Talking Shop: Creating shellacs

"Sometimes, one likes

foolish people for their

folly, better than wise

people for their wisdom"

— Elizabeth Gaskell

We have to be a really vicious species to behave like stone-cold animals. But we are outright antsy and pan(t)sy now to prove that we are just that. That brings me to the quote above and what it stands for. Bluntly, it tells us that "as you sow, so shall you reap". And thus, here we are, in a rather lackadaisical and pitiable plight, scratching our heads and nuts to figure which way is up and the other way around. Amid this melee, the underprivileged, our so-called Next-Gen, are facing (t)rough times, desperately hanging on to train doors or riding on the roof, alarmingly close to the electric cables atop, all just to get to examination halls for a trial that shall determine whether they are fit enough to face the test at all.

Does that make any sense? It doesn't, especially since I don't know why over 37 lakh of the youth in Uttar Pradesh were tasked with travelling hundreds of kilometers for the Primary Eligibility Test (PET) last weekend. I do know, though, why around 30 per cent of them could not take the test—that's because they could not make it to this slam-dunk with the authorities. And that, in turn, is because there were few trains, almost no buses, and the organizers seemingly had a vindictive eczema, as they decided that most aspirants would be allotted exam halls 200-300 kilometers away from their place of residence.

Surely, it was a test of mettle in its crudest form, where physical mainstay and mental longevity were desecrated and tested far more than aptitude. The beauty of the beast in this authoritative anarchy was that most of these tests would not lead to jobs. I guess we were just testing emotional virility or components thereof, as also staying power. That abuse alone is laying to waste a nation being built on a few remaining vestiges of faith and surviving despite verbal blasts of venom—communal and financial.

Where do the youth go?

Apparently, we want them to look to the Almighty and pray, for there is no other option or succour we are providing them, despite our subservient past and our acquiescent antecedents. Me, I was a rather ordinary student, but still lucky, since I managed to get enrolled in a college and created a frugal existence for myself. That was well over three decades back. I am getting old now, but I am garnering wisdom too. That's nice. But what of our Next-Gen, for we cannot anymore deny the retribution they face, despite a few Samaritans left in our own land? You are still circumspect and don't agree? That's okay—for these numbers shall do the talking, underscoring how disparity and depravity is rampaging and ravaging all around us.

Dhisshum to you even if you agree... In Uttar Pradesh alone, there are over 28 lakh qualified youngsters who are unemployed, despite being educated and armed with degrees. And they don't even get the most simplistic of amenities, even as varsities (especially Allahabad University) have increased annual fees four-fold, all in the name of better education and astute guidance. The students protested and held dharna-processions (even at the world-famous Banaras Hindu University), all to no avail. Masters- and PHD degree-holders are since applying for the positions of clerks, peons and gardeners, but there is no one to listen to even this lament or comprehend their mental state, leave alone chastise those that need to be taken to task.

In recent times, countrywide, we have suddenly promised to fill up 10 lakh official vacancies which have been lying thus for over 7 years. Why? Whew, it may be because hustings are around the corner once again. That is a near-blasphemy, as a country already morphed by the novel Coronavirus faces lies that are as blatant as they are mendacious. We have 'turned', it seems, much as some nations with tyrants did when the chips were down.

Other precursors

Notebandi (demonetization) was a bold move, sure, one that targeted a strategic stifling and crippling of India's 'kaala dhan' (black money). But the ground-truth is that not only did all of the cash notes come back into our banking system, we also have a new twist in this injured tiger's tail. Over Rs 9 lakh crore of the new notes introduced after demonetisation (mostly of the new pink Rs 2,000-denomination) are untraceable, subliminally gone a-where and haywire into our subliminal air-space and stratosphere. We are close to Diwali, thus let me avouch that the air above the breathable atmosphere belongs to our millions of Gods. They are now investigating what all the pink in their realm means. They are also invigilating over some green (Rs 500 notes and many, many, many dollars).

I will not talk today about the GST regime, since I am having a season-ending Mango Shake and it has milk in it, which is taxed. Let's speak instead of the life-saving food-grain we shipped to 20 countries through the COVID-19 crisis. Nice the gesture was, except for the fact that we now face shortages of food-grain front for our own. Or let's talk another nice, that of the shipping of COVID-19 vaccines to other nations during the peak of the pandemic, a typical Indian largesse, which led to our very own not having enough for their needs.

Today, this is our planning and this is our thinking. As the world shrinks in size and becomes increasingly flaccid, with the UK leading the charge, we demonstrate verbal vehemence and moral flatulence—we have fallen. Indeed. How so? On a scale of 121 nations, we are 107 on the Hunger Index. On to malnutrition, where out of 88 crore in a quandary, 22.5 per cent hail from India, which is perhaps because we claim that we are providing food-grain to 72 per cent of our people. But NGOs insist that this number is actually 42 per cent. Where is the missing 30 per cent? My guess is as good as yours, since we have too many new SUVs plying our terrain. Some are thriving, most are not.

How to end this tirade?

I don't know, for we are in trouble, big trouble. We are beseeching and requesting help (perhaps in penance), but yet with a gusto that defies fortitude and celebrates messianic elements into our very homes. We are welcoming those who are hopeless and near-evil, even those recognized for destroying lives—as in the Bilkis Bano case. What is the way out? Well, we need the sensibility and wherewithal to withstand this onslaught. There are forces out to betray and circumvent, and we need to have a clearly cut-out path to recant.

'Kaise hoga' (how will it happen)? Typically, it shall happen with one sledgehammer blow that shall bring our society back to where it was decades back, for we all want one small thing—peace, Dal Makhani and Butter Chicken. We were never engineered for war or hit-back, though we are quite capable of taking on the toughest of enemies. But slime apart, today's India is hitting back inward and that is becoming quite bothersome.

We all like quotes, right? Let's revisit a classy one. As one from Voltaire, who wrote rather infamously: "It is forbidden to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." Today, I miss the elephants, as they are being trodden upon like insects. Think about it. Is this where we wanted to be born? Is this where we want to finally go from? Your word is as good as mine.

PS: To all of you lovely people, a very Happy Diwali. Time was when... (that's another story).

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal