Belief in the system.

This write-up was sent to me by an old school-time friend, Vinod Prabhu. This is his friends story, supposedly true. ...and actually unpretentious enough to trust the claim. My friend asked to publish this write-up and hence its here. The write-up came with the title "Cricket and Politics from Grassroots". I changed the title to what seemed more apt to me.

My job Profile gives me lot of opportunity to travel and go to new places. These places include urban, semi urban and rural areas. When one travels through the length and breath of a state there are often lot of things happening around you and being a keen observer I have not missed out on any of these.

One such incident happened last month when I was returning from Sathyamangalam to Erode in a government bus. It was around 7.30 PM at night and due to moderate rains earlier during the day the climate was at its best. Even otherwise this stretch is one of the most fertile cum Picturesque areas which is often thronged by film producers .I was sitting in the last seat placing myself in a vantage position so as to catch a glimpse because I was on my maiden trip to this region.

At that moment when thoughts were criss crossing my minds I received a call from my colleague at central office inquiring about an issue , this conversation mainly took place in Hindi . After finishing the call , a person seated next to me asked me the time, he asked me in hindi quite to my astonishment .I gave a sheepish smile and replied, but the hindi still reverberated in my mind and not being able to hold my curiosity I enquired about his hindi knowledge for which his reply was " sir iam from bihar …iam from bhagalpur" .That was it I was literally flabbergasted to find somebody from bihar in that locality which is tucked deep in TN but a has flourishing agrarian and industrial economy.

Our dialogue continued and I came to know that he along with 15 others from his native were involved in selling clothing bits or " kapda "directly to tailors and also to households .In the meantime sensing my hindi proficiency and his eagerness to express joy he immediately started to speak about the recent T20 world cup win which concluded only a few days ago and arguably had not faded away. He showered his praise for the Indian team and unequivocally commended the Indian captain mahendra singh dhoni for his matchless leadership and captaincy.

He started to speak in length about dhoni and according to him, dhoni used to play for railways during 2001 and frequented Bhagalpur from Ranchi in Bimanchal express, he spoke with such an involvement that it was almost impossible to ascertain his nature of work and the uncertainty involved in it. He told that dhoni used to interact with onlookers in a very casual manner while most of his colleagues used to retire at the dressing room.

He was in full surprise and awe when he reminisced those moments and was very proud that India won the world cup under dhoni's leadership. It seems he used to get frequent pats on his shoulder from dhoni. I was just a mute listener and not a hearer because I was able to absorb the undercurrents that were being conveyed.

Then after some time I asked him about his daily business routine , his average income etcetera to which he told that their team set out on a weekly basis to all the surrounding places from their base and sell the material. The raw material was supplied to them by their uncle who usually was based in Chennai or Coimbatore.

Then I asked him about his parents and there whereabouts to which he replied that they were living in Bihar and whenever he feels like speaking to them he calls them from any local booth and almost impulsively he added that the Re 1 scheme on India plan was very helpful and this has enabled him to speak to his parents almost daily without spending significant amount , I could see the happiness and a sense of gratitude in his face and in this words…which immediately made me think about people like us who have almost made it a habit to foul mouth politicians.

Its people who are urbane, educated and pseudo-westernised who constantly ignore and stereotype politicians. but here was a person who was in all praise for this telecom initiative ( Re 1 all India calling scheme ) put in force by our former cabinet Minister for IT and Telecommunications hailing from Tamil Nadu.

There is a common feeling that ( quite widespread ) that politicians are just corrupt and not delivering on the electoral promises but I can strongly claim that some of them , have delivered immense value to our society in a very short period , we might not see/feel/ receive those services all the time because we belong to a new affluent , educated lot whose power of articulation and the means to do so are much greater than those who form the major stock of our demography viz, farmers , struggling workers and the underprovided for whom major programmes of the government are intended.

As as every body knows, bad word of mouth spreads faster than good things and is also greatly multiplied by the various communicating mediums.

At the moment our bus entered Gopichettipalayam bus stand where my friend alighted and I proceeded towards Chennai. As we exchanged our good bye I could see a unique happiness in his face and the a sense of contentment which gave him enough strength to face the next day and a new location tucked in the corners of our rural landscape.

His name is Mukesh and he is a person who belongs to a new resurgent , young, economically growing, hard working and most importantly a believer in the system which separates people like us( age wise we all belong to the same strata) ..so guys I think the lessons and the essence of this small incident is self explanatory ..try incorporating it deep into your psyche…because I strongly believe in the system.

Will communicate with another insightful true account,
Ur's Truly,
R Vijay Subramanian.