The "balancing" act

The hot summer continues to melt tar outside. The predictable “it has never ever been so hot before” conversations have also started petering out, as bleary eyes and fiery winds have put a dampener to social meetings of enlightened souls where one discusses the weather.

The government wants to increase prices of diesel cars to “balance” out the distribution of "pain" between Petrol and Diesel car owners .Aren’t we forever caught in this balancing game ? Balancing one injustice with another, balancing one stupidity with another ? I guess we are a nation of balancers –"balancing"  being perhaps a polished, sophisticated version of our DNA term ,"Jugaad”, or “adjustment” . No attempt to look at the obvious, no attempt the treat the cause, no attempt to set right the  basics. It is ,always,“Jugaad”  all the way !

S&P is predicting our fall from “angel” status. Angel, huh ? . The various  “unkels”  “Daddus” and the “great aunt” running our sarkar have vehemently derided the non transparent and “poor” methodology adopted by "S & Poor"  to sound out our impending doom. “Shob kooch theek hain”- is what you hear them say by way of a constructive panacea to the perils in front of anyone without their blinkers on .Ours is a disaster milestone based polity- of one impending confounding milestone following the next. The “sarkar” is thus forever negotiating the  milestones , jumping from one to the next, and to the next ; and all hopes of some action is always promised after the “next” milestone. Of course, nothing is done in between the milestones in deference to the aam( mango) Janata’s voting powers and an insatiable desire to maintain status quo, at any cost ! Endless list of milestones- where you don’t upset the apple cart-UP Elections, Presidential Elections, next assembly elections, next panchayat elections …… And some milestones are also constants, appearing as an "austere " sari with sinusoidal  regularity, screaming "Cholbe Na " at every instance !

IPL is over and I can breathe easy now ! Moral discussions about cheer girls and their dangers to our sensitive social fabric  are put on hold till next year. SRK  has promised to behave well till next year and Dada has built up ample stock of hair gel to last the next five years where he will continue to lead by example! All others are laughing their way to the bank and I have also decided to put on hold the raging debate within me- whom to support ? And meanwhile, the “boys” are by now presumably fed, watered and rested enough to  win the next few matches in India and to lose the other remaining matches out of India.

 Did I mention somewhere earlier about a great “balancing” game – you win some, you lose some !