The regime at the Centre!-

Years of sitting home alone are taking its toll now. No, I am not bedridden. No major disease either, but only write-write. The evening at home after long day sitting on my laptop made me a bundle of nerves.

The gray matter in me started acting wildly. I had never been at home in the evenings . After whiling away some time, I thought it wise to go to a friend’s house to have a cup of coffee than stay at home confused. I decided to go to one of my friends Anand's place. My guess was right. Anand was watching the football match. And believe me, my visit to him turned out to be a torturous one. As soon as I entered his house, Anand switched off the TV and thundered “Kaka is one of ten players going into this encounter already on a yellow card and risks missing out on a potential semi-final by playing a wrong time shot ".

Bad luck!’’ Unable to understand what he meant I said, ‘‘By wrong time you mean the team at the helm at Brazil ?’’ ‘‘No,’’ cried Anand , ‘‘I am talking about the Government at the Centre. Now, that was too much. ‘‘Will you elaborate?’’ I was curious. “Let’s talk about sports. Not once the cricket buffs went wild as it happened during India-Australia match in the World Cup and India’s tour to South Africa. Exactly opposite happened during the current Central regime. Australia came and thrashed us; Sri Lanka came and rubbed salt on our wounds; cricket babies like Bangladesh beat us. And hockey has made a hell out of it. The drug scandals heaped humiliation after humiliation,” Anand was unstoppable. “But it’s part of the game,” I said. Anand continued, ‘‘Look at the tragedies. Had anybody heard of Tsunami in India? 98 per cent did not know what Tsunami was. But it happened and took a toll of over 20,000 apart from destruction of properties worth crores. The Gujarat Maharashtra and West Bengal floods. Four months’ rain in just four days in Assam . Rain fury in Maharashtra not seen in the last hundred years as media claims every year . Deaths, destruction and diseases. Thousands have died. Thousands are maimed,” said the red-faced Anand . “See the consequences of this regime.”

 “Arey yaar.... Anand you are talking absurd, superstitious, illogical. And this is making me sick,” I had lost my patience. But without caring for my discomfort he went ahead. “Look at the political scene. The tainted, the Left and power greedy made a hell of the situation. The tainted were blackmailing the government and messing economic policies without a thought for the nation. The Left has made it a right to strike work at will and put a spoke in any action that have done good for the country. Their utterances have caused a mayhem at stock exchanges, disinvestment policy was in disarray and if their claims were taken at their face value, West Bengal should have been a heaven since they have ruled the state for 28 years! On the contrary the state is in a shambles,’’ he stopped because he probably ran out of breath. “And now the petrol and diesel price hike” a fuming Anand yelled. There was no point in convincing him. I took his leave and started for my home. Hardly half a kilometer and it started raining heavily . I chuckled. “The regime at the Centre!” Anand would have said.