Madison Square Gardens to Shark Tank
– Modi thunders dawn of a new world order!
I don't actually concede that I have
two left feet for the simple reason that I never feel shy of shaking more than just
one of them at the mere drop of a hat. At the same time I can never claim to be
any virtuoso when it comes to accepting a salsa (or rumba or waltz or ballet or
even bhangra) challenge from anyone in my neighbourhood. Still, I am sure that
many of you would agree with my assessment of the last Sunday’s dance
performances @ Shark Tank as being merely ‘enthusiastic’ (not the kind that the
‘once’ haughty N. Sreenivasan used to see his son-in-law as) and amateurish at
the best. Their choreographers would have earned a serious rebuttal if these
acts were to be staged in front of any of the everyday Indian dance reality
shows’ judges some of who claim to think from their ‘intellectual’ hearts when
it comes to such touchy discussions like OROP. But please spare a thought for
these poor souls (I am referring to the dance performers here) who don't have
regular access to any of Shiamak Davar or Sandeep Soparikar extravaganza (mundanely
called ‘classes’) to hone their skills on popular Bollywood numbers. It
probably was these young guns’ maiden public exhibition.
That the not so amazing audio feed on the local broadcasters didn't help the cause is also I would like to live with. As I am writing this NaMo just rotated his index finger to a thunderous applause with an implied air of self approval! Here also, yet again, quite cheekily he referred to some ubiquitous Indian damaad (son-in-law) who doesn’t need any introduction to even Donald Trump (or may be our very own Alia) and whose corruption sagas have reverberated the pillars of parliament so often to stall its proceedings.
That performances of these so very excited young NRI kids won't be able to draw any critical acclaim or a nomination to "America's got Talent" is not the point. That what all of the daily "prime time" usual suspects (including the Barkha's, the Arnab's n the Rahul's) have been boasting about the number of rooms booked on the entire West Coast for their respective ‘largest’ crews for the past few days is also besides the point. That precisely one year ago, on the very same day (but on the Eastern side) a certain Rajdeep could still (stage) manage to get himself hackled amid all the festivities and thus got trended on Twitter more (yeah, albeit briefly!) than the guest of honour himself is also a forgotten footnote.
What truly leaves indelible mark on the intelligence of both a discerning listener and over the common jurisprudence is much beyond the now established (beyond any doubting Thomas's) trade mark charisma and impromptu oratory skills of the country's ‘first’ worker. In the 63 minutes he gave to himself (the audience world over wouldn't have minded if he chose to double the dosage) he not only successfully touched the emotional cord of the Indian Diaspora but also took some "on the fly" (to the best of my available info) decisions to make their lives easier (just the way he did during his last flamboyant exhibition in Manhattan) with just one stroke of his pen! That's the power a true leader manager is expected to wield. Quite unfortunately, our politicians of the yester ‘era’ (hopefully with a new era now emerging we have the luxury of calling that as one) believed in one dictum only, "Power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely!"
This indeed was a master stroke for not only did he oh, so beautifully mocked fun of his own Visa (status) being denied by the US authorities, yet again but indeed discounted it as something that shouldn't be restricted for any of the attending (PIO) audience. I am sure that it would keep resonating the consciousness of the scores of present US Congress representatives half of which would in some way have played a part in that decade old decision over which better sense prevailed, just in time. That's what is called caning a tiger in his own cave! Half of them were simply as amused as our very own Indian Diaspora and were gleefully taking part in the proceedings. It’s quite a different story that back in Delhi few bickering Congressmen were having a tough time for the past few days in making a presentation to their Diva, Her Highness on what all nits could be picked from this an otherwise absolutely spellbinding charm spell of the great tactician. They already had found one during the town hall discussion with the great Mark but the deplorable way in which one of them questioned the very plight of one mother and tried to discount it as nothing more than a social drama was to be seen to believe. It truly proved beyond reasonable doubt that all of them have already given up on their political relevance as their stature in current scheme of things (and in near foreseeable future as well) could at best be deemed as ‘marginalized’! What a pity these guys are making of themselves!
If I were to handpick just one key take away from this ‘presentation’ without a PPT it would be the fact that quite a sizeable target audience, both physically present at the venue and the wire-listeners, would love to find itself having sold over this sales pitch for "India", the product with a deadly concoction of three D's i.e., Democracy, Demographic dividend and Demand. I won't be surprised if the entire event (in conjunction with its year old precursor), its built up, the brouhaha & palpable excitement, ultimately leading up to the opera like performance by the "Maestro" gets included in the Harvard's curriculum shortly, of course with the intended objectives having been already achieved by then.
Yours truly had earlier composed the following piece on 20th May last year and once again it indeed sounded music to my ears on 28th Sep. when after "the speech" got over one emancipated young listener at the Shark Tank did indeed compare it with the "originally famous" Narendra's Chicago speech over a century ago.
Do I stand having redeemed myself today, precisely 500 days after having dared to commit some form of a blasphemy? The jury is already out on this and it only bodes well for our great nation.
I never was an atheist but have been shunning idol worshipping since long. Is it too late for me to convert again? Not really! And it wouldn't dent my ego one bit to embrace a new form of theism openly.
Vande Mataram!
(C) Rits Original
Scorpiofury.blogspot.com
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