Pothana is ever relevant

Mandaara makaranda maadhuryamunadelu...

Mahati cycled turned around the corner, slowly, oblivious to the natural beauty around her. Cycling. Thinking. Cycling. Staring into the distance. Cycling. As the bike passed right next to the pink flower in the green grass, the honey bee rose from it...

Madhupambu vovune madhanamulaku

to check whats going on, but not wanting to let go of the sweet summer flower...

Nirmala mandakini vichikala thoogu...

Mahati turned right, passed the golden carpet of the harvest ready wheat fields and cycled parallel to the tiny stream, gurgling on the pebbles and stones. The ducks stayed in the water fearlessly, gliding along, smoothly, with the water flow...

Rayancha jaanune tharanginulaku

unmindful of the disturbance created by the passing bike in the surroundings...

Lalitha rasaala pallava khaadhiyai chokku...

As the clouds scattered the setting sun's light, spreading the rays as if to bathe the Earth in the warm shower of the evening sun, the Mocking bird started singing, as if to mock the mechanical life of human beings...

Kokila cherune kutajamulaku

Mahati then turned her bike towards her home, to heat and eat the frozen pizza, to wake up early the next morning, and to be successful!

Vinutha gunaseela maatalu veyunela!?

Do I need to explain further!?

To do or to not do

"How can you be so irresponsible? This is blatant dereliction of your duty. You are here to serve us. You better do it properly!" Mahati heard an elderly lady shout at the newly joined, young travel ticket examiner (TTE) on the janshatabdi train, bound to New Delhi. Mahati put away her earphones which continued to play Channa Mereya, completely oblivious to what's happening around. Mahati quickly gobbled the Chole Kulcha she wished to enjoy slowly when she bought it at the Ambala Cantt. She wanted to help if there is any trouble. She inquired what the problem was, from her neighbour.

Her neighbour looked up from his jio-sim equipped smartphone, grinning. He was engrossed in watching the popular Hindi drama serial on Hotstar. Mahati understood that the guy knew what was happening around just as much as his smartphone does. She then realised that more than half of the coach were like her neighbour. So much to be a good samaritan! Just as Mahati rose to find out if everything was okay, an old man with thick beard and a blue turban which was tied down tightly to his chin with a cloth rope started to shout at the TTE as well. The old man is a daily traveler on the train and apparently, the previous day, the TTE failed to notice an unclaimed bag and that created a ruckus. Today as well, there seem to be few unclaimed bags. Mahati showed the TTE which all her bags were. The TTE struggled with the smartphone wielding youth who were uninterested in their own baggage and finally he shortlisted two bags to belong to none. He shouted for two coolies who came in like bomb detection squad. They all decide to not open the bags as opening unclaimed bags would be as foolish as trying to play a spinner with a cross bat. The bags are kept in a far corner. In Kurukshetra, the TTE relayed the information to the next, Karnal station and in Karnal, dropped the bags at the station master room.

The old man, the elderly lady and the other very responsible, respected people were satisfied. They stood the TTE on the spot and taught him the basics of his work. What wonderful teachings, wondered Mahati, just like Krishna to Arjun, at the very same Kurukshetra! After the TTE was allowed to go and perform his lesser important duty, other than listening to the elders, they all started to talk among themselves, quoting various incidents way back from the 80's. 'Do they even maintain newspaper clippings?' chuckled Mahati to herself. She then remembered her earphones. By now they were playing Kabira. As the train neared Panipat, two men, who looked like a tall and a short pahalwan entered the coach, looked on the racks and inquired the people around, in a rough language, where their bags were!

No one spoke. Mahati was listening to Ye tara wo tara, her neighbour was cursing the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law at the same time, from the hindi serial. A scared passenger brought in the skinny TTE and ran away. The burly man looked into the face of the TTE and menacingly asked where his bag containing his certificates were. The TTE informed that two bags were dropped off at Karnal. The men did not find place for their baggage containing certificates in their coach. So they decided to keep them in this coach. The TTE tried to explain the previous days incident and looked at the old man with the turban for help. The old man looked straight ahead, tugging at the rope which secured his turban to his chin. The TTE turned to the elderly lady who first noticed the unclaimed bags. She simply said, "I do not know what you are talking about." Enraged, the TTE made a phone call to his superior and assured that the youth would receive their bags by courier and that they need to pay for it at the New Delhi station. He then turned to the public and hissed, "You want to know why the so called 'public servants' neglect their duty most often? I just realised that it might be because the public do not deserve servants!"

