Aam Aadmi and mango people: Encounters of two kinds of common people

By Philip Mudartha
Bellevision Media Network

08 Febraury 2014: I arrive at IGI Airport in Delhi and rush through its swanky terminal 3 with both pride and awe. The terminal is one of the best in the world. It is spick clean and shining. It is efficient. I walk the red carpet to the Meru Cab booking desk, sign a register, and escorted to the back seat of a clean air-conditioned cab. I spend twelve minutes of the journey admiring the broad expressway, the glass and steel office buildings, the star hotels and flyovers.  I befriend the cabbie. When we arrive at my destination 12 minutes later, I have a fairly good idea of life of an aam aadmi in the capital.

 

The 5.1km trip costs me Rs.210, which includes airport parking fee of Rs.91. Meru Cabs which operates metered radio taxi services in many Indian cities earned Rs.23 per km. Fair; my friends who operate private taxi services in Belle charge Rs.20-25 per km.

 

Encounters with AAP kind

My taxi to the airport is summoned by the hotel concierge. The return trip costs me Rs.300 flat, no meter. I ask and get a receipt of Delhi Taxi Service (DTS). DTS is Taxi-men’s Co-operative, I learn. Shouldn’t the fare be Rs.120 because he does not use airport parking lot, I ask? Nahisaab, yeh hamari fixed fee hei, for airport service. Doesn’t he believe this system of taxi co-operatives looting the air passengers unfair? Do they collect a premium from train and bus passengers? Why do they not ply by meter regardless of where the passenger is headed? My friend evades my legitimate queries. He changes subject and takes charge of the conversation. It is inconvenient for one common man to answer questions of another common man who thinks that taking more money than fair is a wrong system.

 

My new friend is a loyal AAP member like my earlier cabbie friend. This one comes from Shimla. The earlier hails from Bihar. During next 15 minutes, this one discusses Delhi and Indian politics exclusively. He thinks Congress and BJP are corrupt parties. Unke neta logone Ph.d ki hei, kaise desh ko aur aam aadmi ko loota jaye. Hum log kranti karenge. Hum log is baar Delhi mein sarkar nahi banayenge. Why? Because, our leaders don’t know how the assembly and ministries work.  Dheere dheere, seek jaayenge.

 

Who should form Delhi government in that case? I ask. BJP ke paas 32 seats hein. Congress ke haat mein 8. Total 40 MLA unke hein; saat milke sarkaar chalaayem, aise bhi dono chor log hein!

 

How is it possible? BJP is communal. Congress is secular. Arreh, chodiye saab, yeh secular kya hotahei? galimein Ram, gharmein shyam, sab chor hein. shyaamko whisky saat mein peete hein. dinko lecture baaji chaalu.

 

Shouldn’t AAP form the government? Kaise banaayen?Aap battayi-ye, 28 numbers hamaare haat lage hein? Let there be re-election. Delhi-waale hamein jitaayenge, bade majority se…

 

When I alight, he comes round his taxi, shakes hand and asks if he can hug me. No problems. He hands me his business card. It has his photo and address. Call me, when you come to Delhi. Aapki seva kaaureik moka dijiye saab!

 

 

firmilenge, zaroor. I turn and head into T3 of IGI. A young porter insists on carrying my briefcase, even as I protest, and escorts me to Air India Flight Check-in. A pretty young woman is all smiles as she efficiently does what she should do, including inviting me to Airline Lounge, and gives polite instructions about finding my way in the terminal. The young porter escorts me till the elevator to the Airline Lounge. No demand for any baksheesh, yeh kya ho gaya hei Delhi ko?

 

Encounters with mango people

In Delhi, I work at Radisson BLU Plaza Hotel. I eat in their fanciful Buffet Restaurant, The Great Kabab Factory. A dozen middle aged mothers, looking like oh-so-young-n-pretty starlets of noon-time soap opera on Sony or Star Plus, occupy a big round table reserved for their lunch. They chirp, chatter, gingerly taste food and sip their sexy-looking mock-tails. They could be cocktails, I can’t tell, from the looks and names.

 

 

And what on earth are they discussing at a 5-Star hotel over lunch that costs not less than Rs.2000 including the exorbitant service charges, government service taxes and VAT? Onions, vegetables, fruits and their prices!

 

Sky-rocketing nah, how can aam people live yaar? Bolo-na!

I could have fallen off my chair, if I did not have company who had flown in from USA, Germany, Japan and Korea. These twitterati, glitterati, Facebook and whatsApp ladies, fiddling with their sleek smart-phones which are sitting at the edge of their plates overflowing with juicy kababs and paranthas, find life hard because onions cost Rs.80 a kilo! Why does their kurti cost Rs.5000? Why does their smart-phone cost Rs.40000? Why does their vanity bag costs as much?

