Mangaluru: At a time when the entire Dakshina Kannada is reeling under the shock after two innocents Deepak Rao and Basheer lost their lives to communal radical minds, this particular area in Mangaluru is a true example of Hindu-Muslim unity.
Bunder is a busy area, where hundreds of people belonging to different religions are involved in various commercial activities from years. Here trade is the only religion and Hindus, Muslims live in unity, supporting each other’s businesses.
Maroor Rammohan Pai, a businessman from this oldest commercial hotspot of Mangaluru is disturbed by the communal violence in the district. He laments that though most of the people live in harmony, few personal clashes were also being given communal colour these days.
Another businessman P B Abdul Hameed is also of the same opinion that people in Mangaluru are peace lovers.”My father started the business in partnership with a Hindu. Bunder with over 400 traders out of which 30 percent are Muslims and the rest Hindus, mostly Goud Saraswat Brahmins, are running the business smoothly from years. They are two sides of the same coin living in harmony and in support of each other. Only some of the areas in the outskirts of the city witness such communal tension and the main reason would be the Ganja addiction”, he says.
He also recalls the good old days of playing with his friends at Mangaladevi Temple premises.
Amid communal fights in various parts of Dakshina Kannada district, Bunder brings everyone together keeping aside religious differences. Even when we look at the recent communal tension where two innocents were brutally murdered, it is the people belonging to the opposite religion who helped the victims in a bid to save them. Hence, most of the Mangaloreans who are intelligent, live in peace and harmony from generations and hope to continue to do so.
