Truth I Dare

It started with game shows testing physical prowess. Next came the quiz shows testing intellect. It is now the age of reality shows testing our emotional quotient (and common sense).

But the single most absurd show to date is "Sach ka Saamna" a.k.a. the desi "Moment of Truth" trying to test moral fiber for cash. Isn't that an oxymoron already?

But let me not get preachy over it. From a pure cash flow perspective, the odds are simply insurmountable against the wins. At every stage of the game, one loses acquaintances, friends, and family against the backdrop of honesty. Damn, if you wanted to remain chaste, why did you do it. If you did do the deed, why not admit in private? And now that you have admitted in public, be ready to get ostracized. Make no bones about it.

So what is the win against the losses. The penultimate prize of one crore (does attract the tax folks and subsidizes your win post Income Tax, Gift Tax, Cess, and other variables) to a mere 54 lakhs. That in today's world is a 2bhk in a upcoming apartment complex. That's it! Or perhaps the game show producers knew of the ostrasization and calculated the winnings for a life cast away. Probably move to the dredges of society and live a life of hermitage for the deeds done.

So if you are ready to give up on life try the Smita Mathai concept...
Q: Do you love your mother-in-law more than your mother?
A: Yes (mother shattered)

Q: Did you ever wish your husband dead?
A: Yes (mother-in-law shattered)

Q: Did you think of sleeping with any man other than your husband?
A: Yes (husband shattered)

Q: Would she sleep with any other man if she was sure her husband wouldn't find out?
A: No (Polygraph shattered!)

No Gratitude for Alms in Palms

It's the 9'o clock commuter rush. My car is playing musical chairs with the traffic signal to the beat of fm music. Focusing on the red circle that controls my path, I grit my teeth and silently pray for it to turn green...

Suddenly a knock on windowpane. No! A begging lady with an infant swaddled in rags draws my attention to her. Her face spells out abject destitute and the rest of her agree in unison. The child is bundled in a rag-bag tied to her side while he sleeps away the meticulations of his mother's ministrations. In a hope to evoke sympathy she plays peek-a-boo with her child and my eyes, switching between covering him up and displaying him for my benefit.

My heart responds with the emotion the lady wishes to evoke and begins to ache at the sight. My brain twitches into attention begging for me to retain attention at the red dot of passage. My body with its separate appendages leans forward to fork out a few coins to alleviate the rigor mortise my heart is suddenly heading towards.

One rupee is what I would have ended up giving the lady had it not been for the signal that turned green heralding me towards my destination and her lossful resignation. As I proceed forward, I cannot but help looking into the rear view mirror to ensure she reaches the sidewalk safely. A penny lost should not be the reason for other greater miseries .

While I reach work, the thought of the persistent lady, her baby, and my apathy keeps replaying in the dark realms of my mind. So I did not dole out alms. What did I do and not do in doing so? Did I deprive her of a contribution, a meal, a livelihood, or a fortune? I definitely didn't think so. Would I have felt a loss had I given her that coin? Again, definitely not. So what stopped me?

Was it the understanding that what she would have got from me and the multitude of others who have already or will give her their coinage would not be hers to keep. Rather it would be her ticket to continue work in this zone of controlled monopoly where alms convert loose change into hot cash in the wee hours of the day.

India: A Nation with States of Commotion

What is India? Is it Mahatma Gandhi's insanity or Jawaharlal Nehru's democratic effigy? Or is it the personal domain of the palm-thrusting Congress? To be fair and equally critical, others too use this icon to their benefit. The saffron bandwagon parades this as their Kremlin. The benefit-seeking socio-impoverished front this as their Tienanmen Squared . And the aam aadmi hate it as their funerary.

India is the Ravana feigning to be Rama. With its twenty-eight states; each of different tongue, taste, texture, and tradition; mimicking the heads of a monolith giant, incapable of cohesive thought, trying to control its body. And yet the people of this farce of a nation believe it to be the next best thing to sliced bread of democracy.

