Take Two!

The title of the post is a reflection of several thoughts, a follow up on a friends post, a late night chat about second chances in life and some such banter!! So the flow of the post might not be necessarily restrained. At this point, I don't even know what it is going to be about. Let's see.

Life isn't always fair. We always wish for a retake, some way that we could go back and make it better. "I wish..." The omnipresent need for a "Take Two".
So, here it is.

Over the last few days, much has gripped our attention and the national media. Much has slipped away and much that we have let slip. Intentionally. In my previous post, I said that the nation is suffering from a cricket-elections fever. It's only got worse over the last few days. But what I find strangely amusing is how as a society we have a knack of closing doors (literally and metaphorically) at just the right time (or not so..). So, the IPL is happening is South Africa and while the stake holders slug it out, we are only concerned with our morning cuppa and a reassurance that we will get the staple 1600 and 2000 hrs telecast for around 50 days staring April 18. Second life actually. Not too bad, huh!!

And then we have the Laloos (with the funniest version of I-am-not-concerned-what-you-think-of-me English) and the Mulayams (of the many criminal cases) and the Paswans (mmm...not too sure what he is about though except a failed ex Railway Minister) coming together and forming an alliance or as they say, a 'front within a front'!! Really?? I don't get it. Wonder if you do. But this long ceased to be the hot favorite in gossip circles in the political capital of the country and we are back to "Singh is King" talks. So let's move on. We can wait till after the polls to see whether they stick with the UPA. What's for lunch by the way??

And the there is the world of make believe, of new aspirations and broken dreams. Bollywood (someone please help with a new name). This week Neil Nitin Mukesh is back as a wildlife photographer in Aa Dekhen Zaraa after making a rather promising debut in Johnny Gaddar as a conman. In this movie, too, his role is not very different. He graduates from being just a photographer to something like a conman with his 'magical futuristic' camera. It is really about how the camera changes his life by predicting the future not so subtly. And then it all goes wrong. Life gives him a second chance but then takes it away. It is, after all, the master's call! Don't know how the movie will fare but maybe it's worth the wait. Damn!! I need coffee!

And then there is the "poet politician" with the loose tongue and an inactive mind. He apparently went to London School of Economics. Inactive mind still. He seems hypnotised either by the legacy he has not been able to fathom and his supposed derived yet non existent burden of expectations or by the political line of the party he endorses which he doesn't really believe in but has no other choice but to moot. In either case, he went overboard. And I am sure he realises it. Else, he wouldn't go about denying the speech as his. He is still taking baby steps in the bad bad world (he is all of 29 after all) and am sure has seen that he can't get away with murder (or even the talk of it) on the political front. His own party, whose blue eyed poster boy he was till a few days back and a perfect answer to the other Gandhi scion, has as much as distanced itself from his comments and in principle from him. The poor little lamb seems lost without knowing the way out. "They told me, it's a jungle out there but I chose not to believe them." I just hope that the perceived butcher is not the one whose beheading we watch as a spectacle.

It actually gets better. According to our man, he was only trying to "safeguard the interests of and instill confidence in the community which feels it is under seige in its own country" and then in the following statement goes on to say that "There is no question of saying anything against any community. India is the home to all faiths and beliefs and I respect this,"...ahem!! Little contradictory, don't you think. Is this a country of Hindus or is this a country where Hindus live just like Muslims and the Sikhs and the Jains and the Buddhists. Whose interests is he trying to safeguard. The Sikhs who were relentlessly killed in 1984 because of some 'environmental' issues or the Muslims who have lived in this country in doubt since 1947 or the Christians who were raped and their places of worship destroyed? Or just the Hindus who have apparently faced wrath time and again!! It just reinforces my belief that he went out in a state of daze and blurted some nonsense which he is now regretting!! (Atleast I hope he is..)

And all talk of legacy is better in the closet. I really do think that he secretly wishes he could be where Rahul and Priyanka are today. Whether or not he is the rightful heir to the family name and political legacy or not is not a discussion we should even start right now. Rahul hasn't done much to prove himself and Varun just started on the wrong foot. And I am certain he thinks that he'd be better off with the Congress. But he has no choice but to live with the choices his mother made some time back since he can never really go back to 'the seat of secularism' atleast till she is around. I don't know if this is his second chance that he has blown away or will he still get another one. For his sake, I hope this is not and that he swings to the music of 'Take Two' in the years ahead! An early dinner would be great. Salad maybe!

So, in what has now become a daily fare so much so that it doesn't escape the clutches of mundane, I was slightly amused but more surprised at the fast veering conversation with my friend. He was deeply upset about some mention of "hero worship" one of our friends had made in the regard of the person (poet politician after all) above. He couldn't understand how someone who we have known for over 10 years could be so insensitive or simply speaking, alienated from sane thinking. And all my efforts of convincing him that this talk should hardly matter to him was obviously not paid heed to :). And just as I was talking to him, it occured to me that I had become so passive to what happens around me. Some years ago, I would have been a crusader of change after reading the absolutely irresponsible comments from Mr Gandhi but not any more. I have convinced myself that this is all talk and nothing beyond and that this talk doesn't meet the sensibilities of an educated yound man (Gandhi or not) who espouses to be an Indian. I have convinced myself that this is a gimmick to gain those elusive votes from the people who still believe that religion can get them three meals a day. I have given in to apathy and that is my doom. Or it could very soon be. And just then, I realised that this, maybe, is my second chance - my Take Two- and maybe I should wake up and smell the coffee. Maybe I shouldn't wait till my 'saviours" turn up against me. Maybe it's time I did something.

...but just then... a lemon cheese cake with whipped cream!
It's delicious.

Damn!!