In the movie 2012, planet Earth is being ravaged by natural disasters leading up to the end of the world as we know.
What's interesting is how everything happens almost simultaneously.
Now, personally I think 2012 is a wonderfully done movie and plays to the survivalist streak in each of us. It outdid 'The Day After Tomorrow' in almost every technical department and grossed a ton of money too. A bunch of looney toons endorsed it and we even have a city that put up a countdown timer so that its citizens can be constantly reminded of how long they have before they die!
But do I think the earth will end and we will all die on the 21st of Dec this year? I don't think so. If it were that simple, I'd say we wouldn't have so much sin and evil and everyone would have turned a believer. In the Bible, Christ was often asked about when He thought the Judgement day would happen.
He would answer, 'The day and time is not for you to know... and it will come upon you when you'd least expect it'. Fair enough, I say.
I don't want to live like I am going to die in 50 days, but live to make each day count. Many people who believe the world will end this year have cited increasing civilian unrest, geopolitical struggles, rising economic instability and increasing number of natural calamities as proof that we will all die this year end.
Recent human and nature conflicts have only fueled their theories.
So while the whole of the East Coast and much of South India has seen the fury of bad weather because of Sandy and Nilam, many got an impromptu weekend and caught up on some much needed shut-eye.
But in the meanwhile, I happened to talk to a certain person who firmly believes that the world will end this year. Right after he pointed out why this convincing theory is water-tight, I asked him what his new year plans were and he told me that he had already booked his tickets to party in Goa.
I rest my case.
So what if we still don't have a comprehensive waste disposal system in place, we won't stop living it up. After a weekend of festivities our prudent authorities have confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza. Simply great!
I love chicken and although I eat it a lot less than what I used to until 2 years ago, I still think chicken is an integral part of an Indian's diet. Seeing how a pandemic like this struck at the pockets of the small poultry farmers and tourism in other Asian countries, you'd imagine India would have taken care to see it didn't occur here.
But then India has never had a comprehensive disaster recovery plan when it comes to natural or man-made disasters. We do have wonderful fiction on paper but when it comes to putting it out in action, we fail. So today Neetha declared that chicken is going to be off the menu for a while. Panic struck me. I had to educate her that there is no way that we could get it when we aren't exposed to infected poultry.
I can imagine how this is going to affect millions of people who depend on poultry in and around Bangalore. People are inadequately informed about the virus and since the government isn't doing enough to spread awareness, an outbreak like this leads to public hysteria.
It doesn't help that garbage is covering half of our streets. Years ago, Surat was in the spotlight for an outbreak of plague. While the city has managed to clean up since, you'd think our award-winning civic agency would've learned a lesson or two about public hygiene. It shouldn't really take an American newspaper to put a mirror for us to change.
I've said it before and I'll say it again- the blame lies on us.
Half of us elect people who won't disguise their greed and myopic public vision. The other half simply won't vote. The elected then rule with absolutely no fear of a recall and impose themselves on us. We complain. We threaten. And thanks to our electoral system, we loose our resolve to unseat the corrupt.
Repeat cycle.
If you haven't voted until now, I won't force you to change your habit.
But remember that by not voting for the right person/party, you loose the chance to change.
You become a mute spectator to mutiny that you could have prevented.
You put yourself at the mercy of scumbags that were voted by illiterate slum-dwellers whose only interest was in free packets of biriyani, booze and Rs 500. Or mixer grinder, fans, TVs and laptops if you are in TN.
But ofcourse, you won't need any of these since you are indignant and dont want to vote.
I won't force you to vote since you think you are not going to be affected regardless of who is in power.
But this I will tell you- By allowing one corrupt politician to be voted into power today, he/she is going to do everything in their power to remain there. They will loot as much as they can lay their eyes on. They will covet every rupee that you pay in taxes and you own. They will create laws that will affect you- the guy/gal who didn't vote for them. That's right, they wont discriminate. They will loot and swindle every anna paisa you have until you are dead. And then in five years, they will come back with packets of biriyani and empty balloons of promises and win their votes and you won't be able do squat about it.
