The Indian dream - in 2D

As I reached an age where I got exposed to some well written articles, I started coming across the term ‘the Indian dream’. It was intriguing, because I never really thought it was possible for a billion people to have the same dream. But we once had: a dream to be a free country; or so they told us to believe. 64 years hence, do we still have a common dream? Is there a common thread that binds every one of us into one entity – Indian?

When I sat for my job interview, I was asked a simple question: ‘what are your short term and long term goals?’ In short they wanted to know what my dream is. The only dream I get often is where I save a damsel in distress. Another dream that teases me to reach the Meta state is when I stop a running train with just my index finger. Yes I dream of being a superhero a lot of times. We all want to be a superhero and what he stands for. We think ourselves as the purest part of the society surrounded by hooligans, questioning & comforting ourselves that we don’t deserve this situation. This dream, this vision is what we see in our movies as well: good fighting to win over the evil. Even when we make a movie about goondas & rowdies we try to justify their act of hooliganism, so that there is a good vs. evil fight at the end. We attach a purpose, a motive that makes a person right; no matter how bad an act he does, so that we can see us in him. When he eventually conquers his nemesis it’s our victory: a victory that we perceive will make everything right. On the contrary, when a movie doesn’t give a clear demarcation, it is termed as ‘loosely written’, ‘everything is left hanging’. This ability to see everything as B&W is the Indian dream I think: to plot everything in the 2D plane like the ‘good, bad’, ‘right wrong’ ‘for, against’, etc.

Take any issue of national importance; it has always been dealt with by the people in a ‘either this or that’ manner. You can either support someone or be against him. You can’t say something outside of the answer choices. I would call this impatience and a lack of perseverance. It took us 12 years of primary education to easily study a UG programme. Would we have been able to do it as a kid? When we all know there needs to be a lot of foundation & ground work required, why are we adamant in demanding results immediately? Some justify this impatience to the lack of development even after 64yrs of foundation. My question is; did we actually make a proper foundation? One government comes to make a scheme; the next government scraps it and makes a new one, which eventually gets scraped. Do we really have a defined path set for the future of our country? Instead of asking for a Shankar films like massive makeover in a matter of minutes, has anyone stopped and thought about a longer/permanent solution that will be able to adapt to the scenario of tomorrow? No, we are busy classifying the world as black and ourselves as white. But are we? A so called ‘farmer’ hates paying tax & so does everyone involved in the agricultural industry. They don’t even pay electricity bill. They say we are doing a service; why should we give our money to the government. If that is true, then why should the government relieve them of all their loans when there is drought? Go down south, to the interiors of Tamil nadu; Deer hunting is still practiced by the people there. Come to the cities; the working class goes all out to cut short a long procedure in any system. Even for rules related to safety issues, people pay bribe to avoid case being filed. From using helmets to emission control norms we don’t obey any rules. Little are we conscientious that a punishment is to make someone follow a rule. If, we don’t fear a punishment ourselves, how will a new legislation against corruption be enough to stop the corrupt? But we don’t care. We have made a great rule so we will remain complacent that everything will be fine here on. The great Indian dream fills our mind again. What does it take to make us push the envelope? What does it take to make us search for better avenues to curb such incidents? Didn’t we learn that prevention is better than cure? If we feel we are better educated than all the nethas put together, why are we following the same path as them to control injustice? Does a mother kill a child when it makes a mistake? By arresting someone for being corrupt is going to give you all the money that was swindled? Do you think 1.7 lakh crore money will come back to the government? Again we are making a precedent that we are interested in getting rid of the bad from our sight and nothing more than that.

I am not saying Lokpal is a bad law; I am not qualified enough to judge it. But my common sense tells me it is only going to satisfy the hunter in us – the Indian dream to win over the evil. We all know what happened to Sita after Rama killed Ravana. Lokpal may as well be the switch that cuts off the power to the corrupt; but little do we realise that the wire connecting the switch for empowering the citizen is obsolete. I want the wires to be laid first and then work on the switches, but the team Anna and the majority of people in metros want to take the opposite path. Either way, let there be light!

