How to get involved in anti-corruption movement

It is really easy you know and I found this out only today. Have you been lazy or bored or anthropophobic or do you hate getting wet, please don't ideas now, to get your rear side to Freedom Park ? I have a perfect solution.

The solution is very simple if you happen to be one of the thousands of "Software Engineers" with your office somewhere near the famed Outer Ring Road. All you need to do is to drive to work via ORR between 8-11 AM in the morning and get back home happily between 5-8 PM. Only two things can happen to you. One, you might treat yourself with some rat poison and owe to not become a software engineer, and specially in Bangalore, in your next life. Two, you might join the people in FP to support their, no, our movement against corruption, which I think is the root cause for most of the ills plaguing our country.

The mess that is ORR is so bloody frustrating and pissing off that it leaves you with no other option. Ah yes, I forgot to mention the option where you might get yourself a shotgun and sacrifice few well-fed politicians for our country. Indians like shooting people. Some one cuts across your path while you are driving at high speed - "These bastards must be shot !". Another multi-crore scam - "Politicians, sons of bitches, why can't some one shoot them !".

Ok, so here I was trying to get to office just like any other honest employee of a honest company only to see a sea of carbon monoxide spewing humanity blocking my way on ORR. So, I come up with this brilliant idea to take a U-turn on ORR, go around to Sarjapur road, take one of the roads seldom taken by mere mortals and hit the service road that leads almost directly to my office. I am late for work by about 20 minutes then this brilliant idea of mine can cost me another 20 minutes but hey, it is better than being stuck in traffic for an hour. And also, some one has said that geniuses always do things nobody dares to do or something to that effect. So, I do it, with the help of couple of invectives thrown at me by my brothers stuck in traffic, I never said the plan was easy. And when I get to the service road, surprise surprise, a policeman greets me in his own peculiar way and tells me the service is closed ! What the hell ! The service road was functioning fine all this time when I was taking my company cab, how on earth can they close it off when only I go to office driving ! And worst part is that he directed me to the same point on ORR from where I first started ! Oh boy, if only I can find that person who said things about geniuses, arrrgghhh....

And please don't get me started on the journey back home from office in the evening. I don't have enough hair on my head to pull out.

Anna ji, here I come....

I am sorry Anna

I tried, I really did. I was not suppose to post anything till a particular event happened in my life. But this is just an irresistible bandwagon, too good a high, too gratifying, it is like that feeling you get when you scratch an irritating itch (no matter where it is itching). I had to write this.
I failed the man. I should have been there to support the noble cause for which he staked his life. I wasn’t there. I was wading through despicable Bangalore traffic, trying to.... I don't know what. Honestly, I was hoping the fight would last this weekend, so that I could be there. But knowing me, I wouldn’t be surprised if I still couldn’t make it. This crusade against the biggest enemy our country has known since independence was an unbelievable act of grit and determination and I wasn’t there to support it. An enemy so big, it makes China and Pakistan look second rate. An evil so slick that you wouldn’t know if you are a part of its “plan”. It needed a warrior who is old, frail and kind. Not exactly the kind of warrior you’d have on your side, but he is certainly more powerful than a Roman Legion. It needed a warrior, who my wife and sister-in-law think is a “cute thaatha”. He is cute alright, but he is as tough as nails. Still, it wouldn’t be complete if I had not given it a miss. I have a funny way of being an idiot.
To make up to him and to all my fellow Indians (politicians excluded), I decided to break my promise I made to myself and write this post and dedicate it to the man we have all come to know as “Anna”. Of course, most of the Indians, hadn’t even heard the name before. Or is it just me ? I don’t think so. Till last year, on an average there were about 2000 hits per month for Anna’s Wikipedia page. It has got a mind blowing 200,000 hits in April ‘11 alone and we still have 20 days left in this month. The number is comparable to average number of hits that a great son of India who goes by the name Sachin gets on his Wikipedia page, which is about 250,000 hits. That’s how famous and influential our “thaatha” is. And rightly so. In a country, where Rakhi Sawant, no disrespect to her, but come on, is a “celebrity” for reasons best known to her, Anna’s popularity is only well-deserved.
Coming back to the point of making it up to you all. Well, now that I didn’t attend any rallies or gatherings, I will just make sure that I will not “grease” anybody’s hands to get things done. I hate to admit it but I have paid bribes in the past, simply because everyone else did and it was easy. With so much red-tape in the officialdoms, it is rather tempting to just take the easy way out and bribe someone so that we can save some precious time, that we would otherwise use up trolling the internet. But I realize that you always have an option. There is nothing wrong if you don’t “pay up”. You will waste a lot of time, but at the end of the day you will be at peace with yourself. I know what that feels like, trust me it feels good like hell. It makes for good economic sense too, save few bucks. And I think if we make a stand now, we will not only stem the rot but also set it up for the future citizens of our country. It is important that we set the right examples. And in any case, it is going to be a fight that should be carried on by the generations to come. By the way, this also applies to people who were at the Freedom Park.
Anna, I am sorry for not being there for you and for my country. We know it is going to be a very difficult or even an impossible task to rid our country of corruption, make no mistake we are going to mighty try. BTW, I really shouldn’t be speaking of you and Rakhi in the same breath. Please accept my apologies.