The Verdict

I just got a message on my phone sent in public interest by Vodafone (I guess!!!), it read, “Do not react to senseless SMS targeted to create rift in the name of 24th Verdict.” Verdict!? For what!? Killing thousands of people in the name of something intangible? Couldn’t we very well see that certain people were getting annihilated for having a name which sounded a little different from somebody else’s. Do we need a 20 year long trial for genocide?
The whole country is looking forward to or maybe not, the verdict on Babri Masjid(oh, or am I supposed to refer to it as Shri Ram Janam Bhoomi?). Instead of accepting the verdict by the country’s judiciary system, our noted leader, Mr. L K Advani has already stated that they would move to the apex court. I just hope they do that rather than annihilating scores of innocent people (cos I don’t wanna get killed for keeping a French beard and saying salaam aleykum(which literally means may peace be upon you)) for their voracious appetite for power or money or whatever. Can’t he see that we have bigger problems in our country like illiteracy, farmer suicide, food-water shortage, unemployment, famines, floods, insanitary living conditions? Why are our politicians so blind? Or I guess they are just not into it!!!
However, I guess I have gamut of ‘maybe’ solutions post-24th verdict to save innocent lives from these blood sucking monsters.
1) UID!! This can be a solution!! Maybe we can assign numbers to people, so then they won’t be judged by their names and killed. “Hi I am 50047612458, please don’t kill me.”
2) Maybe we can have a school or a hospital named, Ram-Rahim hospital, or maybe inscribe Ram-Rahim on every brick that is used to lay the building. Maybe that will make them think twice before tearing down the building.
3) Maybe we can follow the genocidal path of our great leaders and give them a taste of their own modus operandi. Kill-em all, our great leaders, our legal extremist groups, groups which spread communal discord, ones who sell death in the name of god, corrupt officials etc. and make the world a better place to live in.
Maybe then I’ll get a message from Vodafone as a public notice. “Welcome to the new world order, a better place to live in.”

WHAT IF WE COULD EAT MONEY?

The question seems to be coming back to me time and again. Can we eat money? Would the Homo-Sapiens finally evolve to the point where all they can eat is money or as a matter of fact gold, silver, platinum or diamonds or may be designer clothes, shoes, fancy handbags??!(Hey, McDonalds is just round the corner man!! What are you talking about?? ).Would we have food problems then? Probably then we would be assured that generations to come would have enough to survive (we can print our own money can’t we?! Then there is always some mendicancy)
After working for almost 2 years in an MNC, I went back to my native place and finally decided to pay a visit to my long forgotten village. Enthralled with memories of green tracts of land, fresh air and running water from the tubewell filled me with puerile excitement. However I was appalled to see demarcations for new residential and industrial plots being done right through the fertile arable land. Upon talking to the denizens I got to know that the government was buying the land forcefully from the farmers and giving them marginal amount for a specified unit of land. A cousin of mine also pointed out to a house built in the demarcated area, which was apparently archaic, torn down and the occupants forced to move out after being paid compensation for that. How much worth can you give for the memories of your homeland??
My question was, what about farmers with a marginal piece of land and a family to feed?? Where would he go? What would he eat? What would the cities eat? What would the country eat? What would the coming generations eat? May be we are evolving and it’s just me who can’t observe it. May be I am against the development and I am too afraid to accept the change. I also scorned after spotting a makeshift bank in the village, where there is hardly any sanitation system or water or even a proper hospital. The farmers (ex-farmers) are getting rich by selling their land, so they need a bank now. The irony is that the uninformed and ignorant farmer thinks that it’s good to have a lump sum amount of money rather than his own land, however he has no idea what to do with it (which obviously won’t last long) and our apparently well informed brass is trying to cope with problems of food security and imports as more than half the population goes hungry, it is still busy taking up arable land to give to industries and make houses(shooting in the foot literally!!!). Not to mentions just few days back our noted leader quoted that land acquisition would be restricted to unfertile land for industrial setup.(Hah!!! examples Galore!!)
I recently saw this movie Peepli Live, however there were not many takers for it as unlike to the phenomenal non-sensical hit which has just hit the box-office! But those who have seen the former might know what I am talking about. Ignorance is bliss, that’s all I can feel right now.
My question is for how long? How long before we realize that there are over half a billion people in this country who sleep without food at night? How long before we realize that lakhs of metric tonnes of food is rotting in open? How long before we realize that we can’t eat money? How long before we realize that future generations would curse us? How long before we realize that we might starve ourselves to death before an Armageddon?
But then I think. What if we could eat money? May be i'll give it a try...