So India has celebrated her 62nd Republic Day, with the usual pomp and ceremony - one which has absolutely no meaning to anyone outside Delhi with its political and bureaucratic class. That may not be an accurate statement as there still can be some fools lurking around in other parts of the nation, who think that it is their patriotic duty to watch the parade - like my mother for one.
As for the rest of us, ask if we care. Two major TV News channels even managed to count the Republic Days wrong. Here is the snapshot from my newsreader of yesterday.
:-P
Wonder if the I&B Ministry was watching and would pull them up? If I was the Minister, I would order them to feed 62 orphanages for 62 days each in one of the poorest districts somewhere and telecast it live - 3 times a day.
But our present Information and Broadcasting Minister has more important priorities like enlightening the the media (incidentally one of the offending channels) that a doddering 50 or 68 year old is ‘young’.
I remember my boss commenting once on the question of reviving (extensively repairing) an old junk of a ship and the recommendations of the Captain - ‘One foot is in the grave, and he wants to plaster his p*ick? Tell that bugger to FO’
:-D
So, while everyone was happy and pompous, the chief attraction of the parade turned out to be the 3000% cost overrun and 27 years ‘young’ Tejas LCA Trainer version.
‘Appropriate’ quipped a wag, ‘the trainer has a drooping nose to enable unhindered visibility for trainee pilots. And the buggers sitting in and near the dais too have developed the attitude of looking down their noses at the common man’.
‘Yeah’, was the retort, ‘in the prevailing situation, the common man too has a long face’.
‘More so!,’ was the comeback, ‘ Even the Armed Forces are hanging their heads in shame with the housing scam’.
Thus the Tejas Trainer was judged to be the most accurate reflection of today’s republic, of all the displays on the parade.
0:-)
The droopy Tejas LCA trainer on display on 26th Jan 2011 and ...
the straight nosed Tejas LCA on display an year earlier.
(Yup! I’ve flipped horizontally the 2010 Tejas LCA for similarity of angle)
So drive out those blues and let’s wait for the next year’s tableau
As for the rest of us, ask if we care. Two major TV News channels even managed to count the Republic Days wrong. Here is the snapshot from my newsreader of yesterday.
:-P
Wonder if the I&B Ministry was watching and would pull them up? If I was the Minister, I would order them to feed 62 orphanages for 62 days each in one of the poorest districts somewhere and telecast it live - 3 times a day.
But our present Information and Broadcasting Minister has more important priorities like enlightening the the media (incidentally one of the offending channels) that a doddering 50 or 68 year old is ‘young’.
I remember my boss commenting once on the question of reviving (extensively repairing) an old junk of a ship and the recommendations of the Captain - ‘One foot is in the grave, and he wants to plaster his p*ick? Tell that bugger to FO’
:-D
So, while everyone was happy and pompous, the chief attraction of the parade turned out to be the 3000% cost overrun and 27 years ‘young’ Tejas LCA Trainer version.
‘Appropriate’ quipped a wag, ‘the trainer has a drooping nose to enable unhindered visibility for trainee pilots. And the buggers sitting in and near the dais too have developed the attitude of looking down their noses at the common man’.
‘Yeah’, was the retort, ‘in the prevailing situation, the common man too has a long face’.
‘More so!,’ was the comeback, ‘ Even the Armed Forces are hanging their heads in shame with the housing scam’.
Thus the Tejas Trainer was judged to be the most accurate reflection of today’s republic, of all the displays on the parade.
0:-)
The droopy Tejas LCA trainer on display on 26th Jan 2011 and ...
the straight nosed Tejas LCA on display an year earlier.
(Yup! I’ve flipped horizontally the 2010 Tejas LCA for similarity of angle)
So drive out those blues and let’s wait for the next year’s tableau
No comments:
Post a Comment