The world's largest what...?!
"They call this the world's largest democracy...thats a piece of sh*t man."
This is Sanjay Dutt being candid with Suketu Mehta in his book "Maximum City" which I blogged about a little earlier. Reading the latter half of the book in a 2nd class compartment in a packed Bombay local somehow makes you connect with what the author is putting forward in a way that cannot be explained. So I continued to read on the train from Mulund to VT (yes they call it something else now but I will always call it VT).
After Dadar, as usually happens, the train empties out a bit and I found a place to sit opposite 2 very young college kids: a boy and a girl, a couple. Next to them was seated a dignified looking (appearances are always deceptive in this city) man in his late thirties-early forties in a corporate outfit talking away on his hands free phone. The couple were behaving like any 17 ish year old couples behave: trading inane jokes, poking each other, horsing around a little and generally enjoying the train ride to college. As the train began pulling into VT, Mr. Misplaced sense of morality( as I now call him - the man sitting next to the couple) gets up and instead of heading to the door to get some air he snatches at the boy's collar and pulls him neck first to the other side of the compartment abusing him in typical Desi style Hinglish ''what you are doing I say! I have been watching you from that time! What is this nonsense behaviour in public places'' etc etc. He then does something that made me come close to losing it: he slapped the poor kid full on the face. The kid had obviously lost it by then and wanted to simply murder this idiot. That's when I stood up (remember I was immersed in the book which talks exactly of such stuff happening in the city) and walked right between the two, shoved them apart and remained standing there because the man seemed like he would have another go at the kid who had by this time begun to cast serious aspertions on the man's immediate ancestors, his relationship with them, his sexual orientation and many other understandble expressions of outrage.
As happens anywhere in India, we love a fight and the entire compartment had by now formed a circle each citing his or her opinion on the matter. One moron said loudly "Agar woh meri beti hoti to kya hota?" ( what if she had been my daughter?) - a line straight bang out of a Bollywood movie. I wanted to sock the bugger right then and there but instead satisfied by asking him to shut up. Luckily the train arrived at the station and I shoved the still raging kid out, all the way to another side of the platform (with the poor girl in tow) and pacified him. The couple left...the boy still frothing. Mr. Misplaced sense of morality had long since vanished from the scene...fearing that he would get beaten up for what he had done. And he might well have. As I walked to Fort to meet with the rest of my team here, I felt frustrated, irritated, angry...you might even call it rage. Not at the idiot...but at this incredibly misplaced sense of values and morality that we Indians like to bandy about, wear on our sleeve like some kind of medal, a common honour that must be safeguarded. Hyppocrites all folks. Welcome to modern day India.
*************
Meddling Medha
In other news Medha Patkar has once again begun making ominous statements like "we shall gherao (surround) Delhi in 2007" and " urban-hinterland is being grabbed when it should be used for agrarian purposes". This second statement sounds even more absurd than the first. Agrarian land just outside cities?! She made this statement in response to Special economic zones being set up outside cities. She claims land is being grabbed. Ok so fight that. Why reduce your credibility constantly by saying the land should be used for farming (!) or by saying we will stop all activity in the capital of the country?! I think deep down most leaders...whether in sport, politics or the citizen movement... most leaders often get drunk on their own stature and appeal...losing sight of what's really important. Who was it now who said,"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"...Aristotle I think. I need to check that ...and maybe Medha needs to too.
This is Sanjay Dutt being candid with Suketu Mehta in his book "Maximum City" which I blogged about a little earlier. Reading the latter half of the book in a 2nd class compartment in a packed Bombay local somehow makes you connect with what the author is putting forward in a way that cannot be explained. So I continued to read on the train from Mulund to VT (yes they call it something else now but I will always call it VT).
After Dadar, as usually happens, the train empties out a bit and I found a place to sit opposite 2 very young college kids: a boy and a girl, a couple. Next to them was seated a dignified looking (appearances are always deceptive in this city) man in his late thirties-early forties in a corporate outfit talking away on his hands free phone. The couple were behaving like any 17 ish year old couples behave: trading inane jokes, poking each other, horsing around a little and generally enjoying the train ride to college. As the train began pulling into VT, Mr. Misplaced sense of morality( as I now call him - the man sitting next to the couple) gets up and instead of heading to the door to get some air he snatches at the boy's collar and pulls him neck first to the other side of the compartment abusing him in typical Desi style Hinglish ''what you are doing I say! I have been watching you from that time! What is this nonsense behaviour in public places'' etc etc. He then does something that made me come close to losing it: he slapped the poor kid full on the face. The kid had obviously lost it by then and wanted to simply murder this idiot. That's when I stood up (remember I was immersed in the book which talks exactly of such stuff happening in the city) and walked right between the two, shoved them apart and remained standing there because the man seemed like he would have another go at the kid who had by this time begun to cast serious aspertions on the man's immediate ancestors, his relationship with them, his sexual orientation and many other understandble expressions of outrage.
As happens anywhere in India, we love a fight and the entire compartment had by now formed a circle each citing his or her opinion on the matter. One moron said loudly "Agar woh meri beti hoti to kya hota?" ( what if she had been my daughter?) - a line straight bang out of a Bollywood movie. I wanted to sock the bugger right then and there but instead satisfied by asking him to shut up. Luckily the train arrived at the station and I shoved the still raging kid out, all the way to another side of the platform (with the poor girl in tow) and pacified him. The couple left...the boy still frothing. Mr. Misplaced sense of morality had long since vanished from the scene...fearing that he would get beaten up for what he had done. And he might well have. As I walked to Fort to meet with the rest of my team here, I felt frustrated, irritated, angry...you might even call it rage. Not at the idiot...but at this incredibly misplaced sense of values and morality that we Indians like to bandy about, wear on our sleeve like some kind of medal, a common honour that must be safeguarded. Hyppocrites all folks. Welcome to modern day India.
*************
Meddling Medha
In other news Medha Patkar has once again begun making ominous statements like "we shall gherao (surround) Delhi in 2007" and " urban-hinterland is being grabbed when it should be used for agrarian purposes". This second statement sounds even more absurd than the first. Agrarian land just outside cities?! She made this statement in response to Special economic zones being set up outside cities. She claims land is being grabbed. Ok so fight that. Why reduce your credibility constantly by saying the land should be used for farming (!) or by saying we will stop all activity in the capital of the country?! I think deep down most leaders...whether in sport, politics or the citizen movement... most leaders often get drunk on their own stature and appeal...losing sight of what's really important. Who was it now who said,"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"...Aristotle I think. I need to check that ...and maybe Medha needs to too.
posted by Abs @ 9/28/2006 03:32:00 PM
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