An idle self is a dangerous self, the devil's workshop makes little sound but it does fuel imagination. The nation goes revolutionary and an unforeseen spectacle folds before me, the self in its confused ambivalence sits before the computer screen with little to do. I had just heard a former IPS lady, definitive and loud in all her enthusiasm. I think I disagreed with her on a lot. Now in the idle cogitation the self concedes that the differences are bridgeable, there are many in the country whom I disagree so much more, and is not the alter ego so much enamored by these differences?
There are so many of them, they appear on the television and they appear on the news paper columns, I am tempted to listen to them and read what they say, how much do I want to hear them speak and how much I wish I could tell them they are so definitely wrong. Every time they are around they exhort me into imaginary debates.
The leisure leads to an innocuous act, I list them all, a countdown of those with whom I am infatuated in my disagreement. They are quite a few equally deserving, equally equal and than there is one the first amongst the equals, the one who undoubtedly leads the pack. The leader shall be talked about but lets venture into the ones who are still the equals. For now this list does not have an order of appearance, but that does not mean there's any denying the desire countering them whenever they express.
On the geographical top of the country is the lady carrying indefatigable eloquence of rigidity that effectively hides the politics in her utterances. Her father is a former chief minister and she can so well disguise politics for sentiments and disgust, rights and aspirations, and not just this she can do the vice versa equally well, the sincerity of her anger, the heaviness of the voice never gives away in an argument, but some like me remember that after all its an argument, a political argument.
Then there's a crusader, a prime conspiracy theorist, a professional letter writer, president of an one man political party, this professor from Howard has an uncanny knack of throwing important tea parties. He is objectivity and contradictions personified. One of the most audacious of all Indian writers, he claimed the constitution will be overtaken in a couple of years (just to assure you: that never happened) and then on a government change claimed that the nation is already under a planned foreign seize. His unique information and there equally queer sources, makes him the Swamy of Indian underground detective agencies. He is more thrilling than an Agatha Christie novel, somehow I can not agree to him.
It takes less than the first line of the Times of India article to get exasperated by the idea, yet I read it right to the end. Those hilarious pieces that I rarely give a second thought to, by the author of “the Second Thought” often claim to understand India, so often they fail utterly. A rather unilateral socialite version of India do little to cheer the spirits of the self. But the sincere effort at expression and the unarguable love and concern for the country however in contrast to my understandings does find a space somewhere, space enough for me to read her column's next edition.
I am tempted to talk of the first amongst the equals, so lets quickly get past the equals, the cancer surgeon with a indomitable devotion to the Lord and the Lord's birth place, the one who moved on chopper from place to place in the west of the country urging a cleansing. Being a surgeon he has a surgical precision to facts. Arguably the facts are often operated and sterilized before use. Also the famed Shaayar of our political class who has lost a lot of weight overtime, but remember his hay days and remember the couplets, somehow the insincerity gives away the person yet pulling out an argument from the pockets before him remains a wish, he would soon get a political party to perch upon. Some are still Diggyng there way into this list and some deserve a passing mention. The bartenders of morality in Bombay, the light on the left who seems to be too afraid of the US, the perpetually angry party spokesmen etc. Etc because one can never absolutely complete such lists and its easier written than etcetera.
Now the first amongst the equals, and this one is easy, The author of one of my favorite books sits right on the top, in fact she was the only one I could think about for minutes. Her articulation, the brilliant vivacity of her writing, the red cheeks that she compares with the Kashmiri apples (the apples shall be bitten into), her strange Gandhians and her proud adamancy lure into listening to her. She is not just strange, she is a compulsive confrontationist, not many take pride in a negative reputation bordering on notoriety. How does one debate with a person who throws a party at the slightest increase in disapproval ratings, whose self righteousness swells in direct proportion to the hate mails received. Give me a chance I would stand to her polemics, with the God of all words on her side she would say “It was a time when the unthinkable became thinkable and the impossible really happened” and I will debate with reason and without fiction and I know she would be comically good and outlandishly credible only to augment my marveling disgust, and consoling me, unable to resist the urge she would now say, “Some things come with their own punishments.”
