Let us stop gloating over pyrrhic victories.

P.S: This is not a litany of complaints against the UPA government or a recherche account on the shenanigans of our respectable netas.

If at all vishal bharadwaj ever wants to recreate greek tragedy then i am more than just sure that he will adapt the story within the vicinity of the lutyen's garden. Why ?? Simple. A parliament houses all the seven components required for a greek tragedy. One of the component happened last week. Spectacle. Our cricket team took a sound, must say expected, thrashing in the hands of south africa and that aroused our otherwise laggard MP's. They were demanding answers for the team's debacle.Since when has the parliament become a ground for haranguing a mere cricket match loss. These same MP's were the most insouciant of the lot when our hockey team came 11th out of 12 teams in the recent hockey world cup.

The BCCI president - who also happens to be the agriculture minister- sharad pawar is more keen on getting dilip vengsarkar onto the flight of south africa than debunking the myth of sisyphus which happens atleast twice a day in those erstwhile verdant fields of vidarbha. This falstaffian figure is busy setting up a pedestal for his daughter's ascension as his heiress; so what, if those cadaverous farmer families die. Right, mr.pawar ?

Lets shift attention to our health minister dr.anbumani ramadoss. He can be the brand ambassador of hutch;albeit the punchline has to be "Wherever you go, trouble follows". He invited those crabby tongues of film personalities when he decided to ban smoking on the indian screen. Then that petty fight with the AIIMS director happened. And then he found his nemesis in the aedes mosquito which did not even spare the family of the prime minister. However, even in this melee, ramadoss has loftier plans it seems. He is pretty keen to introduce warnings on the beedi packets. Will someone please tell him that the people who smoke beedis are the ones who have not entered the grotty corridors of the government schools ?

Aniruddha bahal, tarun tejpal must be very digruntled towards our I & B minister, dasmunshi. According to a new I & B bill, if at all sting operations are to be performed then the government should be appraised of the deed beforehand. What did u say, it defies logic ? Try to be in those shoes of dasmunshi, he is simply trying to save his political brethren from any more embarassment. It is not such a big ask or is it ?

A month and a half back, all the newspaper editorials were lavishing praise,almost as freely as those barrage of over pitched devliveries from agarkar, on the UPA goverment for passing the labour bill according to which children below 15 yrs should not be employed. Wow, such an utopian thought. But our mandarins forget the fact that india is a country where rules are flouted as openly as the wardrobe malfunctions in the fashion shows(courtesy : lakme). I celebrated my diwali with the crackers which are most certainly made by those nimble n supple hands of a 10year old kid. The boy who serves me at the pani puri stall is still the same and his gaze remains the same whenever he looks at my cell which was surely manufactured during the period of great depression. Let us suppose that even if these kids are rescued from domestic violence and works, our country simply lacks in the rehabilitation process.

As tarun tejpal very rightly describes in "the alchemy of desire" : A boy below 15 yrs has no hair on his body and he resembles more like a woman with a penis. Thus, they get confined to the lascivious interest of a jerk otherwise known as a paedophile. Girls are tucked away into the stygian and dingy cul-de-sac's of kamathipura. Its gut wrenching, right. But thats what happens with the future of our country.

The UPA government election manifesto was aam aadmi and a week back they have stood by their manifesto. The petrol and diesel prices have been reduced. This is surely manna from heaven for the "aam aadmi". Before you sing paeans to this move, pause a bit. The UPA government did this with the Damocles's sword hanging like a metronome- the uttar pradesh polls. So once these polls are over, the two rupee reduction will surely be removed. You can surely trust murli deora on that.

I guess i am sounding a bit too captious. Critics of this aricle might suggest that this is the same UPA government which introduced the NREG bill. The july 18th nuclear agreement will surely catapult india onto the nuclear scene. But hey, our political edifice is replete with dickensian darkness. Lighted battlements will still not be able to camouflage the edifice. So next time, when you use your suffrage to oust the existing government,dont gloat. Its just a pyrrhic victory. India is truly a gymkhana club where people have membership cards but politticans are the members.

Recommendation of the fortnight:
Watch hard candy. Its about the revenge of a 14 yeard old scamp on a 32 yr old paedophile. Watch it for the sheer bruatlity and the castration scene is surely top notch. Ellen page makes this movie a kick ass kind of movie.