Elections (BH:D215)

March 4, 2012

Thiruvananthapuram was one of the five cities in India that acted as a polling station for the Russian presidential elections. 47 votes were cast at the Gorky culture center near Van Ross junction. Most of the voters were women: tourists, folks working in tourism and hospitality and wives of Malayalees! The local newspapers competed to publish photographs of the conscientious female citizens of Russia. There was a time in Kerala when the ubiquitous Communist party cadres packing the roadside tea stalls and barber shops would furiously discuss elections in far away Russia, China and Poland. It seems like a distant era now though it has been only a couple of decades. Today it takes a full page photo feature display of white skin to enthuse the mallu population about elections.

It is probably the lack of such "desirable" skin tone that makes the coverage of the Uttar Pradesh elections lackluster. The exit polls predict a return to power of Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party. The exit polls by the same media research firms had failed to predict the major sweep that Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party pulled off last time. Yet, as most things in India, exit polls are a ritual that must be conducted even if they don't make sense. As Dr. Azhikode's Tatwamasi teaches, this has been so in India for over 3000 years. 

Here's a classic example I found in the book, reading which most of today was spent. In the Rig Veda, there is a stanza that uses the the word "Ka:", pronounced ka-ha, to mean "Who?". The gist of the stanza is a wonder at who can be considered responsible for one of the many wondrous things about nature and the universe that the Rig Veda discusses. A few centuries later, by the time of Brahmanas (the books as well as the priestly folks who made a livelihood of conducting rituals) the meaning of the stanza was completely ignored and Ka: was considered a new god who "needed" rituals to satisfy him. There wasn't much surprise when a few more centuries later Ka: acquired a wife and family who themselves qualified as gods who needed even more rituals. 

It might have taken centuries then but in our times, it has only taken 20 years for a meaningless song "Harivarasam" to be considered as the required lullaby to put the deity at Sabarimala to sleep every night!

I hadn't cooked anything except tea and coffee after being back in India. To break the bad habit, got a 2.7 kg chicken this morning from Bismillah Cold Storage & Meat shop. There is a milk booth in front of the meat shop. Before me in the queue there a short, dark woman in her late forties bought half a liter of milk. After collecting it, she told the booth keeper that he owes her Rs. 6 from last time. 

"What last time?" he asked. 

"From the last time I bought one milk!" she said. 

"It must have been the other guy. How am I supposed to know?" he protested. 

"That I don't know. You owe me Rs. 6" she stuck to her ground. 

"How can I deal with people like you?! You come here once in six months and buy something and then make excuses not to pay." he became loud.

"It may be six months. It may be 12 years. But if I paid Rs. 20 last time and am owed Rs. 6, I need it back. Six rupees matters to some of us."

He waved her away. 

She took the milk and left still muttering, "Six rupees matters to some of us!" 

At present, it is very easy, almost unavoidably simple, in this society to make money by illegal, questionable, immoral activities. I wonder what then motivates people to lead lives in which six rupees really matter. It may simply be the fear of punishment and persecution, but it is bright as daylight to see that the more corrupt you are, the less you need to worry about punishment here. In fact, instead of any social persecution, recognition and jealous adoration result from large scale corruption. But I would like to believe that it is the sheer goodness of the human spirit that is keeping a majority of this nation's billion from selling their souls.

Talking of recognition in India, there has been some blog buzz online about E. Sreedharan, the man who has selflessly served the nation for over 56 years and delivered spectacular railway projects, not being considered for the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honor. Few days back, while meeting a friend, got introduced to a tall, well-built young gentleman from Delhi who wore a prominent gold chain and had precious stone studded rings on almost all his fingers. Turned out he is a lobbyist for a prestigious civilian award in the country and was in town to collect his reward for successfully delivering it to a prominent resident. Last year, he had worked hard to get an actor "honored". 

The chicken curry was a success mostly thanks to the home made 'masala' powder.