He is in his mid forties but does not appear to be older
than a guy in his mid thirties. He is not so tall, not so dark but oh so
handsome. Most of his male neighbors secretly dislike him for obvious reasons. They
fear for the endangered chastity of their better halves. The females secretly ogle
at him; peeping from behind the curtains but publicly they also show
disapproval. Especially those ladies, who have teenage daughters, do not like
to go anywhere closer to him. Very few people know about his occupation but
their guess is as good as anyone’s. He must be working at some high management
level in some giant MNC. He always appears to be dressed to kill; with
pinstripes in place. You can never catch him in his boxer shorts. Ladies also
gossip about his imaginary affairs which he may or may not be having at his
workplace. Some ladies have even decided to go with a complaint to the RWA to
begin the proceedings of his permanent removal from the building’s society.
Sometimes, I am forced to think whether India is becoming a
country which despises its smart and suave people. We are more prone to love
the champu types; the proverbial bespectacled toad-face looks. During my college
days, I read an article in some magazine which said that aunties prefer a
champu-type tutor for their daughters over a guy who may be too good looking
for her comfort. The recent hue and cry over unpatriotic behavior of Raghuram
Rajan is a crude reminder of this Indian mindset. Subramaniam Swamy is past his
days of fearing any competition from good looking men. Yet he left no stone
unturned to affect the removal of Mr. Rajan from RBI; and from India; forever. Even
those leaders who publicly claimed otherwise wanted to see the back of Mr.
Rajan as soon as possible. On the one hand, you have a Greek God like Raghuram
Rajan; and on the other, you have the champu-type Subramian Swamy with copious
use of Ghritkumari-oiled hair. Take your pick; whether you like the former
variety or the latter variety.
This is not a new trend in India. Over the years, we have
learnt to despise Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It is a coincidence
that all of them were really good looking and had very refined dress sense. It is
also a coincidence that all of them held the top post of the country. While the
senior-most among the trio died a natural death; we succeeded in eliminating
the remaining two. Rahul Gandhi is so frightened for his own survival that he
has already starting sporting unkempt beard and crumpled kurta to look like the
real leader of a country which is full of poor people.
Our preferences change when it comes to view a foreign dignitary;
especially if the person comes from the US of America. If the US President wows
us with his debonair look and swagger; all of us lap it up happily. But when a
Rajiv Gandhi appears dressed in jeans and tight-fitting T-shirt, all the media
begins firing its guns on him. We love the crumpled dhoti look of the great
humble farmer, aka Deve Gowda. We love all those who appear in all white; shoes
included; as if all of them have come straight out of a mortuary. The huge
margin of victory during elections is a crude reminder of our love for the
old-fashioned geriatric or geriatric-looking politicians. Tell me, how many of
you dress in kurta pyjama almost on a daily basis. Yet these netas appear to be
far from reality and still are successful in taking all of us for a ride.
I would love to see a day when politicians learn to dress
the way we normal people do. Even in rural India, you will find majority of
people using jeans/trouser as regular dress. A newbie on the block; Kejriwal;
offered some hope initially by wearing trousers and shirts but his oversize
shirts (which were not duly tucked in) resembled that of a typical clerk in
numerous government offices in India. It never appears that he was from the
hallowed species of the IAS/IPS/IRS cadre.
