Phooey Musing
I was just wondering, or rather thinking about the decision of the state govt to increase the legal age of drinking from 21 to 25, as a 21 year old that does not seem very nice to me. My recent face book status updates may vouch for my love of alcohol and the positive effects attributed to the consumption of the above.
Now my argument is simple alcohol effects both 21year olds and 25year olds, both will enjoy the alcohol in more or less the same way, they both will joyfully sway and frolic and generally have an amazing not well maybe not so silent, but grand moment of elation none the less. The question is whether the 21 year old or the 25 year old will be more responsible, the answered is just as obvious, as the question: they both will be equally ir/responsible, depending on the quantity of alcohol they have consumed. So why 25 they could have increased the age to 50 or 60 or even 111. But for obvious reasons the govt is not going to listen to a tree hugging free thinker such as me.
It is thus my reasoning that I am not being fairly represented by our supposed govt, well to be fair I did not vote for any of them in the last 4 years, and I know some may point a very judgemental finger at me now, but hear me out, none of the candidates were good enough for me, the 1st saffron candidate wanted to throw me out of the state because I did not speak Marathi, the 2nd saffron candidate did not believe i was fit to call myself an Indian as I am not a Hindu, and my holy land does not lie in India, and by those clauses my parents too do not belong to this glorious Hindustan, and then not having parents of “Hindustanian” origin I was not good enough and would be treated as a second class citizen, and then there was the left the liberal the highly educated, the clean shaved boy in white, who raised his palm five fingers firmly held together, well he didn’t do much did he? So in answer your judgemental finger that point to me like the spear of death, I point back one of my own and I think u know which one.
That being said i hope you shall understand my dilemma. The problem is yet unanswered what should I do? Well I could go to the present ruling govt or the opposition and enlighten them about the sorry plight of myself and my fellow alcohol consumers. But in all fairness it is quite possible that both the parties will feel that my plight is negligible and will not give a ear to my problem. Then I should have to go to plan B: I will have to take it a step further and go to court, but then again the courts take aeons of time and by the time my case gets heard, i will have turned 25 or even might not exist on this plane of life, besides I will have to find a good Jewish lawyer, not being racist we all know they are the best, and then the three levels of judiciary just seem too boring. As the famous saying goes or rather should go “Necessity is the mother of all political parties!” I think I will have to launch my own political party and have to give it seemingly innocent name and get really organised and a hell a lot of other things that I do not wish to do. And besides I will have to join politics, which means I can only wear white kurta pyjama, or saffron rags in order to be one with the people, no more linen pants and skinny jeans, and then travel cattle class. No the above three options are too boring/slow/pointless.
Getting back to my point how do I get the legal drinking age reduced back to 21, so I can drink in peace again.
Following the trending “revolutionaries” I thought that it would be benevolent to go on a hunger strike until the govt yields to my demand and if I die this corrupt, black-money defending govt should solely held responsible. But then again I don’t like staying hungry and well what is the big deal if one 21 year old decides to go hungry, there are hundreds of Indians in villages around the nation who are starving to death, including the farmers who feed us. If I die I would be only be one less hungry mouth to feed. Besides if I go hungry, and by chance gather some followers, I fear the police will be called into “lathi-charge” and tear gas me and my followers, that too at 1am, in the dead of the night, no I cannot let what happen at “Jallianwala Bagh” happen again, I cannot let this fascist govt enforce a second emergency and cull our right of rebellion. No what I need is a spectacle that will make “jantar mantar” and “ramlila” seem like child’s play. Anna- Baba hunger tactics are mere “tamashas” mere “nataks”, not fit for the cause I am taking up, no I will have to do more. My strike will be the epic gong that will awaken India to a new tomorrow, a dawn of freedom, freedom from the illusion of democracy and give back the rights to the people, so we may live in peace harmony and unity. I shall hold a gun to my head and give the government no more than 3 hours to change the law and also reduce the price on liquor, and also abolish the tax on alcoholic products, failing to do so, the govt will have forced me to end my life, and they should be solely held responsible for the gruesome murder of a peace loving “satyagrahi”.
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Rumination- Reflection
Well I might not have as many followers as Ramdev Baba or Anna Baba, but I too can be the face of “civil society” after all I am one of the “Aam Aadmi” that the government claims to serve. If the Baba’s demand for anticorruption and anti black money and Anna’s demand for Lokpal are valid and constitutional, my anti-anti-consumption law should also be taken up.
Is this where these so called revolutionaries are taking our country, did we not learn that India is the world’s largest democracy. What happened to it, do we not have a system, did we not elect the representatives who are in power, if they do not serve us then we shall not elect them again, if certain people believe that the nation shall benefit from their rule should they not contest in the elections and form their govt, but why don’t they do so?
Secondly how does one lay claim to be the voice of the people on what grounds do people come to lead civil society, who chose them as our representatives? I do not remember being asked whether i’d like to be represented by a saffron clad god man who believes that condoms are a ploy of the west to make India impotent or views homosexuality is a disease.
Unfortunately the Lokpal bill seemed like a great idea to me and I instantly latched on to it, in retrospect I feel I did not do the right thing, do we need a Lokpal bill yes we do, was going on a hunger strike the right thing to do? no it was not, Anna’s intentions are good, his ends are good, but the means to attain those ends is questionable. The Baba Ramdev fiasco has unearthed this truth apart from providing us with a lot of embarrassment and entertainment.
I started out with an absurd notion one that I have often joked about with friends and family yet it seems possible, tomorrow any lunatic can take to the streets and to put it bluntly screw with the govt.
This has led me take up the old debate on ends and means- Do the ends justify the means? If social activist like Kiran Bedi, for whom I have the utmost respect, support this farce. I wonder then if she would support a full scale attack on Pakistan and decimate it to the ground, and destroy it because a few terrorist have hidden on that side of the border? I think we have a process to address our grievances and taking to the street with hunger protest is not the right way, what if tomorrow a group of people threaten to swallow cyanide until their demands are met, will it be seen as a mass suicide or will they be seen as revolutionaries giving their life for a cause, will we make martyrs of them and glorify their names?. Is this how we should behave? If that be the case then I think Hitler should be applauded as Germanys national hero, if not for America, he would surely have won the 2nd world war, and Germany would be a superpower as he promised, so what if 5,709,329 Jews were exterminated?
As a citizen of the world’s largest democracy, I do not believe that we should give into these Machiavellian politicos, we have a system of democracy, and we do not need “revolutionaries” who believe or want us to believe that they represent the “civil society” “common man” “Aam admi”. It they wish to run the government then let them form a political party and let the people decide.
That being said I do not condone the actions of the current government, it was wrong, to have evicted Baba Ramdev in such a manner, if there is a reason why such a thing has happened, as a citizen I want my government to make it clear. Secondly the Opposition has lost its standing and as Suhel Seth has said they have out sourced their function to Anna and Baba, and if they claim to have taken up these causes before and the ruling party ignored and ridiculed them then they should have taken a stronger more firm stand, failing to do so they have failed to serve the citizens of this nation.
In conclusion I feel ashamed of my government and society as well including myself, because it is we who let this happen, let’s not point fingers, it is our fault this has happened. Black money exist not because the government has not done anything about it, but because we stashed it away, the government is corrupt because we elected corrupt officials, remember not only is the officer who accepts the bribe corrupt but the one who gives it is equally corrupt. Let’s take responsibility for our short comings and start doing something about it.
