Wondering what this picture is about? It is the picture of a road that I normally take to my home. It reminds you of a well, right? It did remind me too.
This road was just fine when I went to office in the morning. I drove my car through this road and was happy that my elected MPs are concerned about my country. It was a smooth ride and I loved taking this road because I cared for my car and have never dared to take a bad road. It was drizzling when I went to office in the morning. It drizzled for most of the day that day. But let me assure you it was not like rainfall in Cherapunji. The total rainfall for the day would have been about 1/10th of the rainfall in a normal rainy day in New Delhi. The weather was fine and I was enjoying the weather.
It was a bit late when I left office that day but was happy that I would have a good night's sleep. As I took a turn to this road, I had the shock of my life. My car jumped into a pot hole and came to a halt. I couldnt believe it. When I got out to see what had happened, I was shocked. The smooth silky road in the morning had turned to a disastrous road full of gutters.
I wondered if a slight drizzle could lead to this, what would a heavy rainfall do? What is the quality of work going into these constructions. Poor quality material, inappropriate proportion of mixtures and what not. Everybody from my MP to the babus in the PWD, has to be involved in it, else the condition of the roads would not have been like this.
Are we punishing these people involved in the construction of these roads? If not, why aren't they being questioned as to why a road that is suppossed to last for years deteriorated in just a day, after a slight drizzle. It doesn't happen so, because if questioned there would lots of names that would become party to the corruption.
I once defined "democracy" differently after a similar incident. I feel what I defined out of frustration then is what actually democracy is. Democracy is a confused state of mind, where you feel that you are the master as you ride the chariot, only to find that the horse can pull you down anytime and then you curse yourself for selecting that horse.
But that is what development is all about, my friend.

This would come as a surprise to anyone who knows about Indian politics and Indian politicians. Wondering why? Because we in India are not used to seeing our politicians like this. So what is this surprise all about.

This is about a person who wears white like all politicians do, but doesn't mind stains on it if it comes from hard work unlike other politicians who can only tolerate stains from corruption but not hard work. He is a first-time MLA, elected from the Bussy assembly constituency in the Union territory of Pondicherry, in 2006. He is called, "Bussy Anand" out of love by his people. When this 44-year-old legislator of Puducherry Munnetra Congress is not pushing for schemes, meeting voters or discussing local politics over a cuppa, he's clearing garbage, cleaning clogged drains and spraying mosquito repellent across the town.

Anand began a garbage collection unit of his own about 9 years back, after he was tired of the lack of response from the government. He is still continuing with his social work and spends around Rs. 75000 - Rs. 85000 from his pocket as expenses on this service. One would not wonder at the fact that Congress - the biggest party in India, did not give him a ticket to the elections. Rightly so, because they would not want a person spending money out of his pocket for social causes to be a part of them, because they are there to earn money from the public and not spend on them.

Hats off to this MLA. May God make you the Prime Minister one day.