borrowed hide, to hide.

Had to make one of those unexpected trips back to B'bay. the last minute packing din't leave much time or energy to decide on a suitable textual matter to keep me company through the flight. (you can't expect much from the airlines these days, especially when you're travelling economy!)
Waiting at the lounge at the airport, i stared at the huge LCD screen hanging ominously overhead,impudently and unrelentingly showing slolen clips of the Ash-AB wedding rerimony. i almost denounced the media folks as a bunch of fools, but then i stood corrected seeing the crowd enthralled by the 2 minute clip, that was being played for the 17th time in the last half an hour. well, one can't scowl at the supplier of marbles claiming to be the 'market movers' when the market seems to be filled with midgets! besides, with the kind of 24x7 news channels, there is an ostensible dearth of 'news' happening around the world worth being reported. hmm. bones for dogs and carrot for donkeys... as long as it pays.
Restless and frustrated, i decided to re-orient some of my silent acerbic sarcasm at my co-passengers.(at this point comes the announcement of the flight being delayed due to air traffic.i managed to restrain a free display of a paroxysm of rage)
2 kids were playing car racing, with a cute authentic American accent. i could almost sense the pang of sympathy that it aroused in me. the skin colour that would alienate them in a place they had come to think as home, and the accent that would alienate them at home, a home that refused to be home to them any longer. then came in the mother with a brazenly conjured up fake accent, one that wouldn't fit in any corner of the massive and generous globe. here is a snippet from their conversation.

mother: aam feeling hawdd.no fan heeyerr. bluddy indhyaa!
daughter:but the AC's on...
mother: yea beydaa, bud aam feeling hawdd!!

At this point, our good lady sheds away all her decency, squats on the floor, opens up her suitcase to display an embarrassing amount of underthings,(one could easily believe that they were being smuggled to the States),pulls out a lace handkerchief and mops away her sweat with a painfully sophisticated pat-pat and dab-dab. it made me wonder...does the accent come in an attempt to conceal the uncouthness of the natural attitude?
though i'm yet to figure out, what made 'Indhyaa' so 'bluddy' to our good lady here. Agreed, that the number of aircrafts have gone up but the infrastructure is still shamefully trying to catch up. Agreed that we are a triffle below the other 'developed' countries, but give me another nation that has come this far, at this rate, with 1652 different languages and dialects,with so many diferent castes with a million conflicting interests,with a billion strong population with a fourth being below poverty line and yet we are quoted as "THE largest successful democracy". and not to mention the nearly 200 years of british subjugation and planned mortification of the nation.

this might make me sound like a die hard patriot, but anyone who knows me will scoff at the appelation. but yes, i do feel tithered to my country, my people and the kinds, in a strange way.though another thing the lady needs to thank "indhyaa" is for the lay man's fear of the law enforcing mechanism. if not for that, she would invariably fid 32 minus a few teeth while brushing them that night.