Pehle AAP !

It’s the time for yet another Lok Sabha election. Though I am not a political commentator, nor I had been keenly interested in politics ever, but this season around there is too much happening in the political front and ignoring all that is a luxury very few can afford.

The most interesting of all has been the recent Delhi elections. Though there were other four states too, but the show was clearly stolen by the Capital city.  It wasn’t the usual two majors putting up a fight, but the golden triangle was completed by the majestic AAP!

Being the first timer , AAP not only managed to be the second largest side of the triangle but also put congress  , the three time major , in a condition that they barely managed to be the smallest corner. What could have been a more interesting show for all?

Despite all sorts of attempts made to defame the party AAP stood victorious that stunned not only the entire nation but our neighbors too. No wonder ours is the biggest democracy in the world and the strongest as its strength has been proven once again!

I had always been an admirer of Sir Arvind Kejriwal. Not because his party has done so well lately, but ever since the anti corruption movement began and all the Anna Hazare crusade took over our nation, Arvind Kejriwal appeared as the most genuine and sincere personality to me.  Someone who wasn’t always in limelight while being in Anna’s team (remember there were others more prominent leaders then!)  

The Modi effect has been huge. But what made the AAP movement different form the modi wave was the way AAP connected to the people. On one hand people were  busy debating over late Sardar Patel statue , there were others going to the root level to win the trust of common man. There were no huge hunkar rallies, no high profile meets, but the work at ground level was such that they managed to win the confidence of common delhiites. There were Jhadu stickers all over Delhi, be it the shops or the chaiwala stall or the taxis. Not big posters with catchy lines, just the small Jhadu stickers were enough. This was the beauty of AAP. Though outside Delhi the AAP effect wasn’t very prominent, but people of Delhi had clearly chosen the Jhadu.

With the new party begins the new hope for Indian politics of being changed from a ‘dirty’ one to a ‘clean’ one. I wish all the luck to the Aam Aadmi party and hope this would inspire few incumbents to work in a similar way (as Rahul Gandhi had put it!)

Rat race

During one of my journeys from Delhi to Dehradun I happened to meet a guy studying in NID (national institute of designing). As a small boy, he dreamt (in his own words!) of designing cars. Why design a car?....Well he belonged to a small village where a car coming in the village was a rare sight. He kind of developed a fascination with cars and made up his mind to be a car designer when he grew up (am not sure if there is any such vocation!). Coz of lack of awareness in his village he didn’t really know how he could get to his dream. But because he felt he had to keep going he finally ended up getting into mechanical engineering in some college I don’t much remember. During his engineering years he still dreamt of designing cars. But once his engineering was over he had to face up to the fact that there was no car designing in mechanical engineering!...on the contrary he had to work rather with the pedals. This guy was broke emotionally… All these years of hard work seemed worthless to him. But he didn’t want to give up to his dreams. He wouldn’t spend his life working around with pedals. So he decided to gather all the information he could on things related to car designing and concluded that it was only through an admission in NID that he could get closer to his dream. He gave up engineering and started all over again. Finally he managed to get admitted in the institute and guess what??....he was just designing a car and drawing its layout while on the way to Dehradun- the thing that he always wanted to do!
This encounter kept me thinking. What on earth was I doing in an engineering college when I never ever wanted to get into this stuff?
I guess it’s always been a kind of rat race or whatever one calls it. Each one of us wants to do what everyone else does. If you are different and want to stay out of the track you are tagged as crazy or still better a loser. This fear of being alienated is precisely what keeps us from taking up the roads less traveled. Also the fear of the unknown makes the idea of going the other way appear to be less appealing as everyone would prefer to live in comfortable zone. But at the end of it all I don’t know how much satisfaction one can derive by going on in an aimless journey while we follow everyone else (provided the race wasn’t the aim).
Following ones dreams was never easy…It’s never been! But I guess it’s the uncertainty on the way that makes the journey stand out from the rest and only those who have the will can conquer the way!