The winds of change swirl around minarets as Hosni packs his bucket and spade for the seaside resort. Yemen and Bahrain shake, and others may yet tremble. Muammer Gaddafi’s days in the sun seem to be clouding over as he and his son blame bin Laden [Okay, so who doesn’t blame him these days]. Even China seems to have caught a whiff of a Jasmine movement which pundits proclaim to be a moment of self inflicted protest - blowing a proverbial whistle off of an imaginary pressure cooker. The strongmen of Arabia are realizing what other aging despots did before them – the genie of hope and freedom is difficult to get out of the narrow mouthed bottle of authoritarianism. And, once out that happy genie isn’t getting back in again. Why, even in Italy young Berlusconi’s wife has kicked herself out of the house in a huff and some 50 year old stormy petrel of a judgess wants to bring him to book for cavorting with a villaful of temptresses. If men can’t be men in Italy, for heaven’s sake, where will they ever savour seductresses launching out of birthday cakes. Justice and fate should run in marathons for the uncanny way they have of catching up with the most untouchable of old men.
If the winds of change were all fact, as BBC and CNN aver they are, then we may wonder why they do not touch our shores. Are the siroccos of hope to weak to travel from North Africa to India, and spin themselves out in the Sahara? Do the balmy winds of justice lose their way on the spice trail from south of Europa? We have our corrupt politicians, surely, legislators who kill and maim, and ministers who rape and hide [been to Goa lately]. We have ministers who scam and chief ministers who love land in deeply illegal ways. We have party presidents and sundry lesser politicos with 3 bags full in Swiss banks. We have officials with 25 apartments and Rs 300 crores. So, don’t we deserve a little make believe revolutionary protest march of our own. Maybe just a 50 meter amble of citizens’ action masquerading as a show of intolerance against injustice!
Well it’s not going to happen and the reason is simple geometry! It came to me in a flash the other day that protests rally around in squares – maybe in a moment of incendiary accident, as daily frustrations reach flashpoint, in an area bound by four sides. Remember Tiananmen Square? How about Tahrir Square and its residents? The rumblings at Pearl Square in Bahrain the gatherings at Green Square, Tripoli. And what do we have to harness the powers of protest – endless roundabouts in Delhi where energy circles but dissipates. Horniman Circle may trigger some momentarily pleasing movements in the Mumbai netherworld but never a protest. Mekhri Circle in Bengaluru, do please get a better fantasy! The humid circumambulation at Space Circle and Don Boscoe circle in Kolkata?
Life in India moves around in circles, diffusing energies of protest and churning a gentle contentedness. Dissent swirls in the circular corridors of power to rest as dust on files. Why, even our parliament is a circle – where energies find repose in compromise and coalition. Cash and favours eventually come to rest in pockets of altitudinous exclusivity – but rarely come home to roost. If only we had paid attention in those classrooms where they taught us about circles and squares - perhaps a different civics would have scripted a better history!
If the winds of change were all fact, as BBC and CNN aver they are, then we may wonder why they do not touch our shores. Are the siroccos of hope to weak to travel from North Africa to India, and spin themselves out in the Sahara? Do the balmy winds of justice lose their way on the spice trail from south of Europa? We have our corrupt politicians, surely, legislators who kill and maim, and ministers who rape and hide [been to Goa lately]. We have ministers who scam and chief ministers who love land in deeply illegal ways. We have party presidents and sundry lesser politicos with 3 bags full in Swiss banks. We have officials with 25 apartments and Rs 300 crores. So, don’t we deserve a little make believe revolutionary protest march of our own. Maybe just a 50 meter amble of citizens’ action masquerading as a show of intolerance against injustice!
Well it’s not going to happen and the reason is simple geometry! It came to me in a flash the other day that protests rally around in squares – maybe in a moment of incendiary accident, as daily frustrations reach flashpoint, in an area bound by four sides. Remember Tiananmen Square? How about Tahrir Square and its residents? The rumblings at Pearl Square in Bahrain the gatherings at Green Square, Tripoli. And what do we have to harness the powers of protest – endless roundabouts in Delhi where energy circles but dissipates. Horniman Circle may trigger some momentarily pleasing movements in the Mumbai netherworld but never a protest. Mekhri Circle in Bengaluru, do please get a better fantasy! The humid circumambulation at Space Circle and Don Boscoe circle in Kolkata?
Life in India moves around in circles, diffusing energies of protest and churning a gentle contentedness. Dissent swirls in the circular corridors of power to rest as dust on files. Why, even our parliament is a circle – where energies find repose in compromise and coalition. Cash and favours eventually come to rest in pockets of altitudinous exclusivity – but rarely come home to roost. If only we had paid attention in those classrooms where they taught us about circles and squares - perhaps a different civics would have scripted a better history!
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