Close encounter of a political kind

Although I planned to write about the evils of sliced cheese on a developing economy, I was persuaded by a political party (name withheld in spite of their request to publicise it), to write about my encounter with a politician.

The encounter took place at 11 am in the KC College auditorium. Outside the birds were chirping, the occasional dog was barking, and lots of men were scratching – all actions directly related to the heat. By the way, it is a scientific fact that most Indians lose 23 per cent of their skin in summer as a direct effect of continuous chronic and methodical scratching. If good old Suresh Kalmadi could do the right thing and convince the International Olympic Association to recognise scratching as an Olympic sport, then Abhinav Bindra would soon have lots of highly-merited company.

Coming back to the close encounter of a political kind, (I am already negotiating the rights for a book, movie and musical play), the morning was billed as a meet-your-politician sort of matinee. As is our practice in all civilised countries, the audience was asked to remove their shoes, (in the old-fashioned way) before entering the auditorium. Apparently, the latest trend of using a shoe as a means to show political dissent is one of the five aims the G8 steadfastly want to implement in the coming year. Much to our surprise unlike most of our local politicians, who compulsorily travel with a minimum of 44 cohorts, Shashi Tharoor, walked in alone. My first thought was that he had quit politics, to become a sanyasi. However, I was told by the organisers that till 20 minutes ago he was still the most likely candidate to obtain a parliamentary seat from his constituency of Thiruwanthapuram. For the next hour or so Dr Tharoor waxed eloquent. You have to be eloquent especially if you are able to pronounce Thiruwanthapuram at the first go. He spoke well he looked good, he made sense. Add to this no cohorts. These traits were unheard of in any Indian politician in the history of Indian politics. So impressed was I, that I immediately dashed a letter to Dr Manmohan Singh, offering my support to the candidature of Dr Tharoor as the next PM of India.