The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Thursday 13 December 2012

RAHUL GANDHI’S LOVE FOR POTATO, POTATO CHIPS AND COMPUTERS (I)

I am not saying this. Rahul Gandhi has been delivering speeches emphasizing these words. Potato and potato chips are the recent inductions (a year or so) after the FDI coronation of ‘his’ government.

Computer, mobile phone and telecom revolution in India have been pet words in many of his speeches and they continue to be so, patronizing, sometimes, Mr. Sam Pitroda.

There were some other tag words but Rahul is not talking them right now. Given the similar streak of his speeches, they are bound to appear in some other speech by his speechwriter, I am sure.

Also, there are some whom his speechwriter is not going to recall again. There was once a Kalawati. Named by someone else, but famed by Rahul Gandhi. Rahul visited her hut, was appalled at her misery, and mentioned her in his ‘fiery’ speech in the Parliament.


Rahul had sounded so assuring then: Empower Kalavati with N-deal, says Rahul - IANS, July 22, 2008(http://ibnlive.in.com/news/empower-kalavati-with-ndeal-says-rahul/69318-37.html)

“I was thinking about what I want to say and I came to a simple conclusion. I decided that it is important at this point not to speak as a member of a political party but to speak as an Indian.”

Kalawati specific parts of speech from the Lok Sabha website: (http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/psearch/Result14.aspx?dbsl=10243)

I would go to the house of Kalawati.  I am glad you find that funny.  But Kalawati is a person whose husband committed suicide.  So, I would urge you to respect her.  I would take you to the house of Kalawati, which I also visited three days ago.  Kalawati is a woman with nine children whose husband committed suicide three years ago.  Her husband committed suicide because he was dependent on only one crop, the cotton crop.  When I asked Kalawati as to why her husband committed suicide, her answer was that he was dependent on only one source of income. … (Interruptions) …* I asked Kalavati as to what did you do.  Kalavati responded by telling me that I diversify … (Interruptions) … I spoke to two poor families.  One of them was called Mrs. Kala… (Interruptions) Mrs. Kala said that she had diversified her income sources and she has used that to stabilize her family and bring up her nine children.

Sir, at the very least, nuclear energy is going to act like Mrs. Kala’s pond and it is going to act as an insurance policy for this country in times of need.  At its maximum, nuclear energy is going to act like Mrs. Kala’s main crop.

This was the career phase of Rahul Gandhi when he evoked expectations that he would practice a different and positive style of politics. But it didn’t take much longer before it ebbed away.

See, for Kalawati, what an India Today report (October 28, 2011), had to say: Rahul's lost widows - Suicides on the rise in Vidarbha, Rahul Gandhi's Kalavati remains symbol of deprivation (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/suicide-in-vidarbha-rahul-gandhi-kalawati/1/157775.html)

"I would take you to the house of Kalawati ... a woman with nine children whose husband committed suicide. I would urge you to respect her." When Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi quoted her example in his July 21, 2008, Lok Sabha speech, describing how she had diversified her income, Kalawati became the symbol of rural resurgence. But Rahul didn't return to check on her. In 2010, Kalawati's son-in-law, plagued by debts, committed suicide. In September, it was her daughter-the fourth death in her family in the last six years.

As Rahul started taking more and more of the political public sphere, he needed to talk more and what he needed to do above all was to do some real ‘walk the talk’.

But the example of ‘Kalawati’ symbolizes what had been happening was not in-sync. Words were coming fluently but equally superfluous was the support from the reality based ground activity.

To continue..

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/