Thursday, January 26, 2006

republic day

morning at the playground near the school, where the administration and management paraded the entire institutional family wearing flouroscent yellow paper hats with the managements' name emblazoned across. when the kids sat down there was a sea of saffron with the nice marathi lady teachers standing guard in the middle of the ocean like sentinels. a military man was chief guest and we saluted him in the vaguely nazi salute invented for all those who toe the party line. i wonder whether love of land is only possible to instill through these rituals of allegiance.

irony on the way to the school - on the highway at malad, there was a makeshift flagpost and loudspeakers shrilly playing patriotic songs for the empty plastic chairs arranged in rows waiting for the locals to arrive. the slum dwellers whose houses were being demolished to make way for the shiny new western express highway had organized a republic day event to celebrate the creation of the constitution, whose guardians were violently uprooting them from their homes to god forsaken faraway lands.

car music: tricky - maxinquaye, pre millenium tension, angels with dirty faces, blowback. murky angst soaked soundtracks for urban nightmares in which strange vampiric creatures walk the streets lurking in the shadows sniffing for any vestiges of innocence to prey on.

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