Who is a VIP ?

There are currently a lot of discussions on the media regarding the rampant misuse of facilities by politicians , their kith and kin and entourage and the VIP culture. I fully support this campaign and wish well for the media in their crusade against this obnoxious practice that people in power of all hues and kind abuse in this country.

In one of the recent debates, there was a politician who was arguing about the status of the position making him VIP. Well I really wonder who actually is a VIP ? When I look at myself in the mirror in the morning after a shave the narcissistic bit in me actually throws back an image of the biggest VIP in the world. So I should also get all the privileges rather than waiting at endless queues and paying endless tolls and other taxes !

While on the way to office I see a mother escorting her small child to school. To her the biggest VIP in the universe is her little child. The street dog waits for the kind soul across the road to throw bits of last night’s dinner and scraps of bread- his provider of food and therefore the biggest VIP in his life.

So the status of the VIP is such that every one of us is a VIP at a given circumstance. But we neither get any privileges nor need any favours. But then why do the elected representatives , by virtue of their position , choose to behave as if they are from some crazy monarchy and behave like King Canute ? Any slightest hint of taking away these privileges sends them into a tizzy as if they cannot live life without crutches. Obnoxious to say the least and given that ultimately the law makers are these who actually abuse the law the most, this lal-batti menace is not easy to wish away. Many such crusades will be required to bring some semblance of responsibility in these Very Inadequately-educated Persons- a new type of VIP indeed. This society would well deserve a few lesser of them.

 

Time Machine

School days – the very thought of this today ignites a blast of memories from the past in me. And the good thing about old memories- we generally forget the imperfect , the unfortunate and gloat over the good. Good. The older I become , which we all do with certainty every passing day, the fonder the school becomes.

 

Those were really the halcyon days: days of gay abandon, days when we could do anything and everything with carefree spirit. But the funny part is , when I think about it now, at that point of time we all wanted to quickly grow up and become adults ! To come out of school and become adults in this serious grim world !

 

Talking now about those days today brings back glimpses from the labyrinth of my memory, some hilarious, some shocking, some pure adulterated fun. These parts of my memory was numbed in these decades and are brought back to the fore as I bump into school-mates whom I have not met for decades ! Hours pass by as we dive together in the past, out comes black and white photos , now yellowish with age, photos where sometimes I cannot even recognize myself.

 

In such deep dives, one of the commonest subject of our discussion is our school headmaster, Late Rev Fr. Wautier. From those days in kindergarten till almost we were out of school we had this magnificent administrator, a man whom we have always respected, feared at times, fond as we grew up and idolized in our own way. We saw him from close and feared his strict discipline but admired his vivacious energy. We can almost see his Vespa parked in the corner, the cigar in the corner of his mouth and the key-bunch dangling on a chain from his pocket as he walks past.

 

And such millions of other memories flash by, big small and sundry.

 

The past has come back to us now, with technology uniting a handful of old (young?) balding school-mates pushing fifty, who are now dispersed in various sections of the world and the first thing that they do after brushing the teeth is wishing Good Morning on WhatsApp. We share memories , present problems and sometimes fight as if life has transported us in time back three and a half decades. And gloat over splinter reunion pictures and dream of a grand reunion some day !