India has managed to complete 61 years of its independence as a free Republic. Today is the Independence day. We also celebrate a Republic day on 26th January. As a child I was quite confused. Both appeared to be the same for me. It took quite some time and growing up till I understood the difference. Nevertheless, I have now come to believe in the existence of the “SOMEHOW” syndrome in the life of our nation and our people. What this syndrome is? Please allow me to elaborate.
We have somehow managed to remain a free republic tottering ahead like a drunken man. We have always walked on a loose rope (not even a tight rope!) and managed to survive the attacks of China and Pakistan. We have somehow managed to feed our people (there is always this danger lurking in our minds that there may not be enough food for tomorrow). We have somehow managed to remain “secular” (whatever that means because its interpretations have become too muddled). We somehow manage to get our children admitted to schools because there are never enough schools and enough seats. We somehow manage to give higher education to our grown up kids because there are not many good universities left (we have detroyed most of them). We somehow manage to board the train and get our reserved seats because there is always this danger that someone may have occupied your reserved bearth (even if you are travelling in the upper class). We somehow manage to cross the roads because there is always someone ready to run over you by breaking every rule in the book(is there a rule book for Indian drivers? I have not seen one in India). We somehow manage to board the city bus (I call it loading and not boarding) running after it and managing to push others behind. We somehow manage to keep our homes and shops clean because there is nowhere to deposit the garbage and we do it in the middle of the road. When attending a dinner or a party, we somehow manage to get the food because others are pushing ahead else the food may finish (even if they know that there is more than enough to feed double the numbers). We somehow manage to play our “national” game called Cricket (is it a game or a commercial) and win occasionally for it is more important to be seen in the right place with the right “celebrity” girl than be preparing for the next day’s game. We somehow manage to send our teams to international events like Olympics because there is so much fighting and politics before teams can leave. We have political parties which somehow manage to keep a farcical game of democracy by distorting every possible rule. We have parties with red flags whose ideology does not believe in democracy and yet somehow find new ways of contesting (confiscating) elections where it looks like a democracy (but is actually quite close to dictatorship). Then we have parties on the other extreme which have a free for all (because this is what a democracy should be like) yet somehow manage to make a show of democracy.
Our courts (have you been to one ever. if yes, you will never want to be there again. those lawyers ensure that there is utmost chaos so that you pay up even to find the right court-room) somehow manage to dispense justice after decades of delays and turned up decisions. Our police stations (i do not blame the police persons for being what they are. After being in such ultra-low-low surroundings and conditions, they do turn into hardened priminals. Keep wondering what this new word is. It will be in the English dictionaries in a couple of years) somehow appear to manage the happenings (mostly criminal). They also somehow manage to protect the so-called politicians (actually most of them are croliticians, a new word again). Somehow we manage to appear to be heading towards a caste-does-not-matter society whereas we are actually becoming caste-is-what-matters society.
