Saturday, July 07, 2007

Seems to me everytime there has been a revolution the leaders have specifically targeted 'intellectuals' such as teachers, engineers, doctors and so on. It happened during the French revolution, the October revolution and is happening now in Afghanistan. Although there is a lot of political violence in India we cannot say that a revolution is about to happen, yet the government tries to make the lives of the middle class as unbearable as possible. You get up on old morning and there is no electricity which means the geyser will not work. So you struggle for the next hour heating water in cooking pans on the gas fire in the kitchen. You drive out in plenty of time but get stuck in a traffic jam because some minor municipal official has got some labourers painting the side walk at the busiest time of the day. Or it is summer and there has been no water supply for three days. Being desperate you decide to buy water but have to wait at home until the tanker turns up which means your entire day is ruined. You go to pay your phone bill and find yourself standing in the sun behind twenty people while the fellow at the counter sits having tea without the slightest concern. You have to receive your son at five in the morning at Delhi Airport and notice very thick fog blanketing the entire city. You phone the airport and are told that the flight would definitely be landing on time. So at great risk to life and limb you drive at five miles an hour all the way to the airport to find all the monitors showing that the airport is closed and no flights will be landing in the foreseeable future. Seems to me that the Enforcers want our lives to be such a miserable struggle that we would not have any time to organise any challenge to them. Meanwhile in today's news, the government is very happy for having collected a record amount of Service Tax. Enjoy.

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