "How could my son be a mere clerk? I want him to be an artist."

In their family, the father's words were law. When he got angry, the children would wet their pants in fear.

The father bought Thackeray an Indian banjo, a stringed instrument played with both hands, but Thackeray clearly had no talent for music.

He tried and tried, and once he mastered one hand, he couldn't do it with the other. Then he mastered the other hand, but the first hand wouldn't cooperate.
His father flew into a rage and pressed his son's hand down hard until Thackeray's fingers were cut by the strings and bled.

As soon as he cried, his father would say, "You idiot! Get out!"

When World War II broke out, Thackeray would look with great interest at the Banbury cartoons on the front page of The Times of India, while his father watched him from the side.

He ordered his son to copy these cartoons every day, and he would check them one by one each evening. Through copying, Thackeray gradually came to understand the political struggles in Mumbai:

The Gujarati and Marathi people in the city were locked in a dispute, each claiming that Mumbai should belong to them.

Sakray's father actively responded to the call of the Marathi Unity Movement and held secret meetings at his home in Dadar.

Thackeray was exposed to this from a young age, and within a few years, he began drawing political cartoons for the Liberty Times.

In the 1960s, he started a weekly cartoon column to continue advocating for the rights of the Marathi people.

This column later became the main platform for the "Sons of the Land" and the Marathi Unity Movement.

The Marathi defeated the Gujarati and won the Battle of Mumbai.

They demarcated the boundaries of Maharashtra according to their own language and made Mumbai the state's capital.

It can be said that Thackeray was exposed to politics from childhood, and decades of exposure led to the creation of Shiva's Army's current fortune.

In Mumbai today, almost no one dares to oppose his opinions.

To curry favor with this Shiva Army leader, the city hall even changed Mumbai's name to "Mumbai".

Yes, it happened this year.

Mumbai's public sector is currently busy renaming signs throughout the city.

"Bombay" will no longer appear in official documents; the Marathi pronunciation "Mumbai" is the correct one.

Not only that, but Thackeray also abolished Valentine's Day. He had told Ron that he would tear up the "Valentine's Day cards," and now he had done it.

At the beginning of the year, on Valentine's Day, Shiva's army received his orders to smash shops selling Valentine's Day cards and destroy restaurants offering Valentine's Day套餐 (set meals).

Newspapers as far away as Türkiye, South Africa, and Australia reported Thackeray's atrocities on their front pages.

He is a tiger, and the tiger is also the symbol of Shiva's army; it is Thackeray's most important public image.

He appeared alongside tigers in newspapers and on billboards. He even attended the opening ceremony of a tiger sanctuary, sparing no effort to associate himself with tigers.

This is his public persona, and also the image of his self-managed brand.

But the tiger was old after all; the cigar he was holding had gone out, and he was lost in thought.

He only opened his mouth as if he had just woken up when the servant brought Ron in.

"Long live the Marathi people!"

"Long live the Emperor!" Ron smiled and clasped his hands together.

"How did you come?"

"I'm bringing you some good stuff." Ron pushed the small wooden box in his hand towards him.

"A cigar?" Thackeray opened one on the spot.

"Genuine Cuban product."

"I've heard that the best cigars are in Cuba."

"Yes."

He put down the one he had been holding and picked out another from the box. He cut it, lit it.

"Not bad, I wonder if Americans smoke this stuff." He looked satisfied.

Thackeray understood that if something was popular in America, it must be good.

“Ordinary people probably won’t be able to get it,” Ron shrugged.

"why?"

"Cuban cigars are embargoed in the United States."

Thacker didn't understand the meaning of "embargoed goods," so Ron could only explain to him what international sanctions were.

“If goods can’t get out, people won’t make money, and the streets will become chaotic.”

“Yes, Mumbai has been quite turbulent lately.” Ron nodded.

“The business in Mumbai has been taken over by foreigners,” Thackeray said angrily. “One day I opened the Yellow Pages and found that very few of the wealthy people who came to my door were Marathi.”

In South India, the most common name for wealthy business owners is Patel (Kshatriya), followed by Shah (pastoral herder). They don't own factories; they engage in speculative activities like selling alcohol and running dance halls.
Without factories, how will the Marathi people work? With fewer and fewer factories in Mumbai, many Marathi people are forced to leave their homes and seek other livelihoods.

"Now Mumbai is filled with South Indians, Christians, Sikhs, Parsi Ron, you're doing a great job, your factory is a savior of the Marathi people."

After listing all the criticisms, the bigwig turned back to praise Ron's contributions to Mumbai. There are now over 20,000 workers directly employed in the Sur Industrial Park alone, a significant portion of whom are locals from Maharashtra.

