Political Signs

The recent Assembly election in the state of Karnataka was labelled as a major political drama. When election result got announced, the party that is in power in the Parliament became the single largest party though they still didn’t have majority in the Assembly. Two of the next biggest parties formed a coalition post-election and claimed the right to form the government since, together, they have majority in the Assembly.

The plot thickened with Governor of the state applying his discretionary power and invited the ruling party to form the government giving fifteen days to prove majority. A Chief Minister was sworn in as well on the same day tasked with the challenge of proving majority. The opposition parties filed a case at the Supreme Court and got the duration offered by the Governor reduced to four days. The climax of the drama unfolded with the one-day-wonder Chief Minister resigning after failing to prove majority in the Assembly for his party! As I write this, the erstwhile opposition was invited by Governor to form the government and it is now their turn to prove majority in the next four days.

So what is the moral of the story and what has a family with a husband and wife got to learn from this political debacle? The most important take away from the whole story is that you should know when to accept your defeat and exit gracefully. Else you’ll make yourself go through twists and turns finally forcing you, against your own will, to accept a humiliating end.

I’m pretty sure that many of us relate quite well to the parties mentioned in the story above. We may have situations in life where we know that we’ve lost the battle, yet our ego wouldn’t allow us to accept the defeat. Instead we’ll cling on to the invisible ray of hope looking ahead to the future which ironically has got dooms-day written all over it.

Even when we are fully aware not to push our luck any further, we continue to deploy all possible means with a vicious intention of achieving the impossible at any cost. This will even include reaching out to someone to vouch for us, all the while knowing that it is completely unethical to do so.

What we purposefully do is to turn a blind eye on the reality itself. We blatantly ignore fact that our attempt to cover up our mistakes is seen and understood by the significant other in our life. The truth is played right in front of their eyes just like in a movie theatre and there is no merit in trying to close your eyes and assume that others are equally blind!

The most right thing to do is to accept your mistake or defeat at the earliest. It isn’t easy, but being open to your dear ones about your downfalls will help you to recover from the losses faster than you think. What we need to keep in our mind is that we are not fighting an election battle here. The one from whom you are trying to keep a secret is not your political rival. He or she is your partner for life. A coalition that needs to be secured with the divine thread of love and trust. Doubt has no place here.

An equally important learning from our story is that, during situations like these, it is important you sort these out among yourselves than involving an external influencer. These most often backfire as you saw in the story.

It may seem quite strange that India being the largest democracy, we find our political parties playing all sorts of games that eventually turns out to be digging the grave for this great democratic nation. At least what we could make use of is such lessons these politicians teach us without they even being aware of it. More importantly apply them in our daily lives to ensure that we learn to live our life to the fullest.

May the good God bless you with the foresight to know when to stop and accept a defeat so as to recuperate from your loss and rise from the ashes as the legendary Phoenix bird! 

For a change, may the signs of politics be a leading light for better life!

Fox & Hen

There once lived a fox and a hen. They were naturally not best of the friends. Once the hen was coming back after a stroll and was extremely hungry. Fox and his family lived on the way to her home which was still quite far. It was the only house in the vicinity whom the hen could ask for food. Hunger overtook the emotion of fear and the hen was brave enough to ask fox to save her life by giving some food. The fox though was surprised initially, offered her food and even packed some for her to have on the way back home. The hen was really happy and shouted to the world the good deed of the fox. By the time she reached back home, the word got spread. The hen was taken aback to see a company of enraged seniors back home who looked thoroughly annoyed. They were so irritated that they demanded an explanation from the hen for having the food at the house of the fox, all the while knowing very well that without that food she would’ve been dead by now. The verdict soon followed. The hen was the official spokesperson for the family. She was to relinquish that title followed by a promise that she’ll rather die than having food from an enemy and praise him for the act of kindness.

Moral of the story: Never praise your enemy even if he did a good deed, especially in certain walks of life! 

Mountbatten’s Coffee Cup

Lord Mountbatten opens the newspaper a week back and as a habit he reads the news from India first. After all he was the one who was entrusted with the task of a handover from British India to an independent India. Handover he did, but not before approving a surgical procedure of dividing the country into two, India and Pakistan resulting in the death of millions of citizens of erstwhile British India in the name of religion and region.

 

The news about formation of Telangana, the 29^th state of India takes the centre page. Mountbatten had a smirk on his face while reading through the news. He was quite amused at the irony of it when he recollected how fiery were the arguments Gandhi, Nehru and Patel among others had, when they talked to him about the need for an Indian Union. Yet again, here is a country which was split into multitude of pieces which perhaps was one of the most complex jigsaw puzzles ever existed. He was the man who helped the people of the country to solve the puzzle. The fact that the jigsaw board was joined with a considerable amount of blood remains history.

What struck Mountbatten as an irony is that, this is the same set of people who accused the British Crown for implementing the policy of Divide & Rule. Of course yes, Britain did that and they did it with a purpose. Unless they had maintained these conflicts within the regions of the subcontinent they would’ve never achieved their agenda of domination. The strange thing that is happening now is the people of the country wanting to walk back to history where they existed as scattered regions of smaller power houses. They conveniently forget the truth that it took a lot of struggle to draw the map of what they see as India today.

Edwina came with a muffin which Mountbatten likes along with his morning coffee. He showed her the news. Her first reaction was, “What’s wrong with these people?” All over the world, even countries are trying their best to unite themselves to form stronger bonds, politically and economically. Here is a country, which by virtue of its size and diversity has earned the title of a subcontinent, predicted to be the next super power in the world and counted among the potential leaders of tomorrow’s world, fighting among themselves to march back to its pre-independence era. 

Unions are getting formed or at least discussed across the globe. The United States remain as a mighty power. European Union has shown its strength. Gulf Union is being thought about. It is a reality that stares at your face that the less disconnected you are, the more powerful you will be. Civil unrest and geographical tensions is the result when states try to defend their territories. Blessed are those who realize the power of being together!

Mountbatten let out a sigh. He was quite painful to see these developments. He has been living all his life watching the result of the partition he approved. He wish he could convene a meeting again with Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Patel and the likes of these men and raise their voice to the people of this country about the dangerous waters they are getting into. It is a Telangana today; a Gorkhaland tomorrow and even surprising was a demand from the God’s Own Country down south for a state of Malabar to be formed!

Ridiculous is the word! It is high time the country realized that splitting is not a solution, it is creating further challenges. Wake up and realize that you are now fighting with yourself. If this continues you’ll end up tearing the country apart to tiny pieces which you may never be able to join again. What could be more alarming are the birds of prey that must be flying high watching your moves awaiting a right moment to strike! Beware of these modern day imperialists who will be waiting for an opportunity to invade and establish their empire even before you know you lost your freedom forever!

Mountbatten got up from his chair and as he turned the coffee cup slipped from his hand and hit the floor. He stood there helpless as he watched the beautifully crafted porcelain which now lies on the floor broken into hundreds of little pieces and they all seem to be asking him a question, ‘Can you make a cup out of us, again?’