NONSENSE TALK VII..............

Our village chaupal was agog over the news that somebody hurled shoes on Rahul Gandhi. This happened first time in   recent time when this highly excited news was brought to chaupal by Somra. Actually, somra had gone to market and when he was returning from there he saw a crowd before a TV shop. At that time, on the TV, munni badnam hui, song was coming and a good number of spectators were enjoying this song standing on the road. The shopkeeper was annoyed to see the crowd before his shop, so to disperse them he changed the channel, from music to news. Somra was also present in the crowd, when the channel was changed he waited there in the hope that shopkeeper might change channel again from news to music. But this did not happen. Yes, on news channel, he saw the news that somebody threw shoes on Rahul Gandhi.  That news was worthy enough to be known to chaupal, so without delay he left for the village. After coming to the village, he enquired about sukhia sukhvardhan and felt extremely happy that sukhia was unaware of the latest Rahul Gandhi episode. Straightway he went to chaupal and conveyed   this breaking news to everyone.

Sukhia Sukhwardhan was unable to digest the fact that somra brought this interesting news before the villages. He had still doubt in his mind. How this can happen, I have been listening news from morning at the interval of every hour on radio but I did not hear such story.  But nobody paid attention towards his doubts, as everybody knew that TV is faster than Radio!

Why he was attacked ? who was the attacker ? what was his motive ? What he wanted to gain from this act?  Chamka who had seen Rahul Gandhi in paper and admired his aristocrat look asked these question addressing Somra.

Somra was not ready to face the volley of questions from anyone. Actually he was ignorant of the answer of these questions. He saw the news and left for the village. Now he was regretting that why did not he stayed there for some times and listened complete news.

At the time of somra’s ordeal, Sajjan chacha came forward to rescue him. Turning his head towards chamka, he replied: see, those people who do such nasty things, must be hooligan. How can a respectable person do such mischievous things?

“No chacha, it is not so” satua , alone subscriber of a nation political weekly magazine in the village, entered into the discussion. He continued: no chacha, this is democracy, and in democracy, throwing shoes on the leaders are allowed.

But how? There was doubt in Sajjan chacha’s voice.

“Have not you seen the MPs, MLA’s in the house, how they throw paper, mike and other things on each other to get their work done.  They do so because by this means they can put pressure on government.  Earlier only parliamentarians used to do these acts to influence opposition but later on some journalists, some civil society members adopted the same methodology. As democracy of our country has become more mature, so, nowadays even common man also started throwing shoes on politician to register their protest”   concluded Satua. He was quite amazed to see his oratory skill. He spoke well, thought inside and gave a winning smile to Sukhia Sukhwardhan who was looking dull today.

Han, Han (yes, yes) this is democracy, this democracy, aur democracy me ye sab chalta hai (and in democracy, these things are permitted) everybody supported Satua including Sukhia sukhwardhan. As Mukhia ji was not present in the chaupal, Sukhia sukhwardhan was vociferous in criticizing the elected representatives. He was getting support from sajjan chacha and others.

“Achha bhaiya, if we throw shoes on our MP sahib, will our village get road connected to town.” Khurphatia asked this question to Satua.

“Why not, if we throw shoes on him and he acknowledges this before the world then sure we will get road.”  Sukhia sukhwardhan answered.

“Why do not we throw shoes on him, he is coming to address a rally in the town this Sunday. If he acknowledges the accident, our village will get benefit” khurpathia offered a suggestion.

Now everybody started discussing on Khurpatia’s proposal. In fact, there were no good shoes available in the village. Sajawat  singh, a retired fauji, who is well known as major in the village has boots  but he refused to give to villagers for this noble cause.  This enraged the villagers and they decided to purchase the new shoes. Second hand or used shoes are also sold in the nearby market but villager had fear that if they threw old shoes and MP sahib did not acknowledge then whole scheme would fall flat. Sajjan chacha was deciding the contribution amount for each person, suddenly he saw Fekhna sitting silently at the corner of the choupal. Twenty five years old, five feet eight inch tall, fourty six kg weight, Asthma patient Fekhna was listening the discussion with rapt attention.

Raising the voice dramatically,Sajjan chacha  proclaimed:  “just now a thought came across in my head. Now we will not throw shoes on MP Sahib, instead we will throw Fekna over him. He will not be able to refuse this incident and we will have our road.”

“Fekhna has only bones, harder than shoes, it may hurt our MP sahib and he may grant us road immediately” one said.

“Fekhna is not well these days, after the incidents he  may get attention from MP Sahib , as a result  treatment money from the government side” another villager said.

“Fekhna is a gem for our village and we villager must feel proud of him”- thundered Sajjan chacha.

Fekhna could not listen more. He felt unconscious.

Arre he got epilepsy attack, go to sajawat singh’shouse and bring the boots. Cried somra.

Somebody rushed to Sajawat Singh’s house to bring shoes.

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Ramanuj Dubey