James Mohandas Jesudasan.
S/O Cherian Thomas Mohandas Jesudasan ( Bsc.)
Sr. Chief of Railway Control Room,
Railway Divisional Office,
Southern Railway
House 1/289, Hemambika
Nagar,
Railway Colony,
Olavakkod. Palakkad.
Pin Code : 678001.
Mohan was drunk. He had just split with his friends after a
round that he had sponsored. After a tea round at Skylab. And some calming down. And some cigarettes.
They had Old Monk rum, first, then they found it
wasn’t enough and then went in for a round of Peter Scot, finally for a choice
between Kalyani Beer , Khajuraho , Haywards 5000 and KO. And when they found
that even that had not settled their appetite they then settled down with
Godamba outside the bar.
Until by about 11.40pm. Finally they split. Each moving on their own
Mohan, despite the alcohol intake, was managing it well.
Only people coming very close would have found he was piss drunk. He wasn’t yet
measuring the street. Horizontally. He could walk straight, but his mind was -
Fucked.
He was thinking and cursing the apathetic Indian and their
complete lack of civic sense. Mohan cursed loud – Fucking country, had No real
Citizens. All were nomads. No one cared.
No one.
He was thinking about the incident of drunken mob fury in
front of Skylab, this evening.
And suddenly a whole lot of past emotional wounds were
spurting venom. Especially when he analysed the necessity of becoming Urban and
Civilised and the complete lack of such an idea in India.
Then.
He knew it better ‘coz he himself had a circle who were all
educated, aspiring, coming from “decent” family background { a word most
commonly used in India to suggest a very docile, submissive, middle class
family} .
But there was a problem. A huge problem.
Almost all of them were people who hardly knew any sense of
the word ‘Urbanism.
Mohan knew of a friend who was working in the Dept. of Urban
Planning with absolutely no knowledge of anything called ‘Urban Planning or
Aesthetics or Architecture or History or even anything about basic ‘Amenities’
and this friend of his has confessed even his super superior IAS officer, to
whom he reported, who was the head of the Dept. of Urban Planning, knew any
such thing.
Mohan, crunched his teeth. As he headed towards his home.
Walking alone.
Arvind, who usually accompanied him during these walk back,
had left today with some other friends.
Mohan’s mind
continued its voicing its frustration.
For that matter, no One in India understood Democracy.
No one really had any understanding of the word ‘Democracy’,
‘Fundamental rights’ and so on – in fact
the failure of India or even most Indian cities, either Politically or in terms
of the theory of ‘Self Governance’ – innate and critical for all Democracies to
succeed - to adapt and evolve their limitations, their plundering or their
corruption is all a fact with roots in India’s unshapely population ‘exodus’
from a rural hopelessness to a bigger urban hopelessness. The official Village
Officer or a Town planner or a Water Works Department Inspector or a Inspector
general of Police or a Constable or even an Officer of the Indian Railways or
the local MLA / MP – they all hailed from a deep rural mindset.
India of the
seventies and eighties was imploding with everything inhuman, ‘people’ they
came cheap, generated virtually in millions ( by the second ) by a juggernaut
of sexually super prolific , almost uncontrollably prolific, moronic men and
women who were cloning out equally brainless babies by the millions, the irony
of the situation was that the socially well to do were producing less children
and it was the utterly poor ‘jobless, idle class’ who were producing
“off-Springs” by the millions, it was normal for a poor jobless man to have no
fewer than 6-8 children or more, and almost all the children would start some
manual labour or the other by the time they were 5 or 6 years old , girl
children were murdered even if they could contribute to the family earning,
only since they would have to be married off by the time they were 10-12 ( so
they would start benefitting a family other than the family were they born ?) .
The difference between a street dog producing puppies by the
dozen and a penniless peasant labourer who hardly had food and shelter for his
own self also producing in equal numbers might have appalled anyone with even
basic intellect , but not an Indian, they just went on and on and on –
producing babies pushing India’s population below poverty to alarming levels.
