It was very interesting to watch the protest of Anna Hazare last month and slowly dwindling media footage with every passing week.
As it was interesting to watch “No one killed Jessica”.
As interesting it is to wait for the next movie by Martin Scorsese.
We live in such interesting time.
Do you think Anna Hazare who started the protest and the Anna Hazare who is a celebrity are the same people?
Do you think anything when touched with filth can remain pure anymore?
Does having a thought involuntarily change us in any way? Or an action done consciously stronger?
What makes more sense forced action or self-discipline?
I won’t take bribe.
I won’t give bribe.
If you have seen “A bridge over River Kwai” you will remember the protagonist who falls in love with his own creation losing every other reality in its relation.
Can we break a system we have made with our own loving blooded hands?
Are habits so easy to forget?
Equality is a myth. Not a myth it is a joke.
We should change the system. They should not take the bride. They should not do this, they should not do that.
Who the fuck is this “they”?
Ah, they is not I, they is them, someone else, some faceless, nameless person, I don’t know, haven’t seen, haven’t heard.
It is not me.
It is not my father.
It is not my uncle.
It is not my friend.
It is not my neighbor.
It is someone else.
Someone I don’t know.
But someone I hate.
Someone who is fucking it up for all of us. And specially for me.
And I am with you Anna Hazare.
But sorry, I will not stand in the queue for a rail ticket but pay the agent to get me a ticket in black. Come on that’s a legitimate business.
Sorry, I cannot stand in this queue, I will call up my influential uncle and get ahead of the line filled with these stinking sweating animals. You don’t think they are humans?
I don’t pay bribe but I just asked if he will do my work for money.
But I am with you Anna Hazare.
I remember now, I was supposed to fuck the system by participating in not buying anything strike day.
We must thank Anna Hazare for letting all of us know, without him we would have never heard of such noble thoughts and acceptable behavior. If it wasn’t for him how would we know-
Don’t take bribe
Don’t give bribe
System is rotten
Rich rule the roost
Honesty is a good policy
Be good.
Don’t steal.
Violence against weak is a crime.
Those school years, stories about great souls were just stories and for exams to be passed. Zillion Hindi movies are just entertainment and Mahatama Gandhi is dead. Remember he was shot, assassinated.
Oops did I just call Anna Hazare entertainment? A TV show? As unreal as superfluous as those never ending TV shows.
I cannot.
How dare I?
Didn’t I see the government capitulate and talk to him?
Isn’t the Lokpal Bill being considered and soon would be implemented?
I did, I know, but then there is this niggling, bothering little voice irritatingly telling me that every office already has these small lines that give complaint numbers in case of bribes.
Don’t remember anyone using it.
Except for some brave souls.
Souls without crowds behind them but individuals standing up to their morals and values.
I always suspected that people are idiots but I didn’t know that they were morons of such extent.
There are two interesting concepts self-affirmation and self-delusion.
In self-affirmation I clap very hard when I hear someone saying things which I believe in. So a part of the crowd that clapped and chanted probably was already non-corrupt.
End result – nothing changes.
Self-delusion is when I refuse to acknowledge my complicity in an action. I still clap hard as I group myself with self-affirmation group.
End result – nothing changes.
I have the utmost respect for the self-affirmation group, they need no Anna Hazare for they have themselves to fight their battles.
The other group, that’s majority who participate yet don’t know will ensure nothing changes.
But what about the corrupt you ask.
There is no one who is corrupt.
When I say no one I mean no one.
Individual can never be corrupt.
Individual can never create corruption, even if he desires.
It is a collaborative exercise.
Groups are corrupt.
And beauty of group is that it is nameless.
It is them.
It is they.
Not I.
Never I.
To tell you the truth, I don’t give a fuck about Anna Hazare and I don’t give a fuck about me, He is good and so am I.
I give a fuck when I am with you because we are assholes.
Change will happen when the belief changes from “they are corrupt” to “we are corrupt” and “We will not be”.
That day you will be honest.
I will be honest.
And we will be honest.
Now the closure, I will tell you a secret: That day will never come.
Truefictitioustruth 
i wonder why no one commented on this piece.
i know why i didn’t. because i still don’t know where i stand.
question: is there corruption in india?
answer: yes?
question: is corruption the man reason behind all of india’s ills?
answer: i am not so sure.
let me put it this way. i think the main reason for most of india’s ills is not the fact that our politicians and bureaucrats are corrupt. it is because they don’t care to perform. and we don’t care if they don’t.
we do not care when the benefits of welfare schemes don’t reach the millions of underprivileged in this country.
we do not care when even in the era of plenty (economic superpower and what not) people are dying of hunger.
we do not care that little kids are being forced to work for their living rather than go to school.
we do not care that in thousands of indian village schools the teachers come only to pick up their salaries.
but we care, yes, when a cop demands rs. 100 when we jump a red light.
when we have to shell out a few crisp currency notes for a gas connection.
other countries also have corrupt politicians. japan, for instance. but performance is demanded from them. there is enough money in the country for the politicians to line their pockets and still have enough left over to make a change for the better.
sharad pawar as an agriculture minister had mentioned recently that he is too old or too busy to look after his ministry.
we didn’t care.
that i think is the bigger problem.
not corruption. but the lack of any semblance of performance.
now which brings us to the next question.
question: even if i agree that corruption is the root of all evil, will the lokpal bill bring an end to it?
answer: NO (note the caps)
power corrupts. we have enough evidence of that. absolute power corrupts absolutely.
i am not saying that the current lokpals (when and if it is instituted) will be corrupt.
what i mean is that any system, especially one which cannot be checked is open to perversion.
the prime minister answers to the parliament.
the parliament answers to the people. (at least in theory.)
who will the lokpal answer to?
and now the next question?
question: is anna hazare’s protest a revolution.
answer: crap.
revolution demands sacrifice. it demands the shedding of blood, or at least the willingness to shed blood. one’s own or someone else’s.
though i do not doubt anna hazare. or arvind kejrival. or the hundreds (maybe a thousand) who actually have sacrificed to this cause.
i doubt the intentions of the millions who claim to be part of this revolution.
pressing a like button on a facebook page doesn’t make you a revolutionary.
forwarding an sms to everyone on your contact list doesn’t make you a patriot.
all of you who are reading this in the cool comfort of an air conditioner are like me. superficial selfish egoistical what not. you can never be the fodder for a revolution.
you are too damp. your spirit too soggy. it will never catch on the flames of passion, the fires of change.
you are destined to be a damp squib in the footnote of history.
agreed.
As Ghalib well said about such things-
Bazzecha-e-itfal hai duniya mere age
hoota hai shabo roz tamasha mere age
Anna Hazare protest for the majority was a show.
As I said change lies within and before you seek answers, the conscience has to ask itself the questions you raised.
well said, John Doe. I wish I could have said my thoughts as well. Cheers
Wow