Random Thoughts

7th July, 2000- The day I landed in Bombay.  Santacruz’ Airport – 1000hrs IST - The infamous monsoons of Bombay had already set in. We collected our luggage and hopped into a taxi for our destination-‘Andheri’. The first thing to hit me, once I was out of the airport, was a stench. It was a smell unlike any other, an unremitting odor that grows from weak to strong and vice-versa but never ceases, a peculiar reek, a stink atypical of the city. I was to realize it much later that it was the smell of the sea,  of the fish left out to dry in the open,  of the waste of 10 million people,  and of rats that far outnumbered the population. I didn’t want to come to Bombay but my Dad’s transfer forced us (me, my sister and my mom) to make a shift. So here I was- ‘A Reluctant Citizen’ of the Juggernaut called Bombay .   The cab glided through the broad roads and flyovers in the relentless rains. I stared out of the window at the other cabs and auto-rickshaws whizzing past. I could see the dis

I spend this , rather gorgeous, Saturday evening sitting on my laptop and trying to figure out and apprehend the weird and peculiar ways in which the (so called) Indian Democracy functions. To begin with let me quote those famous words of Wintson Churchill, which he said during the process of transfer of power to India; “Power will go into the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. Not a bottle of water nor a loaf of bread shall escape taxation. Only air will be free and the blood of these hungry millions will be on the head of Mr.Atlee. These are men of straw whom no trace will be found after a few years.”  It has been more than fifty years since India won its Independence, but every single word of Mr. Churchill’s prediction seems to have turned into reality. Indian Democracy: Is it real or is it 'sham'? The biggest democracy or the biggest hoax?? I believe the latter and I have my reasons for saying so... The concepts like universal franchise, parliament, judi