Honeymoon !

Honeymoons are kind of dreamy ; surreal ; out of the world and  exhilarating . In short they are quite an interesting event. Both for the participants as well as for others around it. Trouble with it is that they simply do not last very long. Reality hits quite too soon and you have to wake up to the truth. Years ago I went on one myself. Third day into it  and we sat down for a nice candle lit dinner in a beautiful hill station when it happened!  My new wife lovingly served me from the cheese dish she had ordered...... and wrecked my dinner. Well I abhor the stuff and I reacted  sharply with my usual acidic humor ; she felt insulted and started crying in her usual manner. Realization of what we have got into and will have to live with ,dawned on both of us that very instant. It was a huge revelation. There, that was the end of that romantic evening and with that our honeymoon went out the window.

It happens in public life too. Vinod Binny found it recently. His honeymoon with his aam aadmi party lasted for about 24 hours after that party came to power. He realized that this is not the common man's party he had been fighting for since last year or so ; and his party realized that Binny is  the kind of a common man they do not like and they would rather divorce than let him voice his uncommon  opinion. They have thrown him out. This honeymoon is done. Well Binny  may join the club headed by Anna and Kiran bedi.

Common man of Delhi is already in process of  waking up from the vivid dreams they had of getting their power bill slashed in half and  turning the tap and finding water streaming out. Water which is free at that. It is turning out to be quite a pipe dream.How can one even believe in such a dream is beyond me but anyway give it time and every dream eventually ends. Dream of ending corruption is another one. So nobody asks why does a beat constable ask for a bribe? He does so because his Inspector asks for one. Who asks for it  because his boss and his boss's boss does too. This does not stop till it reaches the very top. Unless you stem the source, this corruption will never end.

How beneficial is it go to war ;bring an entire city to stand still ; create a constitutional confrontation; threaten civil disturbance and disobey  existing laws? All to send two lowly cops on leave! Obviously it will not stop corruption or  give even a small relief to the common man. It is not even cost effective ;  it  however takes a disastrous hue when this crisis is  precipitated by a newly minted Chief Minister of all the people there are . Such heavy weights ought to go for the big fish of corruption. Big fish they promised to catch before they got elected! Why do they not do so is anybody's guess. However I suspect that being in power at the mercies of those same corrupt  to the core lot has something to do with it.

People have to pay the price of going to honeymoon with Kejriwal before dating him awhile. Turns out that he is the only  good man left on this earth that you must agree with or else! Turns out that he is intent on breaking apart and smashing everything in sight in order to bring about an order that no one knows anything about. Least of all he himself. He has a law minister that respects no law; a children's affairs minster that lodges a police complaint against a child playing cricket and a party muse that thinks nothing of telling sexist and racist jokes publicly.  His entire caboodle seems like they are running around like headless chicken. Loose tongues; aimless illegal actions and vague ideas are combining in a murderous cocktail for the common man. He is failing miserably in  governing one city but  planning to be the Prime Minister of 1/6th of all humanity.  Failing which he will be very happy if the government formation can be brought to a stand still because the general election mandate has been fractured! Who else wants to have an anarchist? At least it is not me.

India needs to improve upon systems, laws, policies and methods. Progress demands vision; a strong will to act and a proven model to follow. You can not achieve it by breaking laws and making people beggars. Beggars that are looking for "free" things to survive. Progress is achieved by enabling people to make their lives better by providing jobs. It is achieved by improving infrastructure; access to education and healthcare.It is achieved by making clear laws and following them. In the coming months there will be another chance for people to wake up. Dream merchants will come peddling their wares again. Check their vision , check their record. Dreams do attract but it is the reality that matters in the end. Do not vote for the scam ridden corrupt lot; do not vote for people that take corrupt for a friend. Do not vote based on caste ; creed and vague disruptive ideologies. On this republic day think about the country and think about how we can make it better. Let the honeymoon be over and start living the truth or you'll regret it for the next five years. Please!

