Monday, November 11, 2013

The Visit of a VIP on a Mundane Day- Gangtok




Whenever I get to discuss about democracy, I get emotional. For me, like many others, democracy is an ethical question. This was the reason that I did not enjoy my Sri Lankan visit (just before the last civil war and subsequent genocide) much: despite the country’s breathtaking beauty. The army check-posts, the tedious process of checking (since I have a Chennai address in the Passport and I look like a Tamil), travel restrictions and above all ‘something about to happen’ kind of ambiance, I felt some sort of un-freedom there.

Mahatma Gandhi Marg- Gangtok
Perhaps, this was the reason, I did not like the arrival of the nice looking woman police officer in the morning asking us to remove the clothes (spread for drying on a cloth-line) from the balcony facing the NH 34 (the only highway we Sikkimese has and very possessive about it). She was medium polite and informed us that due to the VIP movement we have to remove the cloths from the line and have close all the windows facing the road.

The funniest thing is that we did not know who the VIP was, what is the purpose of his/her visit  till yesterday and what  all we knew was that hell a lot of activities were going on, cleaning up of the ridges, white-washing, decorating the traffic Island and other such places with marigold etc, etc. There was a mobile announcement two days back that the people should not park their cars on the roadsides. To understand the devastating effect of this announcement, you have to live in Sikkim.  Parking is a huge problem here, if you could find a place somewhere on the roadside, then you are being treated as lucky. And you can see people parked their vehicle in every possible angle which made me laugh when I came here first; but it is no longer a joke. We are extremely lucky to have got some space in front of the University library to park our car.

 People were running hither and thither to find a place to park their vehicles far away from the VIP passage.   As the library is situated on the main road, our car has to find shelter on the girls’ hostel compound which was quite far from the roadside.  

Right now, through the closed window, I see the deserted road; a lone ambulance and two police vehicles passed through it in the last 45 minutes or so. Whole traffic to this part of the State (the only road- no diversion possible) has been completely stalled. The students were asked to halt midway.

Suddenly, beaconed vehicles appeared, a total number 30 including two ambulances, VVIPs, VIPs, the press (the fourth pillar) passed in a hurry.

This is where I get emotional; why is that the peoples’ representatives are so scared of the people? Why can’t they travel like other normal human beings without making such sound and fury? If the answer is that they have a lot of things to do than the lesser beings, then my simple answer may be that they have not done as much as they would have done in the last 66 years.  If they stopped the car on the road and just have looked around, they would have seen a lot of child workers living with in their so called development paradigm.

Anyway, thank God, the road-show is over, life got into normal. I can put back my clothes to the cloth-line, as it is winter, we get only few hours of sun.

Long live democracy!           

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