The Finger Story

“Thou shalt up-'hold' your finger when thy vote is cast”

Before you think of filing a case against the B-family for crossing the levels of decency in public, understand that there is more to the picture than meets the eye. One, it a proud statement to show the faith in democracy and participation in the country's electoral process and two, it conveys that the family does at times contribute to something worthwhile. The gesture withstanding, the image does serve as a free advertisement to tell people to go out and vote if they still can and want to.

To the extent of offending people who might have felt exasperated to see a son, father and a daughter-in-law raising the middle finger, I firmly believe that the image certainly paints a better picture than the one showing Big B praising the golden rule of law in U.P. with his "UP mein dum hai kyunki jurm yahan kam hai" line. The image also projects India as a progressive nation where rich traditional family values have embraced new age rebellious overtures (like finger raising) with ease. I earlier thought that raising fingers and calling names was the copyright of MTV India where “being dirty” is understood as “being cool”.

Talking of cool, Mumbaikars preferred the cool of their home environs to stepping out and voting. For some people, this seems like a surprising behavior when compared to the angst that was on display post 26/11. I don’t see anything odd though. November is a cool month. You love to take a walk by the sea side in the evenings. So they turned out in hordes to light candles then. The weather is different now. Also, there have been no attacks in the last 5 months. So let them enjoy some peace at home. I won’t be surprised if Delhi too gives the elections a miss with a long weekend in sight. You don’t need everyone to vote and come to think of it - 42% of them did turn up to vote, didn’t they? I feel that the election commission’s wish to make Mahi its ambassador for the general elections was a splendid thought. After all an ambassador who was not slated to vote due to his busy schedule would have been just apt to convince people to not vote.

I have unleashed an overdose of voting and elections here so let me just stop it at that. And yes, the Fake IPL player whom I credited with a lot of space here seems to have lost all his ingenuity and goodwill of late. He is repitive and boring now and is certainly fake. Poor Knight Riders look a pale shadow of themselves on the ground. My wishes are with SRK. May God grant his team a consolation win and him a few more weddings to dance in.

Amen!