It all began during world Cup (03), with burning of effi-jies (pardon me for the spelling) of Dada’s boys after loosing their first match against the Aussies. That is when I got acquainted to the word effigies (pardon me for the waver :) ). Even the disastrous 07 world cup is done but I was still just spotting the word in papers and not the live demo (god did I just call it that). Soon enough for the first time, I saw one burning right away. Not that it is an exhibit, but I couldn’t help gaping at it. In the middle of FREAKING Shankar nagar square (that’s in Nagpur by the way) with the police having the usual cutting and chalaan session, I saw people walking to the middle of the square and burning effigies like a fire cracker. And I wondered what the hell were the cops doing when there is an orange blaze around! That guy had petrol in a plastic bottle, not a matchstick but a complete log of wood and fire and hold on isn’t it illegal to carry petrol in a bottle?? At least catch him for that, for isn’t that illegal!

And then I wondered, what the hell I was doing staring at those people and thinking of various ways to blame other people around me! I don’t have the balls to walk up to those people, let alone raise my voice! I was just gaping and blaming….. I am just writing this piece as a futile way to feel less guilty, ain’t i?! For all my opinions on youth and democracy and love for Kalaam’s 2020 vision, I do fall into the “chalta hai” “hamare saath tho nahi hua na” “f*c* it” category. So why blame the hawaldar who is at least pretending to protect me. I am sure I have hands of readers raised saying “at least we are honest about being near- spineless”. That is an elixir isn’t it…. like that’s not being a coward….