My India...My Lokpal!

Blogging at such a short interval of time. Does not happen regularly.Especially, not when I have a post grad examination date staring right at my face! But what I want to say today needs to be said. Not because I have lots of people reading what I write,but, because this currently is my way to show support to a cause which I believe in.
A million articles, countless blogs, inumerous tweets, extensive media coverage both in print and television have covered, telecast, supported and hailed Anna Hazare and his movement. I have nothing new to say. I do not want to say anything new. I want tot reinforce and strengthen this movement. We are a country full of educated people (at least lots of us are), a country overflowing with entrepreneurs, top-notch engineers, talented people from all walks of life. But about 200 years ago we were a country which did not have enough people who were qualified to have fancy salaries and  THE perks. But, back then we had a handful of leaders who told the nation what was going wrong. What exactly about the British oppression was harming the Indian identity, what was happening to 3000 years of historic greatness and what was happening to Indians and their quality of life. And, we had people who had enough moral fibre and courage in them to stand up to what they believed in. We had people who knew what was right and what was wrong. We had people who did not believe in the grey regions as politics did not concern them. All they were worried about was getting salt and the rest of their daily requirements at prices which were affordable. All they were worried about was to make a living without having to pay more than half of what they made to the government. They were concerned about able to live a life where nobody told them what to do. They were not people who thought a lot before doing the right thing. They were not like us, who, are worried about what might be the consequence of doing the right thing. They were not silently supporting the British.
But, we are doing just that. We keep quiet and support our 'extremely wonderful to people..:p' government. Why wont we? After all we voted for them. Now, please do not pretend that we did not know we were electing a corrupt government. We did.
Then again, what will a nation do when the choice is between the lesser of the corrupts?
Almost 100 years of constant struggle to get Freedom from foreigners and then the process of building the world's 'largest' democracy began! And then all hell broke lose. 10 years of free India and the very foundations on which a great republic was to be built began withering and shaking. And the saga contnues. On the occasion of 64th anniversary of independence I want to report the 'state' of my country to our first prime minister:

Dear Pandit. Jawaharlal Nehru,
Thanks a ton,for successfully beginning the 'let's take India down with all our might' Andolan. You started it and we followed you without too much of opposition. Your rich legacy was carried on by every man/woman who came to power after you. And your movement has spread into every ration shop, RTO, municipality, school, colleges etc. So do not worry. Your vision for India has come true. We are finally the world' 'largest-corrupt' state! All the roads in India exactly look like the way you thought they should be, the quality of every Indian's life is amazing (very 1960's)..after all we are still following what you and the rest of your team mates have given us in the name of constitution, All schools function like you dreamed they would..in the most primitive fashion, we still have the largest railways with the same technology you had in your times. See, its perfect. Congratulations!!
Okie..I exaggerated a little. There has been development, there has been a lot of improvement. But I would love to point this out to you: None of it with your help. People..every single Indian  (here I am excluding all your people-corrupt-ians) has worked so hard to change India from being a theme park of sorts to a functioning state.
News update: Have you heard? There is a new man on whom the entire nation's attention is currently focused. His name is Anna Hazare. And this man who is doing a little good to the nation is being painted as the 'villain and a anti-peace element' by your successors( literally!). I want to tell you this, so that everybody from your generation to mine can get the point loud and clear: 1.2 billion of us are backing him. We do not care what kind of a person he is. His mission to bring down corruption is all we are concerned with. It is our chance to undo all that you twisted, greedy, ruthless and highly SHAMELESS politicians have done to bring our country down.
So, for once let us handle our country. Let us make our conditions of living a little better. Let us have a government and a system which we would want to trust. For once keep your big fat ego aside and work for the betterment of the nation. For once, let us try and get rid of the corruption-jinx. DO NOT thwart our efforts and further lower your dignity. Please.
Give my best to the rest of your corrupt chums

Cheers
A hopeful to the point of being stupid Indian.


Ps: Stupid because: Pragmatism is something I have given up on currently!! It is a cause...1 reason to support it ..100 reasons not to do so.

@The rest of you who are reading this:  You know what to do :-) Do it!! For once..do it!! The Lokpal bill can not and should not be another vegetable bill of our democracy!! Let us not let this happen.

Food: The best way to bond!

Staying away from home comes with it's share of distressing times and days. But then, there are days when you know that, you would never trade this extra amount of freedom for anything in this world. And, when you are living with people you have never known before it becomes a whole different thing. The experience of living with people for days at a stretch sort of makes them your extended family and you realize that cooking becomes an event which starts bonding the inmates of the house.
When I first started cooking food with my roomies, it was a big fat deal! Big because, the food cooked was often 'big' on experimental value and fat because, we all belong to the classical India 'Khathe-peethe' khandans and our sizes kind of stand testimony to that fact! It all began with buying apples from random grocery stores and grew into actually cooking elaborate 3 to 4 course meal. 'Maggie-noodles..3 minute mein tayar' was the first and the most favourite option for us. And when our Maggie stocks started dwindling, we started looking at food which 'mom-usually-cooked-back- home'. A few days into the community cooking habit and all our conversations started revolving around the next meal..or the next Indian dinner night. So much so that, even our Facebook updates looked like: "cooked palak paneer today for the first time..tastes awesome". And the joy of cooking your first edible meal is incomparable to any other achievement, no matter how huge. The ear to ear smile which reflects the satisfaction of  being able to put the ingredients in the right proportions to make it humanly agreeable is one of the best smiles I have ever witnessed.
After getting used to the culinary duties and throwing lavish parties which involved 'food' as the 'main' attraction, cooking became more like a daily chore. Finally, budgeting our food expenses( becos we were cooking,mind you, not eating a lot) also became an integral part of living together. Soon, the conversations which used to start at the vegetable chopping table began to last till the last round of drinks were available in our old refrigerator. Each one of us regale the rest with childhood stories to anecdotes from the 'just- over' college life. Our ability to talk to each other for hours now has gone beyond the kitchen and well into our rooms, where, all of us come together almost at every dinner time (Note: It can be very painful for five people when they get crammed into one small kitchen ).
I cant think of anything else which could have brought 5 mad, strikingly different and compulsorily disagreeing strangers together in such a short span of time.  Now, we plan to set up a restaurant if we do not finish our Master course on time :P. However, I hope it does not come down to that. :-)
So happy cooking, feeding and bonding..good times eh? :-)