Got up with a great feeling today. All the news channels/papers had proclaimed that the Bandh yesterday was a great success!! Success meant victory and victory meant having achieved the desired results.
With a spring in my step, I went to the Mother Dairy booth and asked for a litre (they call it a kilo in Delhi) of Toned Milk. Imagine my surprise when the guy asked me to pay Rs. 24. Why, I asked - was the Bandh not successful? He looked strangely at me. I paid him – thinking that the poor fellow was not fully awake to this new victorious dawn.
Went to my regular Sabjiwallah and asked for a kilo (they still call it a kilo in Delhi) each of onions, potatoes and tomatoes (the three must-be-theres for every household in Delhi). The guy literally asked for my scooter’s price in return. Shocked, I asked him - was the Bandh not successful? He gave me a spiel about diesel price shooting up and wholesale prices blowing up etc. I smiled at him and paid up – illiterate fellow, can’t read newspapers.
I got dressed and went to the Petrol Pump before going to office. Imagine my surprise when the guy wanted Rs. 100 for less than 2 litres of petrol. Why, I asked - was the Bandh not successful? He calmly pocketed the money and started attending to the next person. Monopolistic fellow – I thought and left without giving him a piece of my educated mind.
The roads were much better today. I reached office (12 kms) in one hour compared to 2.5 hrs yesterday! What was this – my friends had paid the normal high fares for their buses today, others had paid through their noses for their daily needs. No fall back, no withdrawal, no nothing!! Why, I asked - was the Bandh not successful?
Rs. 50 of petrol which lasts me for 2 days was spent yesterday in just 2.5 hrs, standing still on the road. A gravely ill person was stuck up in an ambulance for want of way – his wife was crying her heart out. A man was cursing (somebody’s mother & sister something, something) as he had to miss a flight. Somebody missed a flight, somebody missed a train, somebody missed an appointment with a doctor, somebody waited for her groom to arrive…. All these somebody’s were common people, common middle-class office-going daily-bread-earning commoners. Stuck up in trains, on roads, in buses – they could just curse (not sympathize with) the people who were causing this agony. People were stopped, abused and beaten up for wanting to go on with their mundane lives. What did we achieve yesterday? Just a day of limelight for some and back to the grind for all others.
Couldn’t those roads leading to the Minister’s houses be blocked by the protesters? Couldn’t they be abused and stopped from going about their important lives? Couldn’t their cars be punctured and burnt? Bandh (torture) them – as they are the people who are our culprits and who can perhaps do what we want them to do. What can you achieve by causing more agony to those commoners who are already crushed by apathy and prices and corruption? Please spare us from another bandh.