 

Smart-phones are status symbol yaar, onions are not!

That is right, mango people used to be aamaadmi a few years back. They are THE ordinary people who were in the right place at the right time to grab opportunities of making money when this country began to shed its socialist past. They seized the opportunities quickly when economic reforms were unleashed. They bought licenses for setting up businesses for imported good which were in great demand and made crazy profits. They exported the best goods the nation had to offer at bargain prices and earned fat profits.

 

Only twenty years back, these ladies could only dream of lunching at a 5-Star gourmet restaurant. Now, they are actually living their dream. Twenty years back, only film stars and khandaani rich could sip cocktails like sex-on-the-beach, mojito, pinacolarada, long island iced tea. The economic reforms since 1991have unleashed new money.  Its power is heady. This nasha of easy money has dulled minds of newly-rich mango people. Much more than the cocktails and mock-tails can. It has drowned reason. They are at once aam aadmi and memsahebs, rolled into a hypocritical Jekyll & Hyde split personality.

 

At sabzimandi, they want vegetables at Rs.20 a kilo, prices of pre-1991 era. They want aayi-baai (domestic help) to wash their dishes, mop floors and pick up nighties and underwear, fold clothes and organize their imported-from-Malaysia wardrobes. How much for her services? mahineka 2000 chalega? Nahin?2200? 3000. haan, teekhei! The services of aam aadmi for a month at a price of ONE sumptuous buffet meal with a few cocktails at a 5-Star restaurant. What a bargain deal!!

 

Some call it India Shining; others call it divide between India and Bharat

Sheila Dixit and her party, INC, has not come to terms with their loss of Delhi NCR. In 15 years, they changed the face of Delhi. Swanky World Class Airport: Terminal 3. World Class Metro: Air-conditioned and under-ground. Expressways and flyovers: drive home in your own stylish cars. Banks and ATMs: hamesha aapke saat, now you do not have to worry and check your wallet when you buy, buy and buy. Kitna kuchch huayeh 15 saalon mein!

 

 

Fir yeh CM ki kursi nahin mili dubara.Kyon? Kyana-insaafi hei! Yeh aam janta beqoof hei!, Nah, hum beqoofhein! It was wrong to wake up a hungry sleeping poor man and show him dreams. Sapne humne dikhaaye, magar? Kyon aaam admi ne hamaara saat choda? We should introspect, said Sheila Dixit, even as I too saw the phenomenal progress Delhi has made during her rule.

 

When the poor aam aadmi came out of those dreams of improved life, he saw that he was left behind to wallow in squalor and filth. His neighbor had connections. He did not show any morals, ethics, honesty and such pious ideals. He got the rules bent and made his money from contracts. Those priests, teachers and leaders who preached virtues of truth and honesty: let them be damned. They too betrayed him and are enjoying life: pretty women, whiskey and wealth. Only his hand can’t get into the cookie jar. He waits watches in anger. How shall he take his revenge? Out goes, Sheila and Congress. Didn’t BJP go out the same way in 2004 in general elections?

 

AAP is an amalgam of smart mango people

The founding members of AAP are not aamaadmi. Most of them afford meals at The Great Kabab Factory. They afford comfortable apartments in Delhi and NCR. The difference is that these mango people of AAP have realized the power of the losers in the post-1991 economic reformsbusiness in the country.

 

They understand the pain, humiliation and indignity of the losers. They could choose to ignore and lead comfortable lives as most mango people do. They could join the mango people and buy licenses. They could swing government contracts their way and make profits from legitimate business opportunities. They can pay fat bribes. They can splash the big profits on lunch and cocktails to entertain contacts and dalals in upscale restaurants and sleazy bars. They can gift Korean smart phones to whoever helped them earn more profits.

 

But they choose the other way. Yeda and crazy, yes, but that is their mission. Their choice is to live a life that shows some hope and holds promiseof change for better in the lives of losers in this system of crony capitalism and license-raj. Their mission is to challenge custodians and guardians of this wicked and rotten system. Their mission is to defeat and humiliate bad people in all political parties who have bent rules, to their and their friends’ advantage, using corrupt and unfair means. If the corrupt and criminal people do not control the system, aam admi gets a fair chance to improve his life.

 

 

Delhi mein paisa bahuthei. sirf neeyatki kami hei. India and Indians have plenty of money.  But it lacks morality. There is no word in English that means the same asneeyat. It is lot more than morality.

 

Would neeyat of aam aadmi be challenged? That was what I did when I challenged my AAP member cabbie. Why does he charge Rs.300 for 5.1km trip which should cost only Rs.120?

 

When the medicine that AAP proposes to cure elite and mango people boomerangs on its supporters, what would Pipers of AAP do? That is another story; stay with me.