The thing which is not
HEMA V. RAGHAVAN
One no longer hears in Delhi the children’s cry: “Rain, Rain, go away/Come again another day/Little kids want to play.” Delhi seems not on the monsoon’s regular beat. While it pours in Mumbai and Kolkatta, Delhi gets only leftover rain sufficient to bring the mercury down from the searing forties to humid and hot thirties.
Without an exception every year monsoon fails to keep the weatherman’s predicted date with Delhi and that is a constant. The gathering of clouds with darkness at noon flatters to deceive as the rains, like the Delhi taps, run dry after the first few droplets.
Fancied falsehoods
On a weekend with nothing in particular to do (blame it on the sultry weather), listening to the whirring sounds of the fan or the monotonous drone of the AC, one lashes at the meteorological department for the fancied falsehoods it makes to keep our spirits high and hopeful.
The everyday weather forecasts in the newspapers and on the TV are part of our compulsion to say ‘the thing which is not.’ This is true as much of the weatherperson as of our politicians to make us understand Nietzsche’s proclamation that “the lie — and not the truth — is divine.”
Our Presidential elections this year caught up with the usual spate of lies perpetuated by contestants during the general elections. The media covered all the charges and allegations as the divine truth. A new website was created to educate our elected MPs and MLAs about one of the candidates whose husband and siblings seemed to have crossed over to her enemies camp and provided them with enough ammunition to shoot her down.
Half-lies and innuendos about her financial embezzlement, unauthenticated charges that had not surfaced for about 45 years of her public life, were documented and presented as truth and nothing but the truth.
A top leader of the opposition called her ‘tainted’ after she had been the Governor of a State ruled by his own party. Till recently no one had complained that the colours of Rajasthan had been tainted by the Governor. The Congress dug into the archives to collect enough mud to sling at the Independent candidate supported by the BJP. It hurled a slew of 18 charges relating to murder, abetment to suicide and misappropriation of public funds.
The Left, which was opposed to nominating a non-political figure to the highest office, says the Vice President’s post need not be limited to a politician. The Vice President, who happens also to be the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, has to deal with politicians day in and day out and yet the Left says he can be a non-political figure.
Info-taint-ment
On a rainless, sultry weekend, the eyes that rove over the newspapers and the ears that listen to the shrill voiced cries of politicians of varied hues, provide some info-taint-ment to our dried and parched spirits in Delhi. I mused over Socrates’ view that “the false are powerful and prudent and knowing and wise in those things about which they are false.”
While our weatherperson may lie inadvertently or involuntarily, our politicians may lie intentionally. They have the genius to say ‘the thing which is not’ in the words of Jonathan Swift.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Open Page
