Mr. X, Mayawati and statues

My lunches are usually uneventful. I go with a few friends, talk some crap over food and come back to my workplace. However, a few days back, I overheard a person in the next table speaking thus - "When the Gandhi's/Nehru's can do it, why cant she"? We got instantly hooked into the conversation.

A very polished young person (lets call him Mr X) was vehemently arguing with his friends that Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Mayawati's statue construction craze is justified and she should not be stopped. We were all shell shocked. If a well educated engineer is supporting such a brazen act, where is our country heading towards?

The supporting claims that Mr X was making were also equally bizarre -

1. He claimed that when there were Gandhi's statue in every nook and corner of the country, why cant UP have Mayawati's statue?

Mahatma Gandhi is the father of our nation whose contribution to India's freedom movement is unquestionable. Gandhi is a person whom India worships and his virtues are taught to children in school. In comparison what has Mayawati done which is worth noting? In her tenure as CM, corruption has reached its peak. She has amassed crores of wealth in a remarkably short period of time. She is charged in the Taj corridor corruption case. There are umpteen reports about her lavish birthday celebrations and the related forceful fund raising activities by her goondas.

Given all this and more, how can Mr X compare Mayawati to Mahatma Gandhi? I felt Mr X was out of his senses.

2. Mr X claimed that Mayawati was the tallest dalit political leader in the country today and she ought to celebrate her success to motivate other underprivileged dalits.

Again Mr.X's thoughts are miserably misplaced. Dalits want an icon, no doubt. But they want an icon who is tirelessly working for their upliftment. Not an icon made of stone and which stands still. Mayawati would do good if she concentrates on good governance. The government's primary responsibility is development, infrastructure, upliftment of poor, providing jobs, to name a few. The government's responsibility does not include spending thousands of crores in building statues of chief minister and her kith and kin.

Finally, MR. X, the state of Uttar Pradesh is one of the most backward states of our country. It is currently under severe drought with more than 20 districts declared drought hit. Millions of people are affected due to this. Common sense (I hope you have at least a bit) tells that using money for drought relief make more sense than splurging on all kinds of statues. Instead, Mayawati spends state's money on statues and asks money from the centre for drought relief. I am sure our Mr. X appreciates this complex money management!!

Wake up Mr. X, before its too late! People are going to trash your leader in the next elections if things continue this way.

Started, at last

There are days when I have felt that I am simply wasting my life and whiling away my time. I have always had the urge to do something on my own. But my mind goes blank whenever I think about what I should do. When such days became more and more frequent, I told it to a couple of my close friends. They said that I was not alone. Even they felt the same way.

There are striking similarities between them and me. We are stuck in a job which we dont particularly love for various reasons. We want to do something different - something on our own. We want to give back to our society and our country in a big way. We, like everyone, want to make a name for ourselves. Finally, we, like most people, dont know how to acheive the above :-)

This became the hot topic of discussion whenever we met. However, the discussions were not translating into any sort of action. Our desperation was increasing. One fine day, we decided - enough of talking, its time we act. We gave ourselves a few months time to think and generate ideas. Later each of these ideas would be discussed threadbare and the shortlisted ideas would move to the next round of deliberation.

I can now proudly tell that after several meetings and deliberations, we have shortlisted one idea which we are taking up for implementation. We have started the ground work and you will hopefully hear about our progress soon.

I am really excited and plan to give my everything to make this small venture of ours, successful. I hope your best wishes and support are with us.