India @ 73

Independence Day is here, and alongwith it comes the 14th edition of the Annual India post. 

There was a tiny little change to our political map. The Union Territories of “Dadra and Nagar Haveli” and “Daman and Diu” have been merged into a single Union Territory of “Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu”. The bureaucracy seriously lacks imagination! 

Like the rest of the world, we have also been brought to a halt by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although we started a bit late, but our densely packed massive population has enabled us to climb very high in the infections chart! And this rise has been aided by our strong "Indianness" – remember the WhatsApp forwards boasting of our “extra-strong” immunity system built over years of living in unhygienic environment or of dthe virus not surviving in our summer heat. and similar others. But even a strict and seemingly never-ending lockdown couldn’t stop us from taking the No.3 spot globally. It has resulted in an already creaking health infrastructure stretched beyond its limits, and a stumbling economy being further crippled down. There has also been the struggle of trying to convince people to follow the social distancing protocols, the reason why the virus is now making inroads into the hinterland (although in this respect we are still much better than the likes of USA). 

We went from Lockdown 1.0 to 4.0 & then started the Unlocks (currently at ver 3.0). But the way our populace behaves it is more like Bhagwan Bharose 1.0 that we live in. 

Apart from the virus, we have had cyclones battering both the East & West coasts, a locust attack from the North, landslides in Kerala, flooding in Bihar & Assam. Nature seems to have taken out its entire arsenal to batter us puny humans. And we have also made our share of the contribution in getting rid of ourselves – the migrant labour disaster, a plane crash, an oil well blowout, a deadly skirmish with China all contributing to making this a terrible 2020. 

Sports the usual saving grace has been the biggest casualty of the pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, we were all set to be sending our biggest ever contingent for the Olympics. Unfortunately, the Games themselves have been postponed by a year! Since the Women’s T20 World Cup Final, there hasn’t been a single event of Indian presence since March! Although our enterprising fellows have managed to conduct a fake match with masked players in Chandigarh pretending to be Sri Lankan veterans playing in their home country. And there was huge betting on it too! This was literally a fantasy league!

Coming to India’s other favorite pastime – politics. The country is presided a by a party whose biggest strengths are how to grab power by hook or by crook. They also know how to take “strong” decisions with scarce a thought on its implementation. And the less said about the Opposition party the better – it still is lead by an interim president for more than a year now! In short, a recipe for ensuring that the common man better become “aatm nirbhar”! 

Enough of the negativity now, because it is a day to celebrate. Happy Birthday India! Because next year will be better! Because we are a resilient lot!

The 2019 edition is here (Link)