The circus called India

There has been an unprecedented situation in India during the last fortnight or so. I am confused and I am sure most of us are.

There is a 73 year old man, who has spent a large part of his life for helping others in the midst of a battle with the government and largely succeeding in embarrassing them day after day. Is he right or wrong? I don’t know.

There is a 73 year old man who is fasting from last 10 days to ensure there is a strong law against corruption in India. 10 days of no food! There are thousands of people who are coming out in his support and I am sure the weekend may see a lot more support as it does not inconvenience anyone too much.

There are a lot of people who are taking mileage out of it. Political statements, asking for resignations, mud-slinging, dramatic news reports, corporate sponsorships, National flag sales figures and so on. You have to be on this bus, else you are pretty close to being branded less patriotic than some others.

There are a lot of people who are coming out with their own version of the bill Mr Anna wants to push through. The government has one, the Team Anna has one, and some other intellectuals have come up with their suggestions. If he fasts any longer we may get drafts from the US as well.

I am just left with a question. What the hell is happening? I am not Anna. But my sentiments are surely with him. I support a strong bill against corruption.

But then, whatever is happening now is some sort of a circus. The trapezium stunt from Anna and team has every one enthralled, but there are some stiff competitions from people who are waiting to jump in. There are some government spokespersons who are hell bent up on doing the human cannon balls. I can’t make out if the sardar manager of this circus is speechless or plain mute. The owner of this circus, is not in town when its falling apart and her apparent heir is reading incoherent statements from a piece of paper in their arena. The background scores are from media – some sing for the owners, some for the performers.

I can bet a hundred that if our media reach and arrogance of free thought was to this level in 1947, somewhere an Arundhathi Roy could have written a blog and subverted the swaraj movements by mahatma.

Free India did not get the meaning of freedom too well I guess.

What could be a solution? I am with team Anna, and the strong bill. I don’t really care if this is the perfect bill. Perfecting this bill is a long process, let’s start with one. And personally the movement should start within. I have never paid a bribe. When I am caught by a traffic cop, I pay the fine and ask for a receipt. I am sure I would do the same even if it’s a land registration or starting my own business. If we can be sure of ourselves, we are in the movement to eradicate corruption at all level.

Revival

As far as blogging is concerned, I did fall asleep. Well, I guess b’lore weather was much more conducive for my vocal side of the brain. Or was it plain time management. Either way, I wanted to say hello….

Nothing inspired me to write now… neither did anything force me to stop earlier. So I guess its business as usual.

I am hoping this is a revival and it stays longer this time. I am gonna write and most importantly post it. Maybe long time from now, there might be ‘virtual archeologists’ and they may dig my blog and read ‘em… lemme etch something for them.