Striking land

After Anna Hazare stormed the country with his fast unto death its now turn for Ramdev to hog the limelight. Like his peer he too started his rant/fight against black money & corruption at the closing ceremony of an important event (the world cup then, now the ipl) and set the date of commencement after the series ended. But there was the West Indies tour that was considered a potential threat. But thanks to Dhoni & his men the series isn't getting much coverage; a blessing in disguise for Ramdev. Overwhelmed by the response that he is receiving, Baba Ramdev has decided to push forward his agenda by roping in three hot selling stars to his campaign again corruption. Yes, it’s Salman Khan, Shilpha Shetty & Dayanidhi Maran. As always, Baba Ramdev has raised a lot of eyebrows by calling them up. Unfazed, Ramdev defends his decision. He further elaborated the press about the flow of events that he has planned with them.

Salman khan will kick start the day  by screening his ‘Ready’ early morning, sponsored by LG. On why ‘Ready’, Baba opines that ‘dinka chika’ will replace the ‘shanthi mantra’ with which he used to start his yoga practice. While the latter brings peace to your inner self former readies you for the day, apart from curing gastroenteritis. After the screening, Salman Khan will come live through 3D effect of LG tv and render a pumping speech on ‘the buck stops here’. Utilising the stage, Ramdev also plans to prove how yoga can ‘CURE’ homosexuality. Shilpha Shetty who was royally screwed (figuratively & literally) in the latest edition of IPL will do the honours.  

Following the yoga session, Ramdev will be on the hotline for an hour to receive complaints from fellow citizens. He thanked Dayanidhi Maran for being kind enough to share one of the 323 hotline numbers that he had taken out of the one connection which bsnl gave him. Maran who was present in the press briefing through web, remarked that he totally supports Ramdev and I quote, “corruption & black money is highly unacceptable of me. During my regime as telecom minister I made sure of that, by extracting all the unaccounted funds that lay in the hands of private firms.” Maran was all tears that his efforts to tap the black money went futile as Raja & kanimozhi stole it from him. Taking cue from the sudden breakdown of his guest, Ramdev quickly added that, Maran need not worry about the money as the lovebirds has entrusted a part of the fund with him. Ailing from a family party which detest the name Ram (while marrying a girl from N.Ram family) Ramdev was asked how he got acquainted with him. “It was during my annual visit to Karunanidhiji’s place that I got introduced to Maran. Karuna was very much impressed with my astrological knowledge, I guess” said Ramdev candidly. On asking about the whereabouts of his partner-in-crime, Anna Hazare, Ramdev was apologetic that, Anna was busy making Gujarat liquor free by drinking it all up. 

As a fitting finale, Ramdev slowly removed the saropa sword that was presented to him earlier & raising it, he screamed ‘for peace’ and bid adeau in his imported SUV. 

Royal Kiss of New Imperialism

The Queen of England started it, if history books are accurate. Barging into any state/country/province (what ever you call it back then) she took control of the land & I bet Charles Darwin would have never in his wildest dream thought his one statement could stand good for the power she exerted.

New Imperialism sure has impacted India in many ways than we might believe. We have a leader in this state, who in his exile, went to a temple town to eventually rule the roasters. The power he exhibited during his son’s marriage can be drawn parallel to the royal wedding if I exclude all the white collar hooliganism. While the former uses money that was eaten from the pockets of citizens allover the world, the latter has just a state to itself. The Darwin theory spreads its presence here too. No wonder the royal kiss or the big fat wedding creates more hoopla than a CM went missing.  

When we thought the Queen has called it a day, raises another leader, who feels ‘US is All of the world’. If he can enter a terrorist nation and call for ‘line of fire’ just near their military academy to capture a notorious terrorist, who was funded by his predecessors, he sure brings new meaning to imperialism. Amidst this massacre in the name of religion & democracy, another democrat stands smiling at one billion people while his ministers laugh all the way to banks. If Manmohan singh thinks he is being altruistic, sorry sir - with great respect for your talent & disregard for your leadership.

Government apart there are organizations that wants to exhibit its stamp of authority. Democracy doesn’t means someone can cease the functioning of an entire transport system or for that matter threaten the government to pass a bill. Hope we as citizen develop maturity in how we handle our crisis. At this stage we, the nation & the whole world needs policies that will include the near future into its scheme of things, rather than appeasing the immediate present for material or power gains.