But Indians didn’t seem perturbed, the idle class went about
producing babies , the middle class went about working, the rich were
corrupting, leaving the Political class gleefully exploiting everything.
Poverty had already become a hugely useful tool for self
sustenance in the hands of politicians , who loved it - when the poor remained
poor, the illiterate remained illiterate, the docile remained docile and the
bonded labour – a term unique to India . Refers to labourers contracted to a
landlord as their slaves – remained bonded , severely.
But the irony was none of them – be it the poor, the illiterate
or the slaves - ever realised they were bonded, or they were poor and so a
Democracy should address their plight and help them lead better lives , the
illiterate never knew that they had to become literate , all of them just
thought that that’s the way it was supposed to be, no bonded labourer in India
ever thinks he has a right for a better life – with no home, no food, no health
care, no transport, no electricity, no schools, no roads, no water, no cloths,
nothing – the biggest problem of the Indian poor, was they were poor in the
head too. Nobody cared, nobody knew what it meant to manage a democracy.
Democracy was just a tool in the hands of a corrupt ruling
class to amass wealth, unprecedented wealth.
Accountability and standing up for rights, dreaming and
aspiring for a better life was more or less unheard of in the country, most
just accepted what was given or what was available, even the rich were as
fatalistic as the poor or the middle class – it was a que sera sera, sera feeling
all around - the poor living in the vast rural hinterland areas of the country
were the worst for their lack of struggle, intellectual struggle. An
existential crisis eluded India.
The middle class, essentially rural migrants, were
effectively made subservient to everything, since ‘working’ was equivalent to
‘loyalty’ which was equivalent to being ‘fortunate’, so one was expcted to be
subservient to the Government or one’s employer which was in turn appreciated
as a form equivalent to patriotism.
Brahminism , as opposed to Hinduism, was probably to be
blamed to a certain extent, while land reforms brought in these ‘upper class
brahmins’ by wagon loads looking for ‘secure’ Government jobs, these ritualistic
pseudo vedics also brought in a society that built a ‘aura’ of a guru status
for all ‘employers or yajamans’ and a status of ‘eternal shishyas, naukars’ for all
employees.
Popular movies on those lines only furthered the idea.
The whole thing smacked of a pseudo socialism born out of a
very naïve and imbecile political intellect – driven by thinkers who cared
nothing for the apparent empirical evidence and preferred grandiose, Quixotic,
social schemes which soon deprived a country, already deprived severely, of
whatever was left in its economy.
Conditions extremely ripe for Naxalism and Feudalism to
exploit, thrive and eventually crush and trifle the Indian dream.
Naxalism, a political ‘ism’ unique to India - was a relatively
new political dragon with revolutionary ambitions that hid behind the romance of
upturning India’s class struggle on its head - but the essential problem with Naxalism
was it failed to recognise one fact, it took the success of Mao in China and
the perceived power, influence and success of the Marxist Leninist ideology
that propelled United Russia to heady heights - in the their eyes and mind- as
almost the de facto proof for their own progress and inevitable success –
success was taken for granted by the Naxalites. They were so naïve, they
thought a few guns and a few armed assaults once a while alone would get them
the critical mass to rule India.
What most Commies , esp. those involved in the Naxal
movement failed to comprehend was that these countries that ‘they’ worshipped were
not just built by the likes of Mao, Lenin or Stalin through, the now famous ( or
infamous whichever way you look at it ) Red March or the Bolshevik revolution, they
were blind to the fact that both China and Russia had a huge number of ‘other’
factors going in favor of these Despots that worked in their favour ( not the least
being the fact that they were anti Monarchy first, not anti social ) and the
fact that these countries already had a large working class that was already urban
built on the vanguard of Two wars, the
rural labour class in both China and Russia really had very negligible role in
any of these so called uprisings, in fact it may be safe to say that no
uprising in world history could have ever occurred ‘purely’ lead by a rural
populace, more so if they were illiterate and subject to feudal subjugation ) but
that was lost on India’s Naxal clan – so they, the early Naxal movement
leaders, fell neatly into the hands of the more powerful political class to
exploit them according to their own needs, leaving them with just small pockets
of influence.
