Saturday, March 22, 2014

Cat's Nine Lives !

six weeks old "Ardene" 

Many decades ago as a little boy I wanted to be a tank commander. I had visions of myself riding atop a noisy green tank, barreling down the street and letting go a shot from time to time. Strangely in my visions I never had an enemy firing back at me. Some time later I switched my vision to becoming a fighter pilot. By grade five I was clear that I will be a fast bowler; hurling one toe crushing delivery after another at the hapless batsmen. It all however began some years before. As soon as I was born some doting adult envisioned that I will grow to become a doctor so that became my nick name. It stuck for years till it became apparent around grade six or seven that though doubtful , I may amount to  some thing but a doctor can not be one of them. Not with the grades I get in science and mathematics. Well turns out that I became none of the above. All these dreams were fascinating while they lasted but they were childish and so long ago that it seems like it was another life. Maybe if I had the proverbial nine lives of a cat............

Well we do not have another life. Even cats do not have another life. Their nine lives are a myth substantiated by the fact that they are agile and seem indestructible as they kind  of always land on their feet. Humans do not have that luxury. We can and usually do land with a thud. At times it is hard to get up again - ever. 

Kejriwal reminds me of my childhood. He does not seem to know what he wants to be. A PM or a CM ? A CM who sits in protest against his own government to send two lowly cops on leave; or a CM that calls himself an anarchist who will not  respect the sanctity of the republic day ? A provider of free water and half rate power? A common man; a con man? A crusader against corruption perhaps - but his original target Shiela Dixit is currently enjoying the power and prestige of a state governor. All those papers that kejriwal used to show as proof against her have vanished and with it has vanished his will to follow his accusations up. He has found new things to do. Past ten years that UPA has been in power were marked by one massive scam after another ; kejriwal can not see them. He has to take a three day tour of Gujrat to find corruption.

One day he declares that he will fight against Modi in Varanasi. In the afternoon he changes his stance to include "if people ask me" and by nightfall he declares he will fight him from Vadodra as well.... oops! No , no; not from there . Ah, at least for the time being ! It seems that he is like my little kitten jumping here , running there and taking a leap from top of the staircase. Climbing the house plant ,digging the soil out and clinging to my trousers and scratching my leg with her sharp paws. Yeah ! he acts a lot like her  just not so likable. And he does not have those nine lives. In a month or two  when he falls he will not land on his feet like Ardene does.