The
debate was on its peak, and the topic, same 'corruption'. Two speakers on NDTV
were debating, one in favor of Anna Hazare movement, and one against.
Rohit, a
software engineer in a multinational company, was listening to this debate with
a great interest. For some extent he also agreed with this movement.
"From
Politician to Traffic Police, everybody is involved in this bloody
business" Rohit, from whom a traffic policeman took 500 as bribe, today
only, said distressingly.
"You
just keep quiet on this topic." Deepika, wife of Rohit said. In her
college days, Deepika participated a lot in these movements, but after
marriage, she too became a mute audience in front of the television.
“Why
should I? After all I’m also an ideal citizen of India” Rohit asked with a bit
anxiety.
“If you
do not participate in building the system, you do not have rights to speak
against the system.” Deepika replied.
“What do
you mean?” Rohit slowed down the TV volume and asked. His full concentration
was on his wife now, rather on TV.
“Ok...
tell me, when last time you went for polling? Every election you skipped
because of your office work or that your damn client calls.” Deepika explained.
“My
single vote doesn’t affect the system” Rohit passed a witty remark.
The topic
of debate on the television was now the topic of debate of Rohit and his wife.
“Haha…
55% people think the same as you. You know this time only 45% of the city
people casted their votes.” Deepika said with a cunning smile.
Rohit
didn’t bother to stretch the debate. He promised his wife to cast next time,
turned off the TV and slept.
Next day
Rohit was in great hurry. Deepika knew that he has a client call; a person from
USA
will decide his next course of action. Whenever there is a client call, Rohit
goes out of his mind and the only thing he can think of, is his client.
“Hey… Can
you wait for a while? Actually I have an appointment with the dentist. So just
drop me on the route to your office.” Deepika asked his husband. Though Rohit
was already getting late, but he didn’t argue and agreed.
In the
middle of the route, what they see, there is a traffic jam. Some Anna movement
volunteers were protesting.
These
freaky people, don’t they have time to do other stuff instead of troubling the
public?” Impatient Rohit said in anger.
Deepika
stayed quiet.
Some how
he escaped from the jam but couldn’t from his bad luck. In anxiety, he forgot
to wear seat belt and a traffic constable caught him.
As he was
already getting late, he took a note of 500 and gave it to the constable to
escape from the spar.
Deepika
had no words to say. She was just watching through the glass and thinking.
“Who is
responsible for this system, the foreigners, who think they can take any work
out of puppet Indians or the Indians who give them peak priority, the traffic
constables who take bribe or the ones’ who give them, the politicians or the
people who vote them or the people who do not bother to vote any ?”
With this
dilemma, she reached where she was heading for.