Corruption.

People are weird. Yesterday, I was eating my dinner at the office cafeteria when one of my leads comes to me and asks, “Are you really eating?” to which I replied, “What else does this look like?” He gave me the overused expression of disgust and started small talk with another lead, leaving me to wonder, why do people with power in their hands think they can get away with dumbness?

This makes me ponder further. Like, why do corrupt people with power in their hands throw it away with a big scam when they could’ve simply played it safe and continued doing the small gigs they usually do? Simple. Because they’re stupid and think they can get away with such atrocities because they’re in power. And no measly position at that. That’s not saying much, considering the fact that everyone in India seems to believe that these guys will get them out of whatever shithole they are in. Or wait, are we forgetting the all forgiving bottle of brandy and a few hundred rupees they throw at them on the eve of voting day? Well, you go figure.

But then again, you would think the problem is that. But it’s a lot complex than this. Education, for one. If every one in India is educated (at least till high school), we’ll overthrow this shitty government and form an administration which communists will be proud of. But then, they take care of that too. Now, this will be the lower officials who act as the middle men to the higher officials. Eating hungrily any leftovers the higher officials throw at them. They make sure that free education, free electricity, free food and clothes—basic survival necessities are NOT free. So, you may ask, what do the poor people have? Nada. If you are poor, you need to fight your way to be rich in India. All the social reforms, all the NGO’s (total respect), all the free stuff the government promises, they all go to utter waste thanks to the corruption. And the end result? The ever increasing price of everything you need to live a comfortable life.

Now, you may start thinking the best way to get rid of all this would be to simply get better people to rule us. And there you step into the puddle of mud again. We are as corrupt as everyone else around us. We were bred that way. Why bother going to the police station when paying Rs. 100 to the traffic police is just fine? It saves him the time so that he can loot a lot more of us, and it will save you time, embarrassment and the hassle to run around police stations. And we all know how much that sucks. But the problem is, it is corruption at its simplest form and that is where it starts/grows. And by that logic, Suresh Kalmadi and Raja had all the chances of getting away with such a scam, if they played it a bit low key and weren’t dumb enough to think that they would get away with that, what with all the media channels gulping and spitting out every controversy there is to be shown. I bet this thought crossed both their minds after being exposed. “Why the fuck didn’t we do this in the 80’s and 90’s?” And that’s a very valid argument, because there was only one news channel and content in newspapers were suppressed to a degree where whoever pays the most is praised the most, again thanks to the corruption. Things have slightly changed now but I do not see an upside to this yet. Greedy politicians with ancestral money will keep buying off votes and come back to power. If you decide this government is too corrupt, wait and see what the next government you vote in does. It’s an on-going cycle.

So what would I suggest? Stick it up to them? Fight corruption? Naxalism? Youth politics? “Be the change you want to see”? No. Take the easy way out and get the fuck out of here as quickly as you can. Because boss, “is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta”. And all this while I was eating my dinner. I rest my case.