Treasure Stunt


The accessories of the Father of the Nation have been rescued by the Frother of the Nation.
I wonder if the great man in Khadi would have approved, cared, laughed or just shrugged it away. In true jingoistic fashion, the nation is celebrating the return of the treasure that ‘truly belongs to us’. It helps that our Knight in shining armour also happens to be the most flamboyant face of emerging India. For some, the paradox of the event is not lost. Beer baron, sybarite, ladies man, uses lucre to buy the belongings of someone who was anything but all these.
There is a bigger question that needs to be asked and I dare to. Why is it that the urge to reclaim something that is ‘rightfully ours’ emerges only when an outsider attempts to capture that space. Slumdog Millionaire with all its generalizations and fantasies, made India suddenly sit up and want to stake claim for its street kids and urchins. Otherwise shoo-ed away or summarily dismissed without rolling down car windows, these kids have suddenly become national property with a big “HANDLE WITH CARE’ emblazoned against them. Their family lives have become the talk of town and everyone has an opinion on which way their lives should go. Social Networking sites have groups dedicated to ridiculing the Western view of Indian slums and how they denigrate the image of India. Are we touchy or what.
Bapu’s relaunch happened, again paradoxically, through a rogue playing a role called Munnabhai on screen. For a few months then, Gandhigiri was in and newspapers would frequently carry real life examples of Gandhigiri. Eventually Bapu returned to his smiling passive existence on the walls of Govt offices and on circles in the centre of town, overseeing traffic jams. Until now when we heard that his belongings were up for grabs. We’d like to believe that we are still a nation that walks Bapu’s talk. While his values seem unreal and out of reach we constantly make attempts to showcase that we are a nation of high ideals. So while Dalits and untouchability remain, we’d never allow a foreigner to own Bapu’s things. What an irony. I can imagine the liquor baron do a press conference very soon, brandishing his auction victory and posing as the Emperor who restored glory to India. Bapu’s accessories meanwhile will get confined to a Gandhi museum somewhere. Bapu will continue to smile at us from wherever he’s perched.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very well-written, Ajith. Completely subscribe to your thoughts.
March 08, 2009 8:46 am
Ajith said…
thanks Abhishek! I don't think our media or think tank has said enough on the reality of this issue!
March 08, 2009 11:05 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Begs the Question

Beggars are as much a part of Mumbai as the Gateway of India. Over the last 10 years of actively roaming around the city, the no of cars have increased and so have the no of beggars. What has also changed is the kind of beggars in the city. The first kind of beggar that I encountered was the simple woebegone face kinds who would sit by the roadside and keep uttering monosyllables the year round. There was no strategy of any kind in place, and the adage beggars can’t be choosers used to get played out. Most of them seemed fatalistic. As the economy evolved and liberalized, so did beggars. For one, I think even the beggar economy opened up. There were a lot many more beggars because there was a lot many more economic activity (and hence money to be handed out) and a lot many more people. The quality of begging also changed. Some beggars, in order to differentiate their pitch, started to exhibit their skills. So you had harmonium totting kids and adults causing disharmony in trains. Strat
Read more

Plane Truths II

Image
Continuing my series of what happens to me in relation to airplanes, I have a gem to share. The wrestle of the arm rest can be quite irritating especially when both adversaries want it equally badly. The war of course is lost right at the beginning if one of the adversaries has an arm that's armrest size! My Chennai to Mumbai flight was spent in half a seat, with me folded up around an imaginary vertical axis, actually measuring kilometers to Mumbai and counting down time. I thought I was lucky to get a window seat, my luck ended the moment the middle seat next to me and half of my seat got occupied by a gargantuan who was impersonating a human being. Arm rest was the first casualty, I gave it up in the first 5 secs; my midriff also was being molested constantly by the elbow of the beast. Am not slightly built either but I know how to mark my territory out and contain my body within. Land grabbing was being rendered a new meaning by my sizable neigbour and I felt a bit like Papua N
Read more

Footpath- quite pedestrian

Image
I grew up in a Govt. colony in Mumbai. This meant that I had the luxury of a lot of things that were absent in the city outside campus. One of these was the footpath. Right since I was a toddler, I was instructed to keep to the footpath, lest I get in the path of a ‘speeding’ Fiat (that’s an oxymoron). That might sound funny, but the inherent message was clear, steer clear of the motorist. In a city where cars outnumber themselves everyday, it’s become a challenge to find a footpath. Most of you might have noticed this but its worth reiterating. 1. Footpaths do exist. Just that above them also exist a layer called hawkers. This layer is more permanent than pedestrian aspirations and difficult to remove. 2. Footpaths do exist. Just that above them frequently is a mosaic of human excreta, with some dog poo thrown in between. Nearby slums can’t do their bit on the highway can they and there’s nowhere else to go. 3. Footpaths do exist. Just that often the BMC or MTNL or MMRDA or such body
Read more