Honeymoon !

Honeymoons are kind of dreamy ; surreal ; out of the world and  exhilarating . In short they are quite an interesting event. Both for the participants as well as for others around it. Trouble with it is that they simply do not last very long. Reality hits quite too soon and you have to wake up to the truth. Years ago I went on one myself. Third day into it  and we sat down for a nice candle lit dinner in a beautiful hill station when it happened!  My new wife lovingly served me from the cheese dish she had ordered...... and wrecked my dinner. Well I abhor the stuff and I reacted  sharply with my usual acidic humor ; she felt insulted and started crying in her usual manner. Realization of what we have got into and will have to live with ,dawned on both of us that very instant. It was a huge revelation. There, that was the end of that romantic evening and with that our honeymoon went out the window.

It happens in public life too. Vinod Binny found it recently. His honeymoon with his aam aadmi party lasted for about 24 hours after that party came to power. He realized that this is not the common man's party he had been fighting for since last year or so ; and his party realized that Binny is  the kind of a common man they do not like and they would rather divorce than let him voice his uncommon  opinion. They have thrown him out. This honeymoon is done. Well Binny  may join the club headed by Anna and Kiran bedi.

Common man of Delhi is already in process of  waking up from the vivid dreams they had of getting their power bill slashed in half and  turning the tap and finding water streaming out. Water which is free at that. It is turning out to be quite a pipe dream.How can one even believe in such a dream is beyond me but anyway give it time and every dream eventually ends. Dream of ending corruption is another one. So nobody asks why does a beat constable ask for a bribe? He does so because his Inspector asks for one. Who asks for it  because his boss and his boss's boss does too. This does not stop till it reaches the very top. Unless you stem the source, this corruption will never end.

How beneficial is it go to war ;bring an entire city to stand still ; create a constitutional confrontation; threaten civil disturbance and disobey  existing laws? All to send two lowly cops on leave! Obviously it will not stop corruption or  give even a small relief to the common man. It is not even cost effective ;  it  however takes a disastrous hue when this crisis is  precipitated by a newly minted Chief Minister of all the people there are . Such heavy weights ought to go for the big fish of corruption. Big fish they promised to catch before they got elected! Why do they not do so is anybody's guess. However I suspect that being in power at the mercies of those same corrupt  to the core lot has something to do with it.

People have to pay the price of going to honeymoon with Kejriwal before dating him awhile. Turns out that he is the only  good man left on this earth that you must agree with or else! Turns out that he is intent on breaking apart and smashing everything in sight in order to bring about an order that no one knows anything about. Least of all he himself. He has a law minister that respects no law; a children's affairs minster that lodges a police complaint against a child playing cricket and a party muse that thinks nothing of telling sexist and racist jokes publicly.  His entire caboodle seems like they are running around like headless chicken. Loose tongues; aimless illegal actions and vague ideas are combining in a murderous cocktail for the common man. He is failing miserably in  governing one city but  planning to be the Prime Minister of 1/6th of all humanity.  Failing which he will be very happy if the government formation can be brought to a stand still because the general election mandate has been fractured! Who else wants to have an anarchist? At least it is not me.

India needs to improve upon systems, laws, policies and methods. Progress demands vision; a strong will to act and a proven model to follow. You can not achieve it by breaking laws and making people beggars. Beggars that are looking for "free" things to survive. Progress is achieved by enabling people to make their lives better by providing jobs. It is achieved by improving infrastructure; access to education and healthcare.It is achieved by making clear laws and following them. In the coming months there will be another chance for people to wake up. Dream merchants will come peddling their wares again. Check their vision , check their record. Dreams do attract but it is the reality that matters in the end. Do not vote for the scam ridden corrupt lot; do not vote for people that take corrupt for a friend. Do not vote based on caste ; creed and vague disruptive ideologies. On this republic day think about the country and think about how we can make it better. Let the honeymoon be over and start living the truth or you'll regret it for the next five years. Please!

If you are wondering what happened to my marriage after my honeymoon fizzled out. Well , you do not want to be in my shoes because nothing much happened! Life took over from that moment onwards and at the time of writing I  am still married to the same individual. All I had to do was develop a thick skin that is kind  of immune to tears and a pair of ears that are deaf to periodic doses of tongue lashings . And most importantly I had to learn to love a lot....... a lot of cheese!