Where did the freedom martyrs fail. Where did their united endeavour decompose into personal profiteering? What went wrong? Were they not taking example from the greats of history towards unification through mutiny? Did not the Ashokas and Chandraguptas of yesteryears do the same? Unite separate hamlets and kingdoms into one large juggernaut that defied foreign supremacy and local conspiracy. What failed now? With an illustrious past defining the path of success, and the dream of a future paved with scientific, economic, and infrastructural progress, the stalwarts of our independence forgot an important ingredient... singleness of thought and a thought of singleness.

How can a country have diversity in identity and multiplicity in ethnicity? How can we be one nation when each community is ruled with independent social mores, each state governed by separate common laws? How can India be one when there are no Indians. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Tamilians, Gujaratis, and Maharashtrians. We are a compendium of faiths, beliefs, idiosyncrasies, and histories forcing ourselves into an enclosure which belies our natural habitat.

But for the sake of argument, it may be said that diverse genetics brings strength in progeny. I beg to differ. That maxim only holds true if all involved have the same focus and goal. With each state vying for domestic supremacy against its neighbouring states how is it possible?

“Vibhin Bhashyam, Sarva Nasham. Akhand Bhashyam, Bharat Rajyam.”

Ancient India - A Modern Fantasy. Modern India - An Ancient Curse

India is a nascent country, born from the womb of the British Raj through an illegitimate alliance between the Indian National Congress and the Victorian monarchy. It has other bastard siblings in Pakistan and Bangladesh and like most impoverished families that quarrel over everything; be it choice cuts of prime meat or the next square meal, India and it's communally seperated siblings quarrel over land holdings or resources.

But the quarrel is recent. India was never at war. India was never against communities or races. India was never threatened by social retardation or moral deprevation. INDIA WAS NEVER THERE!

A conglomerate of independent states united with the hope of joint military might against foreign occupation, pillage, rape, and anhilation formed the borders of a country called India in 1947. Nationalistic puritans and chronologically-challenged historians may argue that the seed of Hindustan was planted much before that. But 'much before' in the eyes of history is just a blink of an eyelid in comparision to the vast sleep that the people of this geographic region have been in. A sleep of  passiveness in personal peril, incompetence in international relations, disillusion in domestic politics, and apathy towards active growth and prosperity. 

So what is India? Is it Mahatma Gandhi's insanity or Jawahar Lal Nehru's democratic effigy? Or is it the personal vehicle of the palm-touting Congress? To be fair and equally critical, others have also used this icon to their benefit. The saffron bandwagon parade this as their maatrubhoomi. The benefit-seeking socio-impoverished front this as their soverignity. And the aam aadmi hate it as their funerary.

If one steps out of the pathos-ridden politics, it is feudary fencing that dominates the dailys. From Azad Kashmir Jihaadis to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. From Guerrilla Maoist Gurkhas to Kirpan toting Khalistan Canvassers. The fabric of this child nation in unraveling. And in the process, it is bringing out hate, violence, blood, and gore.

Another ingredient in the recipe for commotion are the 'holier than thou' religious fanatics. All of them preach the purity of soul and trample non believers indiscriminately under their soles as they march on for their Gods.

And with all this activity the common man wakes up to inflation, trudges to cost-arbitrage work, gets recessionary pink-slipped, pays inflated taxes, curses the defunct national machinery, drinks his pension fund in hooch, and drifts into a woeful slumber that rudely awakens him back to the drudgery.

We have failed in an attempted fantasy of democracy. We have created a Frankenstein monster from the deliberate offals of erstwhile monarchies. Each state dumps its toxic gentry into a cauldron of kingship that magically boils and bubbles into the government.

Romantics believe that if we exercise our franchise we can vote out the malignant tumors and elect sensibility. It is asking for magic from a lot that doesn't think too much before hocking the bovine-like chewed cud of beetel nuts causing blotches of blood-like stains on the face of their motherland like a virulent strain of smallpox fated to last forever.

Mera Bharat Mahaan Kahaan?