Impressions of a year gone by...

Few words aptly define 2010 ---- scam, scams and more scams. Be it political scams, journalistic scams, telephonic scams, economic scams, onion scams, social scams, personal scams, lusty scams, emotional scams, idiotic scams...,after all, scams ruled the minds. More than hundreds of millions of Indians were washed, unwashed, dressed and undressed in the public over the four letter “revolutionary” word scam.

I will say my life, too, was no less a scam in 2010. I was jobless for almost half the year, after being rejected by more than half-a-dozen prospective employers. Finally, someone succumbed to my repeated begging, and I got that much-elusive appointment letter.

In the hindsight, when someone tells me that 2010 finally managed to get rid off the financial coup of 2008, I simply want to beat the blues out of the economists. What the F…? I struggled, literally begged, ran from one swanky office to another for a job? But, no employer even considered giving a cursory glance at my much-polished CV. Or, is it my lack-lustre work record? I am still in doubt. I thought when the economy is in its pink, it should accommodate all and sundry. If I am not one, than of course, I am one amongst the sundry. I deserve a job, so do millions of my unemployed brethrens.

At a time, when finance ministry is shouting from the rooftop, that GDP(oh! Please explain that what does that mean), will touch the double-digit figure by 2011, and business houses wag its tails in celebration, I could not understand why an average Indian like me have to slog and slog for a job? Perhaps, this is another scam (or in the making), beyond the understanding of common mortals.

The second scam of my life in 2010 is something I don’t remember very well. Oh, yes, I can now recall it vaguely, my loss of memory. I have lost it, yes, lost my memory bank. I don’t regret that. It’s but natural to experience memory loss when age is catching up fast. In fact, I thank my stars, for the loss of memory. I can at least have the bliss of forgetting most of my unsavory experiences.

The last, but not the least, my third scam is a secret. A secret I don’t want to reveal. I, too, want the CBI to hunt and chase me and find my secret. With CBI, the media will also follow. I will get my 15-minutes of stardom. The nation will witness me in the breaking news section of TV channels and few anchors will definitely gurgle before screaming my 'tainted' name again and again. My niece will be delighted to see her aunt on the television, forgetting her favourite cartoon characters for few hours. I hope a few media houses have already started planning their stories, revolving around my secrets. And of course, an obituary of a common (wo)man.