At The Ramlila Maidan

I am at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. There are lakhs of people. The atmosphere is charged. What excitement! What support! School and college students, Mumbai dabbawaalaas, Cine actors, traders and businessmen, advocates, doctors, senior citizen groups, you name them and they are there. There were people in fancy dress, people holding comic posters , music and dance. It was somewhat like Goa during Carnival. Only booze was missing. I got carried away. I shouted all the slogans. Even Bharat maata ki jai and Vande mataram - at the cost of inviting Imam Bukhari’s wrath and having a ‘Fatwa’ on my head. I had to display my support to Anna. But I was not sure what we were doing there. So I asked someone who had taken a break and was enjoying his free lunch.

He looked at me as if I was the ‘C’ in corruption. “We are doing something to kill the demon called corruption. Squash corruption into dust. It should not raise its head once again.”

“Which corruption?”

“Don’t you know corruption? Where do you live? Mars? Haven’t you heard of Kalmadi? Raja? Kanimozi? Hundreds and thousands of crores of rupees. Disgusting.”

“How?”

“By forcing the government to manufacture the ‘ Brahmaastra ‘ against corruption, the Jan Lokpal bill. It will kill corruption completely”

“But are you sure that you really intend eradicating corruption?”

“What do you mean? Why will we be here otherwise? We are fed up with corruption and we will surely eliminate it under Anna’s leadership “

“All types of corruption? At all levels?”

“Yes Yes and Yes”

I could feel all ‘Y’s capital, the way he said it. I should have understood the mood, enjoyed the lunch and carnival for some more time, and returned home after playing my part. But the cynic in me was fidgeting. So, I asked again.

“We are here to remove all corruption from our country. Rright? Now Let us assume that you have to get a residence certificate from the tehsildar. You have almost all the documents like your ration card, your father’s birth certificate, grand father’s death certificate, your school leaving certificate etc etc but you still have one or two missing without which you are not entitled to get your certificate. Do you want the clerk to insist that you produce them or accept a hundred or two as a token of good will and quietly type out the certificate?”

He looked at me piercingly. I continued at the cost of my head getting an entry and exit wound.

“With lot of difficulty you have purchased a small piece of land and intend starting construction of your dream house. Your plan is ready and is sent for approval. The municipal engineer has raised one hundred and twenty three objections. Would you rather erase the plan and comeback with one which sticks to rules than pay a few thousands of convenience fee to make the engineer close his eyes while he signs on your plan?”

“Hey, don’t spoil the mood by bringing up irrelevant topics when we are preparing for a long and tough fight with the government”

But I was in my pestering mood and so I continued without hearing the warning. “ You are a busy businessman and cannot keep track of all the business transactions. Some of the transactions escape your attention when you send your files to the sales tax or income tax or some other tax. But the official there somehow smells them out and pesters you for an explanation. Would you rather pay a hefty penalty than slipping a packet of grease to lubricate the palms of the official to make the file slip off?”

“Who let this fellow in here? Creating a nuisance when we are in serious fight with corruption. Kick him out of the grounds”

I was being kicked and pushed and I was trying my best to hold on to the Ramlila grounds. I was losing and I woke up.

“Why can’t you sleep on your side of the bed. You roll around like a child. Where am I expected to sleep” my wife managed to push me aside and regain her part of the bed.