CWG

Correct me, if I’m wrong, but the Commonwealth Games is just a stupid contrivance that India is using to suck up to the rest of the world – to prove, if you will, that it is just as good as China or America. India, as it transpires, is a rising superpower – or so the Government would like you to believe. Everything that has been in the news these past few days belies this. Bridges are collapsing, false ceilings (there’s a hilarious Faking News variant that writes “false” in quotation marks to highlight the irony) are crumbling away, security is embarrassingly ineffectual (an Australian TV crew actually managed to bring in 200 pounds or something of explosives without being stopped anywhere, in an attempt to test security), terrorist attacks are taking place in the vicinity, intruders are managing to break in sanguinely and damage property, and foreign delegates are complaining about the inhabitability of the rooms. And the Government is haughtily brushing aside these reports, saying that these are just insignificant glitches that don’t bother them.

I suppose, even still, that I don’t consider myself very patriotic toward India. It’s just that, living in a country where every second person you meet inspires a strong desire in you to get violent, you can’t help becoming irked at such things. There is a limit to how much stupidity you can be subjected to without cracking. If the Government weren’t so hung up on creating a lasting impression of its less-than-underdeveloped country in the world, then things might have been more peaceful. At this point, I want to call the rest of the world idiots for not withdrawing completely from this dumb event – as if bowing to the whims of the Indian Government is going to make them look like good guys. Maybe if all of you suddenly decided not to show up for the games, the idiots in charge of the event might actually realize how many lives they were about to put in danger. If the entire village doesn’t blow up by itself, the terrorists will surely do it. Indian architecture, organization skills, security – all style (more often than not, unachieved), absolutely no substance. To put it bluntly, these so-called authorities are being paid to revel in carnage.

On a different note, I’m generally tolerant toward religion – but not when it begins interfering with my life and disrupting my routine. It’s annoying to see people going to Tank Bund in hoards to immerse little clay statues (or in some cases, ridiculously big statues) of Ganesh in the water and pollute the already excessively polluted lake further. But it’s absolutely infuriating, when the police barricade the entire area (as in, every single road that leads in and out of it) just to allow these hooligans a little privacy when they’re doing the immersion. I use the word “hooligans”, because that’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw this jobless, ignorant, cynical, uneducated, primitive, uncultured, boorish crowd traveling – literally – in truckloads. They have absolutely no right to disrupt the flow of traffic – not to mention, no logical reason to pray at all, seeing as all their misery can be attributed to their own deleterious indolence, congenital stupidity, and/or the fact that they’re busy drowning clay statues when they could have spent their time doing something more productive. Needless to say, I had to go back home.

To further exacerbate my mood, I learned later that school was actually open. That effeminate wannabe who works at the AO department told me very matter-of-factly that classes were definitely on. What’s the use of answering your stupid phone at nine in the morning, when I tried calling you from Lakdikapul twice between 6.50 and 7? At seven, by the way, the barricades had still not been removed, so there was absolutely no way, I would have thought, in which people could have possibly gone to school. And yet they did. What am I missing here? When I was absent last week, did they distribute helicopters at FIITJEE? To be used in situations like this? Or do I really need a change of glasses already? My only consolation is that Janardhan sir was absent, so I didn’t miss much that I can’t make up for easily. But seriously – and I’m not going to let this drop – how on earth did people make it to FIITJEE? What’s your secret? I have to know. Or did they (just my luck) open the roads JUST after I turned around?

Lastly, I HATE, LOATHE, and DESPISE Blogger's new post editor. It can't recognize code as elementary as the paragraph tag. It makes me wonder why they even made the new editor. Are they becoming all flash and no substance like the Indian Government, too? Jeez, am I sick of being surrounded by stupidity!