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MY
vehicle was caught in the morning rush hour. I made good use of
this time by setting up a “ mobile office “ in my vehicle. A
laptop and an expert driver like Khandu is all you need. When I
finished off most of my work and looked up, I suddenly sensed
Khandu shifting in his seat and glancing back, as if waiting to
start a conversation. The most irritating part of being caught
in a traffic jam for me always is having to listen to Khandu’s
long lectures and philosophies. But I have by now come to adjust
to this necessary evil. I patiently waited for the inevitable
moment to come and when he did not open up, I encouraged and
actually invited him to a chat.
“So who would
be India’s Prime Minister in 2014?.” I asked aloud, expecting
his reply to take me through the boredom of sitting through the
traffic jam.
Khandu’s simply
smirked and let out a sigh, as if to ridicule my total lack of
priorities, the utter irrelevance of the question.
“Whoever wants
to be, can be the Prime Minister, sahib”, he retorted, obliging
me with an answer which raised so many questions.
“You see, we
may have the Jan Lokpall Bill implemented”, Khandu commenced
explaining his response. “In addition to the existing Right To
Information Act, the media hounding the political leaders with
their primetime media trials, team Anna fasting away and taking
on the Government and the continuing terrorist attacks, who
would you think would want to become the PM? There will be a
vacancy for this post. The only people keen for the job may be
those with no experience in the field of politics, people with a
’tunnel vision’ who would not even notice the mess they would be
in”
 “Not
necessarily, Khandu,” I retorted, “ It could even be someone
with a thick skin, a seasoned statesman who would take
criticism healthily, support the essence of popular movements
and help in bringing out new laws or modifying the laws of our
land to improve governance for the people of our country.”
Khandu sighed
deeply again. “When was it ever about the governance for the
people of our country? It was, is, and always will be about
politics.”
“And what is
politics, according to you?” I was indignant at the sheer
cynicism of his world view.
“Well, let me
summarize it for you with a very popular joke that I am sure you
must have heard”, he said in a taunting, patronizing tone and in
a manner so as to shut me up and end this discussion,” A
little boy puts the same question to his dad, “What is
politics?”
Dad says, ”Well
let me try to explain it this way: I’m the breadwinner of the
family, so call me Capitalism. Your Mom, she’s the administrator
of the money, so we’ll call her the Government. We take care of
your needs, so we’ll call you the People. The Nanny, we’ll
consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, call him
the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense,”
So the little
boy starts thinking about what dad had said.
That night, he
hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He
finds that the baby had soiled his diaper. The little boy goes
to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not
wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the
door locked, he peeps through the keyhole and sees his father
with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next
morning, the little boy says to his father, ”Dad, I think I
understand the concept of politics now.”
The father
says, ”Good son, tell me in your own words what you think
politics is all about.”
The little boy
replies, ”Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class,
the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and
the Future is in deep poo.”
The traffic
continued to remain almost at a standstill. But I was happy my
time was not entirely wasted. I had just been presented with a
different and an interesting perspective on politics.
·
Gaurav
Lakhanpal is an architect specializing in theme architecture and
can be contacted on sglakhanpal@gmail.com |