If you are wondering what happened to my marriage after my honeymoon fizzled out. Well , you do not want to be in my shoes because nothing much happened! Life took over from that moment onwards and at the time of writing I  am still married to the same individual. All I had to do was develop a thick skin that is kind  of immune to tears and a pair of ears that are deaf to periodic doses of tongue lashings . And most importantly I had to learn to love a lot....... a lot of cheese!

Yet another Messiah!

There was nothing in the beginning. As humans started to appear among other animals; they acted alone. Individuals lived by a personal and primal code. They related to each other and even to other animals on a needs only basis. Most other times they preferred to interact with natural events; natural forces and with their physical environment. Life was simple, needs were basic and everything one needed to live was within the scope of one's own exertions. If one needed anything , one could go out and get it. If one needed to be saved from anything , one would go out and save oneself or perish in the attempt. Well; things did not remain so for very long.

Humans developed bigger brains, as well as their ability to speak and got an analytical system of processing information. Almost overnight they switched en mass into a different zone, leaving behind every other species that roamed the earth. Seeds of the trouble were sown at that moment. Humans were no longer just another animal!

Soon they learnt to live in groups; at times violently competing.They learnt to cultivate their food and build shelter for themselves. Things were still not that bad. Most everybody was his own farmer; his own hunter; his own baker; his own doctor and his own architect. This moment was the pinnacle of human progress . Everything since then has taken them south. So really what happened in the human history is that some people got good at one thing or the other and either decided to specialize or got forced by circumstances to specialize. I do not know what . But in the new order of things you were no longer your own farmer if you were the butcher. Or your own builder if you were the doctor.... and so on. So a power struggle ensued. Some groups had more power over others as they decided to use war or trade or even religion as a controlling tool. At times they controlled water sources or trade routes or even natural resources. Politics in its broader meanings had come to fore and these controlling acts  continues to this day.

Where a handful of simple red ochre  dust applied to oneself connected them with the "unknown" ; their ancestors and the nature and brought them solace and spiritual connections. Now It was no longer enough to do so. Faith got organized . Rites and rituals got codified and virtually written in stone. Unknown and the nature coalesced in the concept of "God". This became another potent tool to streamline and control societies. Humans lost individual control of their spiritual world as well.

All of these developments and the interplay of these new forces turned  humans into  dependent weaklings and gave rise to a new radical concept of "The Messiah". Someone that will come and deliver us from our wants and our shortcomings; since we can not do anything ourselves anymore! Every society and group has seen countless numbers of messiah's throughout history. Some declared themselves to be such; some were anointed such and some acted such. With so many of them batting for us ; why on earth have our problems multiplied ? The fact is that Messiah concept does not work and is not likely to work. No body and no one can get rid of your challenges until you act yourselves. Whenever someone promises to do so , be alert because you'll only get distracted;  further divided and end up deeply disappointed. Messiah's keep rising because we  keep looking for them. They will continue to exploit this longing in the human mind and humans will probably never stop hoping for miracles!

Even when all line losses; distribution snafus ; obsolete equipment ; graft and corruption are mitigated ,there is not enough power generated that'll allow for a lower tariff. Sufficient potable water is not available that could allow for  free distribution. If and when it is done  it can only be on a selective basis; with an eye on the potential vote bank and will create haves and have nots. Even this very minimum will have a staggering cost. Cost  which is coming right out of your pockets ;unless you make some other sacrifice where there is not much left to sacrifice . More importantly it does not even begin to address the fundamental challenge of generating stable and plentiful power for everyone or putting in place effective water resource management. If you do not solve the basic question with a strong resolve and long term view; these very issues will get bigger and bigger , as they have over the years. Even beyond the reach of such band aid solutions. Just forget about being delivered you are likely to sink deeper into the cesspool and soon.

Pied pipers always play a melodious tune however the results are  rather odious. Learn from history and beware of Messiah's . Especially when they wear a Gandhi cap!