Feudalism re-emerged with a vengeance, almost every
political leader of any substance belonged to one or the other feudal lobby.
Probably one of the most unfortunate events for India, because feudalism was
almost crushed by a resurgent and fiercely intellectual society that had
emerged at the dawn of the century, that had ruthlessly changed many an
archaic, incredibly shocking aspects India’s caste and religious bigotry.
In just 4
decades the country's political system had more or less turned idiotic, falling
backwards at a rate of no return, even the most optimistic had no words left to
find hope and progress. Governance and bureaucracy had fallen into the clutches
of fat, ugly, rich, hypocritical and feudalistic ruling class who found
great comfort in hiding behind insipid economic thought that bordered on the
pantomime, corruption was at all time high, the political class in fact
were having a dream run , since they had a near absolute access to everything -
Power, luxury, money and unimaginable control on the masses with negligible
accountability.
The country in fact was still emerging from the shadows of
an emergency - by the eighties it was more or less clear that the Indian
democracy had serious flaws - the political class had become a vicious ,
corrupt juggernaut - with no stops, no questions. Like the dogs, bitches and
pigs of Mettuguda – India and Indians had plunged themselves to openly defecate
around Parliament and then war over who would get to eat the shit.
Clans ruled,
dynasties re-emerged, governance learnt the art to stifle life, stifle voices.
Life at the bottom of the well was hell.
In fact it is
very safe to say that most Indians really do not understand the essence of
Democracy. In fact something in the Indian psyche is dead, especially
that side that has to stand up and assert for rights, the more one experiences
the typical Indian psyche the more you'll find a docile, obedient, insecure and
ever fearing slave - every Indian is a born slave, the best slave in the world.
Reasons for
such a 'psychological death' isn't far to find - one they are a product of
centuries of subjugation, that continues till date, Indians have been never
known to be assertive in their culture its a culture that promotes
subservience, complete and total and they take pride on it, Democracy was
thrust upon India by a few well meaning leaders but then the country never had
the likes of Benjamin Franklin or a Patel who survived to actually
teach and educate the Indians certain fundamentals of democracy you'll
find them eking out their living without a whimper under virtually any type of
governance - be it fascists, dictatorial, fundamentalist, feudalistic,
Our noble, non
violent country of great thinkers and reformists that the citizens had dreamed
off had all but been packed and thrown into a ugly, filthy douche bag. Even
normal life was like a rat rummaging through the aftermath of a medieval human
massacre. Many a haloed leader who had fought hard to get the country its
freedom had been turned into a mere rotting carcass either dead or killed or
have evolved into either cynical despots or sycophants desperate to gain
preferential public gains at any cost”.
The situation
was compounded by a weak Press, anaemic judiciary, spineless police
and a voting class manufactured by the patronage of the political class using
money, liquor, sex, rape and murder - as their fuel that they used to push
their draconian voting machine to chase and catch hold of poor, rural,
illiterate Indians who had no idea about the fundamentals of democracy.
Mohan’s internal voice kept the train of thoughts going.
For an Indian caste,
feudalism and poverty had become manipulative for ones exploitation – both ways
- the people belonging to a clas or caste or religion thought they could
exploit the government, those governing in turn knew they could throw sops and
bones and buy power.
Mohan was almost near his door . His mind too arrived at a partial
conclusion.
The educated Urban Indian was probably the greatest “betrayer”
of India's fledgling democracy, many simply fled to enjoy the comforts of
Dubai, America or Europe, those who could not bail out of the country were
insecure, cowardly and spineless hiding behind their so called despise for
politics to remain inactive and dumbed out.
Permitting, Allowing
the creation one of the world's most wretched political class ever known
to have entered politics, permitting and allowing ‘them’ to usurp power and
rule like insipids- insipidus.
Until one day they, the insipid class knew, it was too late.
They had let the big , bad, fat, rodents out. Free.
And they were eating and chewing the country out with no
remorse what so ever.
Mohan rang the bell.
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