The run-up to this Deepavali is perhaps the most tumultuous in recent times.The nation approaches the mother of all festivals with mixed feelings as never before: While the festive spirit beckons in all optimism, the ground realities prompt otherwise. Indeed, the current season is an ideal foil for Hamlet, the eternal example of a person in two minds. Yes, Hamlet was not known to have celebrated Deepavali, but the present is a celebration of dilemmas that he personified.
The foremost question at an individual level, ahead of ‘what to do’, is: What’s the mood? But if the frame of mind determines the nature of action, a Hamletian affliction should automatically mean inaction. Of course, I do not know what Hamlet really did after that legendary query, ‘to be or not to be’, for like many of you I never bothered to trouble Shakespeare beyond that famous sentence. But coming back to inaction, readers would have by now understood that I have nothing worthwhile to write about this week and am only trying to make a virtue out of my confusion. Naturally, everything under the Sun, even if the sun itself is literally under clouds, would now find mention. And the moon too.
Getting back to moods, are you by any chance feeling good? Then you must surely be a Government/public sector employee, for the rest of humanity is reeling under insecurity. Or probably you already belong to the unemployed multitude in which case your feel good derives from the smug satisfaction at your flock swelling. But talking of the rest of H referred to above, who form over 90% of Indians, feel good has turned out to be a fatal farce. To a good proportion of even that populace, like farmers? the feel good was never there in the first place. But for those who did enjoy it, courtesy consumer credit on top of bulging pay cheques, the dream is being disturbed by wake up calls. To declare doom is premature, but to continue dreaming is immature. What should the Indian middle class do? Tighten the belt around its, er, middle or pretend there is no bust and open the purse even if it is thinning?
The economic dilemma is accompanied by a paradox. India’s traditional savings-driven economy had in the last one decade emulated the West’s, particularly America’s consumer-driven model. Sure, Indian festivals with their impetus on spending have been great propellants of the economy over the centuries, but the round-the-year shopping spree of the present is largely a western import. If still our country has not followed the American path in the current crisis, it is mainly because the ‘conversion’ was not complete. The residual reticence that survived the lures of endless credit and endearing marketing has ensured that many households still remain solvent, unlike in America. But to the paradox: When inflation fuelled by oil prices were running riot during the past few months, buying too peaked. But with oil prices falling and prices of commodities and services heading south thanks to the recession, shoppers may turn scarce. What’s the rationale? Sure, bright economists will have foolsafe, if not failsafe, theories. But, small wonder economics confounds the commoner and puts him to sleep.
The prevailing dilemmas transcend mere monetary economics. There is the familiar Deepavali dilemma over crackers: It looks environmentalists and child rights champions are slowly having their way. But there are other dilemmas that have nothing to do with Deepavali, but still generate fireworks and a lot of smoke. Take for instance the cricketing dilemma that India’s explosive victory over Aussies has set off: Will the Dadas who tolled tons have a rethink now? Will young India have to wait till it gets old? Or consider the fiery furore being let loose by Raj of Thackeray clan in Maharashtra and beyond. Here’s that deadly dilemma: What is safe for the nation – Raj Thackeray in jail or out on bail? If he is in jail, the rest of the Sena would burn up the rest of the country. If he is out on bail he alone would make up for the rest of the Sena and burn up the entire country including his beloved M’rashtra! Now is there a middle path in between the horns? A talk with big Bal may help. It takes a Thackeray to check a T’ray!
Kalaingar K’s dilemmas are legendary. At the personal level, no amount of rationalism has been able to settle certain ‘issues’. Disposing of the Marans was easy. But choosing from Azhagiri, Stalin and Kanimozhi and their progeny is turning out to be a tough call even for someone who has handled the mothers of many such dilemmas with ease. Politically too, with elections round the corner, it’s dilemma time again: Have all the bridges …sethus … been burnt with Lord Ram’s own party, BJP? Or should the Roman holiday continue? And with the familiar tiger rearing its head again, is there a way out by which he can play protector of SL Tamils without being dubbed anti-national? Trust the ultimate rationalist to come up trumps. Really, arresting Vaiko, the familiar fall guy, had never posed a dilemma to any CM. Having thus established his patriotic credentials, how now to ‘save’ the SL tamils and make the SL army shudder in their military fatigues? Lo, a human chain, that’s it! But from cycle chains, that’s truly a sterling evolutionary growth (parinama valarchi) indeed and a peaceful resolution of the dangerous dravidian dilemma!
Aah, I had promised the moon, honey. Chandrayan is still hotly debated for its real utility. Critics call it mere flag waving, while ISRO scientists dub it a giant leap for India, the rest of mankind having already done it way back in the sixties and seventies. All said, moon missions are, well, once in a blue moon events and call for celebration. And we at Talk have a vested interest. For if moon walk is well nigh, can a Moon Talk be far away? No dilemma there, provided readers precede us on the lunar landscape.
And Happy Deepavali it shall be. No dilemmas on that surely.
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