Put the cover back on the kettle

Let’s not talk about poverty. It’s so NGO types--the whole discussion surrounding the Indian poor with a few journalists like P. Sainath always focusing on the naked, the malnourished and the psychologically bruised found infesting the street of Swachh Bharat.


There seems to be a sinister plot by the foreign media and a few traitors to malign the reputation of the great Indian civilization by always talking about India's obscene record on poverty index even when they are writing about the booming economy of our great country (http://nyti.ms/1MKM3OT).


Why do these hungry mouths haunt only the foreign media and a few desi publicity seekers? Surely, we Indians have a lot to attend to-- family affairs, extramarital affairs, jobs, horrible bosses, etc, etc. Our insurmountable struggle in no uncertain terms can accommodate that extra-burden of thinking and doing something about poverty. Those smelly, unkempt beggars only know how to stretch out their skinny arms at the sight of every passerby to ask for alms, they don’t fit in the picture-perfect dreams of ‘shining India’ or ‘Achche Din’.

Begging should be strictly restricted to our politicians--pleading and shedding tears for our votes. There is a strange novelty about the rich and their trendsetting arguments. It’s such a heartwarming feeling to wake up to the news of benevolent leaders of the country putting aside their ego and wardrobe to help the country-- sensationally priced and designed pinstripe monogrammed bandhgala suits coming under the hammer to clean up the sins coagulating the Ganga. Isn’t that great? It’s absolutely okay for the rich and powerful to wear their suits only once and throw it away for ‘charity’ but that beggar on the outer ring road in Bengaluru seen wearing that same smelly lungi since God-knows-when does not have the courage to get rid of it. That is called greed and inability to part with your valuables.


So, if an aspiring actor/director Varun Pruthi decides to “feed the fire” in a child labour with that elusive piece of meat at MacDonalds and uploads the entire sequence of events on YouTube, the country feels cheated and hurt. Varun is an accused caught in the act of filming and showing the world the unimaginable routine of a child who has to look after his ill mother and a little sister.

For the corporate-sponsored media, only smiling and happy kids interacting with the PM or standing with spelling bee trophies can make it to the front page of dailies. Listen man, front page comes with a cost. So, thus the rest of the pages (those prophetic words that “space comes with a price” heard several times in newsrooms are not easy to forget). Varun is like Satyajit Ray, who kicked controversies, by showcasing our best kept secret--poverty. No, don’t utter the word if you are in an air-conditioned room, the air would get polluted. Don’t look at poverty, your eyes would get hurt. No, don’t whisper those words. Why bother? Who is listening?