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.

It was a very funny way of protesting. The government had declared a hike in fuel prices a day back and as always the opposition had to oppose it. It was indeed their birth right to do so and by the very meaning of their name - Opposition, they had to oppose it. What is funny here is the fact that the opposition in this democracy has only one reason to oppose. That is to pull the government down so that they can call for a mid-term election and hope that they would come to power this time round.

Now for the actual story. So the ministers in one of these states which was being ruled by the opposition party decided to protest the fuel price hike. These ministers lead by the chief minister decided that they would cycle their way to the state secreteriat. The healthy and fit chief minister rode the bicycle and kept his commitment. But there were quite a few ministers from his cabinet who were not that unfit. They started off with quite a bit of excitement but later realized that "Hard-Work" is not meant for them and that they would die without that air-conditioned cars that they normally travel to office in. This gives me a reason to wonder how these ministers would understand the pain faced by the common man.

So what started off as a protest finally ended as a protest to the protest. The fizz was to such an extent that the Panchayat and rural development minister Rustom Singh got off his bicycle and complained: "What will be the outcome of this? Nothing will come out of us riding bicycles." He started walking with his cycle.

The bicycle ride became a painful ride for the security personnel who had to push the bicycles that the ministers were riding.

Why did you have to do something that you were not capable off, my dear ministers? But if you decided you want to do it, probably you are right because you can never be wrong. Yes, My Minister.