Harish Palaniappan's

It confuses me very often living in India. Everything is confusing here.

Democracy is confusing:
Is 'Anybody can do anything' democray. or is 'Doing and talking what is feasible' democracy. I don't know whether in any other country you can promise a goat / or a cow/ or a color TV to win the elections. That's straight forward bribing... and that too to win elections to lay hands on the big treasure of tax money.

No election commission will question this, no court-of-law would.... not even the president of india whose very duty is to have the most interest in an election process than anybody else in the country.

In India, you can kill someone in front of everybody, and just walk away cool if you have the money or the power. Thanks to jessica lal case that stands proof of concept. Till this day, this minute the killers are not charged because though everybody saw nobody narrated it perfectly to be a good enough witness. And no protection of witness act.. and this state is what we popularly boast of with the title 'World's largest democracy'

The worlds largest democracy... this certainly is because you just can do whatever on earth you want and have your way with it. Obviously Indians are sure that nowhere on earth you could get away with things you do in India starting from spitting to killing.

People are confusing:
So much action in the run up to elections everytime, people are excited and glued to news channels and those statements the politicians make..... , and so much silence aftewards.

Why are you silent after the polls. then why do we all vote.
Just by stamping the paper, pressing the button and you thought India will change.
If it was this easy, things would have already changed.

Are we expecting something like what is happening in Nepal, to happen in India, to rise up to respond.

You are good, you want to protest, but you know nobody will bother, so you sit quiet.
This is like that story I remember:
A king asked all his people to pour one boul of milk into a big pot kept in the palace to mark a ceremonial occassion. One guy thought everyone is going to pour milk so if i pour water its not going to show up and make a difference.. so he poured water and went away. Two days later everyone was done and the ceremony was to happen. But the king's men had a problem to reveal. ... the pot was full of water. Everyone thought why bother and the king ended up collecting water instead of milk.

Replace the king with 'India' and milk with 'our responsibility' and we know what we are doing to ourselves.

The man who spits thinks... what the hell.. this is one corner...its not going to dirty everything around. So is everybody with everything.

Just because I don't drink, smoke, spit, shout,... i dont become a good man.. Do I protest when something is going wrong... that makes me one.

If we are silent longer, ... "Too much silence is like mourning already.."

Politicians are confusing:
This is not happening you thought.. and top politicians migrated loyalties. Sometimes worse, they do that after the elections and you wanted someone and someone else came to power.

There's something called an election manifesto... its after all paper. What you can write on paper is not what you can do...or with politicians ..what they will do.

Here in Chennai one politician promises Rice for 2Rs/kg if he comes to power, and immediately his rival annouces that rice goes Free if they come to power. What nonsense. Whose rice, and where is all that cheap rice they are bullying on. Madam Condoleeza Rice would be worried if someone told her that her name is being used here.

What a politician will do after the elections is something that is based on his character not the paper. But we are tempted by the media into analysis. To analyze the best feasible manifesto and vote for them.

Analysis is a word which can have no meaning when the situation is unstable. How would it be if the CEO of a major software firm all of a sudden resigned to join a rival software firm as the CEO. Will you call up your stock broker to action something.... or sit quiet and watch. It should not be any different when political parties and candidates shift loyalties and beliefs from one corner to another just like that.

How to grow:
Did somebody think that just because the finance minister made a good budget, the country's economy got boosted. Where are we hiding the amount of hard work those Tata's, Birla's, and software guys are putting in, all-day all-night, struggling to prove that in India that work can be done with little higher benefits to business. Where are we hiding all the recognition the business gurus deserve for making something that was thought impossible.. possible with resources in this country.

Its like praising the father of a guy, for having such a capable son, who won the olympic silver for the country. He didn't do it just because his parents had him, but because he believed in him and struggled to get there.

Everytime on Indian Media, the first question they ask an achiever from India is, "Who all inspired you, who all would you thank for this"... ... as if just inspiration, and guidance will take you places. If you thought so and get misled into things, you will not realize until you fall from somewhere and struggle your way back to being a fighter.

Whatever happens, But the bottom line is, "Just by stamping a paper, or pressing a button to post your vote, India is not going to change.. .neither are the states that are going for elections.