"Some old men,
continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that
there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an
example."
— Alexander Pope
(English, 1688-1744)
Word
for the day
Understory (n)
The shrubs and plants growing beneath the main canopy of a forest.
Malice
towards none
First random thought this morning
For past many days, the front page of my news paper starts from
page 5 or page 7 and its usually a half page in width.
The notions like Front page, main headline, Page 3 have all lost
their meaning. "Discount" is the key operative word these days. I
heavily discount whatever people want to "sell" or 'tell" me.
Show me the evidence
Post independence there have been
some famous cases of evidence seeking. But in most such cases the inquisitors
were in insignificant minority. For example, someone wanted evidence of Lord
Ram having been born in Ayodhya. Some other wanted evidence of the bridge
constructed over Indian Ocean by the Lord's army to reach Sri Lanka. Many have
been seeking evidence of the death of Neta Ji in plane crash many decades ago.
There is a section of people who wants more evidence to believe the official
version of the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri and Shayma Prasad Mukherjee; etc.
Nonetheless, most of these pursuit
of evidence have been confined to drawing rooms, club tables or court rooms.
Rarely did it become a rage. However, in past one decade, evidence seeking has
assumed much wider spectrum. In my view, it all started with some people
coercing others to provide evidence of their secular, patriotic and
nationalistic credentials by chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai, wearing skull cap,
not eating beef, not posing for magazine covers in Ram Lila attire, etc.
Given the rich political dividend
this pursuit of evidence has yielded in past 5years, its spectrum has naturally
expanded. People have asked the PM evidence of his educational qualification.
Now people are even asking evidence of military operations!
Unlike many studio experts, I have
no issues with Chidambarams, Digvijays, Kejriwals and Nirupams of the world.
These people will remain relevant till the time a typical Indian male does not
start watching and admiring Kim Kardashian, Sunny Leone, Poonam Pandey et. al.
without any hesitation and/or sense of guilt.
Nonetheless, as distracted and
exasperated as I am, I would also like to join the army of legendary evidence
seekers and ask:
(a) Mr. Arvind Kejriwal - "You say AAP government in Delhi is the
only corruption free government - what is the evidence?"
(b) Mr. Sanjay Nirupam - "Your leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi has
promised full loan waiver and 50% cut in power tariff to the farmers of UP.
Please provide evidence of the sources of funds that he proposes to utilize for
fulfilling his promise."
(c) Mr. P. Chidambaram and Mr. Digvijay Singh - "Please provide
evidence to the effect that in 10yrs of UPA government Indian Army/RAW never
violated the ceasefire at LoC; did not carry out any surgical strike; or
supported rebels in Baluchistan as regularly alleged by Pak authorities and media."
(d) Mr. Nana Patekar and Thackeray family - I fully agree all
Pakistanis should be declared persona non grata. "Please define who
is a Pakistani for the convenience of authorities who will implement this
plan."
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