Raju Ganapathy

Fantasy

4  

Raju Ganapathy

Fantasy

Stiff Upper Lip

Stiff Upper Lip

4 mins
286


Somewhere in Kailasa, M-2 Era

Ganesha was sitting bored in front of his apple on his lap. Mata Parvathi for whom he was the apple of her eye asked him” what are you doing, Ganesha?” Ganesha replied “Vyasaji was to come today and we are supposed to continue the Mahabharata Chronicle today, but he hasn’t some so far and I am twiddling my trunk.” Just then Vyasaji entered chanting “Om namo Shivaya.” Ganesha observed the slight change in tone in the chant remarked so to Vyasa. Vyasa cheekily responded that without the namo’s patronage no god can survive in the Hindu Rashtra. Indeed, agreed Parvathi and informed Vyasa that Shiva has left for his newly renovated home in Kashi. Vyasa with a twinkle in the eye remarked ‘break from each other.” To which Parvathi said such breaks are good. How else could I have created Ganesha and hugged him.

Vyasa nodded his head thoughtfully and asked Ganesha if he was ready for the new chapter in the chronicle. He began his dictation.

Hindu’sthan

The season of election has begun yet again. There was a knock at the door of universal spy the famous Bond, James also known in code as 007. The knocker introduced himself ‘I am Bond, Electoral Bond. It is time to move over Mr James.’ The EB didn’t wait for any response and slammed the door on 007’s face.

In the Bharat varsha 2022 several such knocks were heard at the doors of business men, honchos. Monies got exchanged. It was nothing new in Bharat. During festivities people go around asking for what is called ‘chanda (donation).’ What happens to the money collected, nobody knows. How much gets collected and how it was spent were questions nobody asks. Same with EB too!

Some retired bureaucrats, ex-judges got together with those who can write well and drafted a letter to the Chief Justice of India and reminded him of several important cases that are pending at the court. The justices were not courting the law of the land they said eloquently. It just made a few minutes of news and died down quietly. The government knew it very well that this is what would happen. What matters is votes in the elections. Once they win the election, they have the license for murder even. Of course, what was meant was murder of democracy, liberty, human rights etc and not that of humans perse. Anyway, the ruling elites claimed that the mother of democracy didn’t need the lessons from the west. What she needed was only Ram Rajya and that was being ushered surely enough.

Some argued that with demonetisation black money was totally wiped out. The colour of the money had changed to white or saffron. With the elections round the corner, it was time to dye the money from whatever the colour to Saffron.

If EB was busy the government ensured that even ED was busy too. If there was some one who would raise his/her voice ED raided them. ED used the make in India product fevibond to attach their properties. Of course, there was the ‘tekfog’ that hanged like the grey cloud in the Delhi winter. It let loose the hound (aka Sherlock Holmes mystery) under the cover of the tekfog on those who were noisy but not wealthy enough to deserve an ED raid. The government tacit policy was ‘keep your mouth shut.’

In this queer democracy of Bharat, the bhakts were bonded to the idea of bonding with ancient mythologies, tradition. Those who didn’t bond were asked to settle in the neighbourhood. The virtues of family bond, religious bond got highlighted. What got dark-lighted were that the citizens became bonded citizens virtually. They lost their virtues rather it was quietly seized from them.

Of course, if EB was dominating the scene because of support that it got. The Shame Bank of India was instrumental in selling the bond. When the case came up for hearing the then CJI said he found nothing was wrong with it, although the Central Bank was ‘reserved’ about it. The SBI suspended its judgement and refused to disclose the list of purchasers of the EB but had no qualms about suspending the accounts of NGOs who were against any bonding whatsoever and disclosing them

Bond or no Bond the masses were up against the virus who wanted to bond with them yet again. Like the ever-ceasing waves of the ocean the virus mutated and let loose wave after wave. For the average citizens for whom the daily life was a battle field the virus was Greek and Latin yet they did what the Romans would do in Rome, roaming around the cities and neighbourhood in search of livelihood. Masked men, women and children were seen not only in the mosques. Temples, churches, educational institutions etc became one with masks.

In all this din and ruckus, Bond’s boss enigmatic M was as usual maintained a stiff upper lip as if suffering from a colonial hang over.

Ganesha loudly wondered if the nation was becoming a vagabond!!


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