That Damn Dam!

Food, as everyone will agree is one of the simple & most dependable pleasures in life. So obviously when a person decides to purposefully deny oneself food (borderline anorexics don't count - looking good is paramount), it leaves me perplexed to say the least.

I for one have never been able to understand the concept of a "hunger strike". For those who came in late, a hunger strike is where a person chooses to fast (threatening to do so unto death) until his/her wishes are granted/changes made. Being a solution oriented or as my DHL friends would say, being a "can do" person, this appears to me to be a passive & massively disconnected approach at addressing an issue. So when Medha Patkar decided to go on a “fast unto death”, more than raising awareness of the issue she is fighting for, what it succeeded in doing for me was causing dark amusement that people would actually deliberately want to kill themselves by starving (for a worthless cause – only case to consider would be if Ms. Patkar was trying to look like Eva Longoria) when there are actually hundreds of thousands of people who actually DO end up dying this way. And here I have not been quick to judge. Ms. Patkar is probably a 50 something woman who has, since she came into my consciousness at least, committed herself to save a dam on the river Narmada. Why she wants to do so and how it will benefit me or the populace at large still remains a mystery. So anyways, Ms. Patkar is definitely not fasting to look good which immediately puts her in the “flummox Abs” category.

However, we live in a democracy. If Ms. Patkar doesn’t want to eat, no issues. But she chooses to not eat in the centre of India’s capital Delhi and also has an entire bunch of lackeys surrounding her & pretending to do the same. (I say this because the cynical bile in me refuses to believe all the lackeys are fasting too, as reported by certain sections of the media). Ms. Patkar, after several days of fasting then decides to accept a glass of salt water from a Cabinet representative. The cynical bile in me laughed wickedly on seeing this in the news – a perfect photo opportunity wasn’t it Ms. Patkar? Complete down to the khadi – clothes - Gandhi - style martyrdom. Remember Gandhi accepting the glass of orange juice from Nehru? (For those who don’t know what I am talking about please either shoot yourselves now or go watch Ben Kingsley win his way to an Oscar playing Gandhi in the movie)

If Ms. Patkar undertook this fast to create awareness about her cause, it has only resulted in annoyance, amusement & cynicism on my part without giving me a shred of information as to her cause. Speeches, interviews, appearances on talk shows, blog campaigns, protest marches even – all make sense and convey the message. A hunger strike only appears as a feeble attempt to ape a brilliant man without understanding the reasons for his actions.

The Narmada Campaign needs more “can do” people.

Not hunger strikes.