Chaar seat chodkar beithna

Bangalore Passport Office. My friend has to meet the officer for passport related work.

He reaches the office very early in the morning, that is well before the office opens, lest to avoid the rush and queue. Outside the gate, the queue had already started forming. He is third in the queue. "Lucky me" He thinks. He can complete the work sooner than expected.

After half an hour of wait, the gate-man opens the gate. The queue moves in a line to the counter where it is actually supposed to form. There are a few chairs placed near the counter so that people can "sit and wait" instead of "stand and wait". The early birds, including my friend, are about to sit on those chairs when the security officer arrives and sternly says "Chaar seat chodkar beithna", which means "Sit after leaving the 1st four seats".

My friend is obviously puzzled. Why leave the 1st four seats? He thinks about it for a while and then choose to ignore the incident. As the wait continues, he sees a lady alight from a Benz. Clad in an expensive sari and layered in makeup, she walks slowly towards the start of the queue. The security personnel welcomes her with a broad smile and politely asks her to sit it the first chair of the queue – well ahead of those who have been waiting.

"Corruption starts at the lower most rug" My friend thought.

This is also India...

A train journey from Bangalore to Hospet. Time:... around 7 in the morning. In another 1 hour Hospet will be at sight.

A guy - with orange T-shirt - whose berth is next-to-next of mine, is packing in anticipation of alighting soon. He appeared to be affluent. From the iPod, laptop and other electronic gadgets he was using, he appeared to be working for an MNC in Bangalore.

As he was packing, he takes one of the the white bed-sheets, which the Indian Railways offer to its passengers, brings it to his nose, and blows heavily onto it!!! I'm obviously stunned! Can anyone do such a crass act!? Never in my imagination I thought one could! I couldn't believe what I saw! How can a so-called educated person do that?!

I'm yet to believe my eyes when he lifts the next white bed-sheet and blows his nose onto that one too...!! “Bastard” I mumbled. He then, as if nothing happened, merrily packs his personal bed-sheet into his bag! Somewhere in the mid, he takes his handkerchief out and wipes his mustache... “To hell with public property. It should carry my precious mucus.” Was that what he was thinking?

As long as India has people like the one with the orange T-shirt, who has absolutely no civic sense, India will remain nothing but a backward country. Next time when you hear one of those pseudo nationalists harp on the “greatness” of Indian Culture, show them this post. The incident mentioned above is also part of the “great” Indian Culture.

Trying to comprehend...

A wrestler is passing by a street...

A young thug, who is no match to the wrestler, doesn't like his walking style. He hurls verbal abuses at the wrestler. A group of elders, who watch these events unfold, look at each other and continue their boring, mundane and useless conversation. The wrestler too ignores those verbal abuses and walks away. Emboldened by the wrestler's reaction, the young thug repeats the same next day. The wrestler chooses to ignore it again.

The next day the thug - instead of throwing verbal abuses - hurls sharp objects at the wrestler.

How do you think the wrestler should react ?

A) Go, bash the thug

B) Take those hurled objects to those useless elders and crib "The thug threw these at me. I can call my forensic expert to prove it. You must do something!"

Israel opted for option A. Israel is still pounding Gaza for a good reason.

India opted for option B. India is still busy convincing Pakistan and the World, that the Mumbai terror attack was Pakistan's brain child.

Has this type of reaction happened in the past? Yes! To name a few... The Kandahar hijacking, the Mumbai bomb blast, the Parliament attack etc.

"Criticizing the government is easy. That too by sitting in the comforts of a corner offered by Bangalore" - You might think. Nops...! It is not about criticizing! It's about failing to comprehend the government's actions! I can think of many proper quid-pro-quo: i.e. from Naval blockade to severing all ties with Pakistan. Why can't the political leadership think in those lines? Why can't it deliver a fitting reply? Are the Delhi politicians scared that an atom bomb of Pakistan will first fall on Delhi – i.e. on their head? I feel terrible when the Paki "artists" and "entertainers" still keep visiting India with impunity to make money! What is this government doing?

In short... I feel ashamed of India's offensive against the 26/11 perpetrators.