As TV anchor shouts into the mike I ponder whether I am adding him to my list? “Not yet, It needs a sustained effort” said the self.
There are so many of them, they appear on the television and they appear on the news paper columns, I am tempted to listen to them and read what they say, how much do I want to hear them speak and how much I wish I could tell them they are so definitely wrong. Every time they are around they exhort me into imaginary debates.
The leisure leads to an innocuous act, I list them all, a countdown of those with whom I am infatuated in my disagreement. They are quite a few equally deserving, equally equal and than there is one the first amongst the equals, the one who undoubtedly leads the pack. The leader shall be talked about but lets venture into the ones who are still the equals. For now this list does not have an order of appearance, but that does not mean there's any denying the desire countering them whenever they express.
On the geographical top of the country is the lady carrying indefatigable eloquence of rigidity that effectively hides the politics in her utterances. Her father is a former chief minister and she can so well disguise politics for sentiments and disgust, rights and aspirations, and not just this she can do the vice versa equally well, the sincerity of her anger, the heaviness of the voice never gives away in an argument, but some like me remember that after all its an argument, a political argument.
Then there's a crusader, a prime conspiracy theorist, a professional letter writer, president of an one man political party, this professor from Howard has an uncanny knack of throwing important tea parties. He is objectivity and contradictions personified. One of the most audacious of all Indian writers, he claimed the constitution will be overtaken in a couple of years (just to assure you: that never happened) and then on a government change claimed that the nation is already under a planned foreign seize. His unique information and there equally queer sources, makes him the Swamy of Indian underground detective agencies. He is more thrilling than an Agatha Christie novel, somehow I can not agree to him.
It takes less than the first line of the Times of India article to get exasperated by the idea, yet I read it right to the end. Those hilarious pieces that I rarely give a second thought to, by the author of “the Second Thought” often claim to understand India, so often they fail utterly. A rather unilateral socialite version of India do little to cheer the spirits of the self. But the sincere effort at expression and the unarguable love and concern for the country however in contrast to my understandings does find a space somewhere, space enough for me to read her column's next edition.
I am tempted to talk of the first amongst the equals, so lets quickly get past the equals, the cancer surgeon with a indomitable devotion to the Lord and the Lord's birth place, the one who moved on chopper from place to place in the west of the country urging a cleansing. Being a surgeon he has a surgical precision to facts. Arguably the facts are often operated and sterilized before use. Also the famed Shaayar of our political class who has lost a lot of weight overtime, but remember his hay days and remember the couplets, somehow the insincerity gives away the person yet pulling out an argument from the pockets before him remains a wish, he would soon get a political party to perch upon. Some are still Diggyng there way into this list and some deserve a passing mention. The bartenders of morality in Bombay, the light on the left who seems to be too afraid of the US, the perpetually angry party spokesmen etc. Etc because one can never absolutely complete such lists and its easier written than etcetera.
Now the first amongst the equals, and this one is easy, The author of one of my favorite books sits right on the top, in fact she was the only one I could think about for minutes. Her articulation, the brilliant vivacity of her writing, the red cheeks that she compares with the Kashmiri apples (the apples shall be bitten into), her strange Gandhians and her proud adamancy lure into listening to her. She is not just strange, she is a compulsive confrontationist, not many take pride in a negative reputation bordering on notoriety. How does one debate with a person who throws a party at the slightest increase in disapproval ratings, whose self righteousness swells in direct proportion to the hate mails received. Give me a chance I would stand to her polemics, with the God of all words on her side she would say “It was a time when the unthinkable became thinkable and the impossible really happened” and I will debate with reason and without fiction and I know she would be comically good and outlandishly credible only to augment my marveling disgust, and consoling me, unable to resist the urge she would now say, “Some things come with their own punishments.”
As TV anchor shouts into the mike I ponder whether I am adding him to my list? “Not yet, It needs a sustained effort” said the self.
4 Comments:
tewari ji... very indulging, yet subtle. Interestingly put together. I totally agree with your disagreement with the first amongst the equals.
Thanks Dhananjay, I desperately needed a comment on this just to be sure that this wasn't far too subtle. And not many would agree on her.
and the deleted comment was a spelling mistake.
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