There is no support better than the support of the people.
They support you with all their might if you stand for them and stand with
them. That also does not mean that the support could often be translated into
electoral success. People may understand your worth, embrace your ability to
work with them and for them, but at the same time they may even send you
messages saying that you are someone who should be staying out of the power
that corrupts. They may fail you in the electoral arena but they will love you
and follow you. One day, when they decide that it is time for you to take up
the reigns of the governance they will let you do it. People judge and when
they judge they judge absolutely. That does not mean that their judgment should
be right always. When their judgment goes wrong, they themselves pay for it
with their lives, if not for ever but at least for five years.
When you read this, you may think that I am anticipating an electoral
defeat of the AAP, a political platform that I have chosen to the serve the
people or to articulate the issues of the people. I know that I am not that
kind of person who has the ability to handle complicated political issues. But
I understand political issues so long as those are about people and their
problems, not about the legal tangles, technical complications and mazes of
corruption. When you are not corrupt and you have the ability to work with the
people and work for the people, things become much easier. Today morning I went
out with my senior front who I consider as my leader in my village, and started
writing ‘AAP’ large on the walls. There was not a particular intention to
choose this auspicious day to perform this public act of graffiti writing on
the walls. Today is a very special day for the Keralites as they celebrate Onam
today by cleaning homes and lighting the lamps.
(marking the walls in my village)
I am not so keen about lighting the lamps anymore. I like
lit lamps but which I believe that should be lit everyday with the same verve
that people show during the Onam days. Lighting the lamp means dispelling
darkness. It is a symbolic act in the days of electric lights and
illuminations. An ancient way of dispelling darkness has now taken a different
meaning; symbolic and pious. When you light a lamp you light a lamp in the
minds and hearts of the people. It is supposed to remove ignorance. But people
in Kerala generally are immersed in ignorance. The more they light the lamp the
more they go into the deep darkness of ignorance. Onam has become a shopping
spree. People shop every day and they do shop on the Onam days also. People
used to shop during Onam days once upon a time because those were the days when
people gathered enough money to spend and celebrate. In a limited economy it
was the only way to spend or buy new things. Today, people have a lot of money
and they spend as if there is no future.
I have so many reasons to feel aversion towards Onam. First
of all, I have not been celebrating it for the last twenty two years. And after
my school days most of the Onams had bitter memories. During the school days we
had anticipated the Onam days. We could play, feast and celebrate. For ten
days, we did not open our text books. In college, I started understanding the
economics of Onam. It needed a lot of money to celebrate Onam. Anything and
everything had to be tallied with the money that one had to spend. Slowly I
started moving away from it. The places of celebrations where one could enjoy
Onam without spending money were taken over by concrete buildings. The public
places were turned into the carnival of hooliganism. Today, the complexion of
hooliganism has changed considerably. On its place a new Hindu verve has come
in. I hate that. Onam did not have anything to do with Hindus particularly. All
and sundry used to celebrate it here. Now, it has become a celebration of
Hindus.
(Onam lamps)
Decision to go out to paint the walls was largely depended
on the special nature of this day. At home, they said today they were all going
to eat vegetarian food. But I could sense that they were going to make fish.
People have fixed a day for meat also. That is on the third day of Onam. That
is a sort of permissible adjustment. But what about drinking liquor. I was out
to book the walls with my friend. I saw a few very ‘respected’ people in my
village sitting in their cars and drinking liquor in the morning itself. I
asked my friend why they could not drink at their homes. He told me that they
were respecting the day. Ah…that’s it. They can drink inside the cars but they
cannot drink at home. People drink as if there is not tomorrow. We went out to
paint the walls because we thought it was the right day for doing it. WE DID NOT
have anything to do today. Some people thought that we wanted to show our
rebellion. But in fact there was no point in showing our rebellion to anybody.
While they all want to go by the norms of the society, we just want to tell
them politely, our path is different. We are in the same direction but the path
is slightly, for them ‘off the right’ and for us, ‘right there on the track’.
I was cycling down to the party office in the evening. At
the market junction I met a friend of mine. He has been working in some gulf
countries and has come back just now to celebrate Onam. He told me that he was
rushing back home to light the lamp. I said that was okay and we would meet
soon. He asked me where I was going. I told him about my routine visit to the
party office in the evening. He asked me to join for a drinking session once I
am ‘over’ with my party work. I politely declined his invitation. He decided to
dangle some carrots before me saying that he has brought some good ‘Scotch’. I
smiled at him and peddled away. ‘Scotch’ is a catch. Many people would fall for
it. I am not a new convert to the religion of non-drinkers who would preach
from the roof top against the vices of drinking. My reason for declining that
offer was simple and complex at the same time. Whatever scotch it is I am not
tempted by anything in this world. If I want to drink I will definitely drink.
If I don’t want nobody can force me, that simple it is. It is also complex
because I do not understand why people show so much of Hindu fervor in rituals
and once done they rush to hold the bottle? I do not like this hypocrisy and in
multiple levels of perspectives that include religious, ethical, moral and political,
I oppose such breaching of customs.
(a scotch I learned to enjoy)
I really wanted to eat beef today because I wanted to tell
my mother and sister that there is a lot of hypocrisy in saying that Onam days
are vegetarian days and then eating fish covertly, finding flimsy reasons for
making a non-vegetarian dish. I spoke to them of getting some beef or chicken
today. But then they were like Hindu fanatics. They put their foot down and
said that they will not allow ‘non-veg’ at home today. I could not understand
the double standard of my own family members. If they are like this, how the
other people would be. It is a difficult world of funny ethical standards. Hence,
I decided to go and eat beef today at least to tell myself that I was not a
hypocrite. But surprisingly all those shops that sell beef fry and parota were
closed for lighting the lamp. What a pity! But people are very interesting.
Whether they show double standards or not, if they show flimsy ethics or not,
they are very poor and insecure. Hence they rush to judge people. But after
judging, when they are left alone they face their conscience and they feel
ashamed of themselves. So when they see you alone on the road, walk up to you
and say, ‘Brother, we are with you.’ Thank you.
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