Sunil Mahto : New hero

Asking whether the outgoing year has been eventful is a clich? ? the steel city has always been in the news, be it for the right reasons or the wrong.

But the milieu has never been so ?hip and happening? as it was in 2004. The reigning theme was ethnicity. The year witnessed an ethnic resurgence of sorts after JMM swept the Lok Sabha poll in March.

Sunil Mahto was elected member of Parliament after nearly a decade?s lull ? completing a broken circle that begun in 1989 when Shailendra Mahto bust the poll charts.

Regionalism percolated down to culture as well. There was a burst of tradition with a surfeit of Chhau, Paika, Firkal and Jhumur performances in elaborate youth festivals.

The strains of popular Hindi songs were replaced by Santhali numbers and the regional film industry boomed.

The steel city now has a new character ? partly regional, partly cosmopolitan. It is the same old city with a new soul. The tribal population has registered a quantum leap, changing the city?s demography.

What is surprising is that the assimilation has been smooth ? without any major hiccups. The ethnic lot has blended imperceptibly into the urban stream, drawing from its strength and relying on its innate resilience.

Politically, the city is more conscious. It is questioning, probing, trying to form its own opinions and arriving at its own conclusions.

With boy-next-door Arjun Munda in the hotseat, the steel city is privy to many ?firsts?. Politics is in the air ? from the green suburbs of Ghorabandha (Arjun Munda?s home) to the manicured lawns of the Circuit House ? the grapevine is abuzz with the latest rolling out of the corridors of power.

You could almost say the city has come of age. The rave parties, late night jaunts, club-hopping ? the intense passion of early youth ? is mellowing, opening up its intellectual horizon to soak in the graver nuances of life, building a definite personality.