as I walk past people ....

Today is Deepawali, a day of celebration with sweets, new clothes and sharing. A day also of noise and mindless consumption. Chennai, Tamilnadu, is much afflicted by vector borne diseases. On the one hand there are vast number of people living in small tenements lining the banks of the Cooum and Buckingham Canal, and then there are those who have more permanent dwellings. I find it difficult to sleep with mosquitoes and wonder how the many sleep, those cannot go beyond the reach of mosquitoes. I see signs of celebration at the doorsteps of the small temporary homes with little or no sanitation. I see the same signs, of kolams at the doors of the more secure homes.
There is the grandfather or grandmother playing with a small child and there are shouts of children. Vast disparities in access, resources and comfort. All human, but some with so much more, and many with so little, hardly anything! I cannot help thinking, "Is the best we could manage as a race, a society?" One reads of the transition in China. Finally it is official - corruption afflicts China. Everything from appointment to Govt offices to contracts for infrastructure has a price. Princelings rule a vast nation where the disparities between the haves and have nots has grown 68% in the past decade. I wonder what thoughts go through the political minds, in the states and at the Centre in India. Some glee, "We are not alone!" Some philosophy, "There is no other way! The wheel of karms cannot be denied!" Some shamefaced smiles, "Just when Anna Hazare and Kejriwal have been hounding us, we just needed this to highlight our own shameful corruption!"
The farmers in Vidharbha will not get direct respite by way of support for agriculture. It has to come via subsidy to fertilizer companies. The farmer will not get enough life support to grow food for the nation, but a Vadra will receive 68 Cr loan from DLF (interest free). If I need to open an account in a neighbourhood bank, not only do I need to submit all manner of proof, but a foreign bank will facilitate some Indians to open bank accounts in foreign countries. Not only will small fry be hauled over the coals for small economic crimes, the big cats will be warned by eminent ministers and let off with low taxes and no slur to their names.
It is now official, not from the East but Obama's West. The rich have to pay higher taxes. Surely In India the weathy must be thinking, "Thats what you think! We have ingenuity on our side and it will be at least another decade before the tide changes here.