A week later, Mahati looked at a newspaper report about a blast near Kurukshetra in a New Delhi bound train. The bomb seemed to have been in an unclaimed bag and no one bothered to report it. The TTE was suspended. There was no longer a chin for the blue turban to be bound to.

The Fearless

In the movie, the Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan had made an error. The bank robbers should have been wearing a different kind of masks, the mask of perfect gentlemen. Then the bank would have straight away given the key to the vault. Mr. Nolan has too little imagination!

Fear makes a person work hard and earn. Fear gives strength. Fear keeps a person honest. It is the fear of failure that made people like Virat Kohli what he is today.
Fear makes a person steal. Fear kills. Fear makes people lie. It is the fear of facing life that makes the likes of the suicide committing students what they are today.

Nirav Modi had no fear. He worked hard to earn by stealing. He had no fear. He lied that he was honest. He had no fear. He lived a successful life. A life which thousands dream of. To rub shoulders with celebrities. To be the patron of stars, to deal with the highest class of people, live in the best possible of localities and create a brand around one's name. A month ago, Virat Kohli would probably have been shopping for the finest diamond necklace from a Nirav Modi's shop and students from IIM Ahmedabad would be writing thesis papers on the Nirav Modi brand.
Nirav Modi had a clout. So did Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, Dawood Ibrahim, Haji Mastan and many others who are still wearing a mask on their faces. Don't panic if your favourite filmstar or cricketer loses his mask and gets exposed.
Yes, mask it is. Nirav Modi had no fear. Neither does Lalit Modi or Vijay Mallya. They had their masks on. If you don't believe this, browse through all their company catalogues or videos, you will understand. They probably have no fear now, because the mask has been removed. So why not live the common man's dream. Vijay Mallya watches cricket matches leisurely while Lalit Modi tours one country a day. Nirav Modi would probably start dating one hollywood beauty every day. The common man will move on and continue dreaming while such people will live those dreams.

The opposition is having a field day. The government is in loggerheads with the opposition about the point, who is it to blame for the mishap. Finally, it is sure that there were multiple number of noses under which Nirav Modi swooped through and created an empire for himself. There is no point asking Raghuram Rajan what he was doing or telling P Chidambaram and Arun Jaitley to give an explanation. The damage is done and there adds up another set of NPAs for the public sector banks. No Manmohan Singh or Narendra Modi can save it in a day. Every government had been struggling to keep the PSUs alive for quite sometime now. By the way, just a point of observation. Too many siphoning cases are coming into limelight after 'Chotta' Rajan got caught in Bangkok a year and half ago. Any coincidences?

Yes, the public is shaken. So am I and are the millions of depositors in the PSUs who in reality stand guarantee for people like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. But as always, the public has a volatile memory. There is too much to read about, already. Soon, this will phase out. Just like the commonwealth games, 2G, coal, augusta westland, adarsh and countless other scams before, this scam will be forgotten. There will be other massive scams that will come up in future about which the public has to talk about. Brace yourselves! And oh, if all goes well and if people truly forget the scams, then like D. Raja and Kanimozhi, Vijay Mallya and co would probably make a comeback too.

It is a fact that such people live a king size life. Just type in Vijay Mallya/Lalit Modi/Nirav Modi king-size life on google, you will know. And they had no fear. They could now as well give a motivational talk which goes like, 'Do not have fear. Live your life. Chase your dreams. The Naomi Watts and Kate Winslets shall automatically come to you. Just keep one thing in your mind: Nobody is a saint but everyone is a gentleman. Just keep the mask on. Don't worry about the others, they will keep dreaming!'