THE OTHER INDIA

Yeah, Gandhi bought(pleaded, infact... and Phirangi found no use of us, so he left) us freedom, well I can't say freedom, it is independance....It was BG tilak who did start it. The following excerpt from firstpost triggers a similar chord, the notes are different here, "freedom from netas". I cant metaphorise Baba Ramdev to BG Tilak, but Anna Hazare can be. Tired middle class wants no more Bofor, 2G, Ayodhya, Gujarat massacre, kashmir bullshit, ....but India as a better living place



It’s easy to be cynical about Baba Ramdev. This is the godman who giggles. He suggests doing pranayam and shut his nose after the Pakistani terrorists attacked Mumbai. It’s a little harder to be cynical about the thousands who have gathered in his name, the families that are parked on the ground, heads resting on a battered carry-all, damp towels and undershirts draped on the bamboo fencing.



It is, instead, chastening. An old man, in his seventies, with thick discoloured glasses, walks carefully down the aisle, holding onto to the bamboo fence next to him. He’s from Indore, he tells me. He has eleven children, two of whom have died. He’s come because he wants to make India a heaven. “Don’t you?” he asks me and hands me a photocopied pamphlet about the economic fallout of corruption. Instantly five people gather around us, anxious to get his pamphlets. The man beams. “One at a time,” he says.



One at a time. That’s strangely the most un-Indian thing about the whole affair. One at a time to fill your water bottle. One at a time to get your pamphlet. Standing in the hot sun, in a long line slow line, Indians do what Indians do. They try to wangle their way into the front of the line. A retired man, who now runs a school for girls, admonishes them.



“One at a time,” he says. “Go stand in the line. We are all standing in the sun. Brother, what kind of anusilan ke sipahi (soldier of discipline) will you be if you break in like this? We are not here to watch some movie.”





For most of us in facebook, it is "THE OTHER INDIA". Yes, the other india wants someone who can lead them, which netas and saffrons make use of..... and I write about this in a suddenly spiked nationalism, on FACEBOOK, and I go off to browse the internet about "how to become a PMP certified leader" :)