Spitting to glory..................

The average Indian asks an interesting question to himself everyday - What would a few micromilligrams of human saliva do to spoil the health and hygiene of his city, town or village? Invariably, he finds that that his ‘little showers of blessings’ could do no harm to the hygienic condition, and so he goes on a spitting spree.
He spits right, he spits left, he spits centre, he spits at the road, he spits on the wall, he spits on the bus, he spits on the trains, he spits everywhere he can. This spitting habit of ours is actually an integral part of our illoustrous culture and heritage. We have been spitting in public places since time immemorial. We find opportunities to spit in almost all reasons and seasons.
Our ancestors hold the distinction of bringing colour to the spitting spree by inventing the betel leaf or paan, which changes the colour of the spitted discharge to a wonderful red, once chewed. So, our walls often have awesome designs which are the contribution of the paan chewing gentlemen of the country.
Remember, the great Amitabh Bachchan spitting to glory in the song ‘Khaike Paan Banaras Wala’ in the blockbuster ‘Don’? The sequence was such a hit with the masses that Shahrukh Khan repeated the sequence with more energy and vigour in Farhan Akhtar’s remake of the same film. There is a difference of almost 25 years between the two Dons, there are a lot of dissimilarities between the two as well, but spitting hasn’t gone out of fashion even today, has it? Spitting is also a way of upholding one’s prestige, in Desi lingua ‘Izzat’. Innumerable heroes have rejected the fortune offered by their lover’s father by saying – “Main thukta hoon tumhari daulat par” (I spit on your wealth). I wonder why the west don’t learn from us.
The other day, a blue line bus driver heaped at least a litre of litter on me from his mouth while driving his mean machine. Me, poor fellow, riding a rickety two wheeler did not have the courage to hit back at him.
After all, if a blue line bus driver lets you off by simply spitting at you, its not a bad deal at all, I thought. Having killed more than 100 people this year in Delhi, they are surely capable of doing much more damage. So, i quietly rushed back to my house and took an unwilling bath facing the winter chill.
Bad habits die hard, and mass bad habits such as this actually never die, so long live the spitting republic........................

A march back to history

The great German playwright Goethe had once famously said, “He who moves not forward, goes backward”. The legendary litterateur’s observation is even more apt for the present era, because if we don’t move forward with the times and remain stationary, the fast moving world will leave us way behind. So, the word 'rat race’ has been coined, wherein we all are running to remain in the fray not knowing where our destination lies.

India as a whole, along with her states and cities, is also not untouched from this phenomenon. As ministers make a beeline for investors to bring business to their constituencies, they are also finally looking at improving infrastructure to ensure rapid growth. Contrast to this, our once lovely town Silchar is still far removed from these modern day developments.

We are still caught in an ever continuing time wrap. Everything seems to be moving in super slow motion. While roads take ages to repair, the darkness that envelopes the town in the evenings often reminds one of the haunted and spooky alleys shown in Hollywood horror flicks.

The state of infrastructure is so pathetic that the Americans might some day qualify the town as a specimen of the prehistoric world. The roads can be a perfect example of how the narrow lanes of the prehistoric days looked like when there was no blacktopping technology, the monsoon floods would give an idea about the sufferings of the common man in the absence of proper drainage and the candle lit houses would be a superb specimen to show how people spent their evenings before the invention of electricity.

We have lost touch with the modern era long back. We have also moved back from history to pre history. Now the town is working hard to move from pre history to ancient history. We have all read fairy tales of how people would travel for days through mountains and rivers facing innumerable challenges to reach their villages in the ancient times. Those of you who have walked kilometres facing constant landslides at Sonapur and then taken a boat to reach a flood hit Silchar from Guwahati would agree that our travels back home are not far removed from those fantasy tales.

While other parts of the country fight because SEZs and multinational industries are taking away farming land, our farmers don’t even know the meaning of an SEZ. Forget an SEZ, at least give us a factory where hundreds can get employment, but even that is an impossibility. Whatever little we have (read Cachar Paper Mill) is also on the brink of closure. MPs become ministers, ministers become cabinet ministers and municipal chairpersons graduate to become MLAs, but the town continues to remain in a morass of hopelessness and gloom.

So how can we make a difference? Democracy doesn’t inspire much confidence. Whether ‘Ram’ wins or ‘Rahim’, nothing is going to change, nothing has changed over decades. But, unfortunately democracy still remains our best bet, because if we decide to get rid of our democratic ethos, guns and bombs would be the last resort.

Let us all unite and make democracy meaningful. Let us tell ourselves that, leaders without accountability would not be entertained anymore, let us be vigilant to ensure that the right people get to fight for the post of our leader. Most importantly, let us have the guts to ask questions and add a price tag to our votes.