That area has become the most vibrant part of Mumbai, with restaurants, shopping malls, and bars springing up one after another.

It is said that a real estate developer has already set its sights on a plot of land nearby and plans to build high-end apartments targeting the middle class.

Suer Electric's employees enjoy a well-known reputation for their benefits, which is sufficient to support such high-end consumption.

Thackeray was pleased to see this, not because he was an economics expert, but simply because he thought it was a good thing for the Marathi people.

“I really like Mumbai, but I’ve been hearing gunshots a lot on the streets lately,” Ron had to steer the conversation back on track.

“This is a breeding ground for criminals,” Thackeray sighed. “Too many people want something for nothing, and the city’s police force is severely understaffed, resulting in a persistently high crime rate.”

"Therefore, we need a strong police officer to eliminate the gang threat."

"Do you have someone you recommend?" Thackeray had already realized what was going on.

“Ajay Ral,” Ron uttered a name softly.

"That stubborn, unreasonable guy?" Thackeray still remembered Eger.

"Only someone like him can take down gangsters, right? He was in charge of the bombing, and none of those herders escaped punishment."

If it were any other police officer, having taken the bribe, they might have treated the murderer like a VIP.

"He has no dealings with gangs?"

“I’ve run into at least twenty this year alone, from various gangs.” Ron shook his head.

“He has guts,” Thackeray nodded appreciatively.

"He is now the deputy chief commissioner of police, and in terms of authority, he is fully capable of taking charge of security in southern Mumbai."

“If he does a good job, I’ll promote him directly to Superintendent General,” Thackeray said dismissively.

“No problem, I have confidence in Aijie,” Ron said happily.

Alright, we've finally gotten this old friend out of Bandera.

Ron came to Thackeray eagerly, hoping to take advantage of the Mumbai gang war to reinstate Ajay.

This is the best time for him to show his skills; no one else dares to take on this job.

Last year, because of Sanjay Dutt's situation, he was marginalized, and Ron felt somewhat guilty.

Now things are much better. Not only has he regained power, but he has also paved the way for his future promotion.

The Commissioner General of Police is ranked third in the state police system, a true core high-ranking official.

At Aijie's age, he has a bright future ahead of him.

"Mumbai has too many people, and there is a shortage of both police and firefighters. Can you imagine? Mumbai used to have very few rats."

"No rats?" Ron didn't believe it.

Go to the street and take a look. The plump rats are about the size of cats and aren't afraid of people at all.

"Really, it was probably in the 1940s, as long as we said there were rats, the municipal sanitation department would come over."

They took fire hoses, connected them to fire hydrants by the roadside, and then aimed them at the rat holes and turned on the taps.

Some people stood by, holding wooden sticks. When the tap was turned on, water gushed from the pipes and into the rat holes. The rats would escape through other holes.

If water rushes in from one side, they will hide on the other side. Once they escape from the burrow, they will be met with sticks.

Back then, we could kill more than a dozen rats at a time. Now, with such a severe water shortage, we can't do that anymore.

But when I lived in Dadar, I still had a fire hydrant installed in the backyard. As soon as I turned it on, a powerful jet of water would come out. That was fifty years ago.

You rarely see fire hydrants anymore; the slum dwellers abuse them. They leave the taps running and never turn them off, so the water just keeps flowing and flowing.

Well, this old tiger is reminiscing about the past again.

Ron had achieved his goal, and he quietly got up to say goodbye and leave.

Thackeray was autocratic and domineering, but he kept his word.

Two days later, Aijie received orders to transfer back to his office in South Mumbai, where he officially took over as Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Southwest Police Department.

His jurisdiction covers half of Mumbai, from Bandera to Kolaba, a half of Mumbai that recently accounted for three-quarters of the city's crime rate.

Aijay now commands 31 of Mumbai’s 72 police stations, with 10,000 officers, superintendents and inspectors.

Due to gang warfare, extortion cases in the city have risen rapidly. Through Ron's mediation, Ajay replaced six more senior police inspectors in the position.

Ron visited his beautiful new office, with stunning views of the Arabian Sea through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"How does it feel to be back in power?" he asked with a smile.

"One word from you is worth ten years of my hard work," Ai Jie said irritably.

“Everyone has to fight for themselves.” Ron sat down on the sofa, acting all familiar.

"Before I came, the boss told me that he hoped to resolve the chaos in South Mumbai within two months."

They were hoping that once I took office, I could just wave my magic wand and solve the problem.

"Two months is not impossible."

"Ok?"

“Someone will cooperate with you,” Ron chuckled.

(End of this chapter)