The cacophony on Cockroach and the common man:
The common man disliked the insect that could perform role not specified in the script. He was aware of the over 4000 species spread across the world. He knew, some of them, known as pests, kept busy distributing allergies & bacteria. The other members of the tribe play helpful roles in decomposing decaying matter.
They all come with well-equipped survival kits. Have secondary eyes, night vision, antenna and hairs to detect vibration. The night vision helps in foraging for food, to survive and proliferate in dark underworld of sewers and drainpipes. Out in the open, it is like a sitting duck and easy prey for humans, birds, frogs, and lizards. Fearing for its dear life, it avoids making public appearance in well-lit domains and open spaces.
Instead, it prefers a walk in the park, during the nights as worms and most of the birds lack night vision. Still, a cockroach may not be out of the woods, as some lizards might make an attempt on its life. It remains content with its life of wading through sewers, travelling inside drainpipes. Occasionally, it makes flying visits to scavenge for food in the kitchens. This adventure comes with a price tag – getting paralysed like a deer caught in the head lights and suffer the fright of its life.
The light in the kitchen never failed to scare it. Not a hi-fi life, but a way of life with self-respect. It was not stealing but only clearing the crumbs! It had its few fun moments too, when it landed on people who got easily scared and run away instead of chasing it. Many poisonous inventions got stocked up in the households to kill it at sight, but has it been winning in most of the skirmishes by sacrificing a few of its friends here and there?
He wondered out of these 200 species of cockroach, which has been suddenly thrust into daylight, from its hiding place. He was concerned about the 200 and odd species sharing the living space in his country and wondered whether this type of publicity would be a help or hinderance!
Forced to come into the limelight, the cockroach it sat regretting this common man’s empathy and making it public. This act has inadvertently left the door open for it. Seizing this opportunity, it decided to articulate its own feelings right from its hiding place
The cornered cockroach speaks:
My life has been turned upside
down. Now, I have to strengthen my legs and wings to scoot away to lands where
humanity does not exist. I am disillusioned, when knowingly people blame the sweltering
heat or failed monsoon or the effect of a thousand kilometers away war, to find
fault with the government of the day. Is
this liberal thinking without logic?
Don’t the politicians feel no
shame when demanding white papers from someone else while hiding the truth
about their birth, dual citizenship and stashed wealth details? How come these politicians
who did not lift a little finger to generate employment opportunities, when
they were in government, find it convenient to blame it another government? To
cover up failure, why train the guns on industrialists who create opportunities
and wealth. Don’t they feel guilty when squandering away that wealth in the name
of doles?
It beats me to understand, how
politicians stay employed forever, while the needy does not get even an
interview call! Don’t they feel any shame when an outgoing chair-sticker brazenly
demands comfortable chairs for kith & kin and coterie? Why the de
facto chair with shaking legs sides with the chair-sticker? Nursing a hope
for a better chair than the shaking
one, even if the replacement is far in the future?
How a cockroach like me can comment
on the saying that ‘the long arm of law will eventually reach you’ when in
reality, it is only infinitely extending when it comes to politicos and money
bags. What can I say about the ‘forced out of power’ politicos refusing to
vacate official residences and hurl statements like ‘if you dare, try to force
me out?’ I wonder whether any long arm of law will eventually get to them?
The mass psychology of people
defies any logic known to me. Why do they trust politicians, who paint rosy
pictures littered with outlandish promises, and get fooled repeatedly? Why don’t the youth and others stand up
against doles and demand for opportunities with dignity? Have the youth not
heard “jobs don’t find you, you have to find them”? I am not against them for dreaming
but will a better future await the weeping marksheet and talent?
I am appalled, by looking at the
kind of people who come out and whole heartedly extend support to any agitation.
Politicians who have failed to
work for the betterment of his or her constituency. Political parties threatening to let out its
own cadre- cockroaches, to cause disruptions and confusion. As if to keep every one’s morale up, a team of
lawyers, wearing party colours and their judicial robes descend on the scene to
fan the frenzy itching to file PILs. The
"No" sayers quickly took to social media to say "See, I have
been right". Generations expecting the jobs to find them but are happy to get
dole and wait patiently for the jobs to find them.
I don’t know who to blame and
shame - the agitators or the losers supporting them? This long list of
'extending my support’ was confusing and it was not an easy task for me to
decipher. I have only pity for the stakeholders in the crowd, who have come with
dreams and misplaced hopes.
I am pained to note that someone
else is getting the publicity at my expense. With a very tiny brain when I
could see through this game, why the readers and viewers fail to understand,
and walk in to dark places where only cockroaches like me can survive?
Even in the moment of my glory,
I did not fail to ring the alarm bells, which found only deaf ears, belying my trust
on the readers and viewers. Initially I could see favourable wind blowing in
that direction. But later it turned out to be nothing but the hurt politicians
fanning themselves to remain relevant. Am I wrong in getting disoriented?
Like bad luck, my realisation came with company. Am I being used by sharks swimming in political waters to stay in the pool without calling it quits? The shark not getting tired of swimming in the political pool, alleges that not even one corporate house is headed by a cockroach. Sadly, they missed the bus on these points, which I don’t mind bringing out.
Point No:1 We the cockroaches abhor the corporates manufacturing products to annihilate us, right on the ground. But for the spray-raid shelters, in the drainpipes and sewage canals, we would have become history by now.
Point No 2: The shark, politically surviving by promising freebies, forgets that the cash for the doles and their scams is generated by the corporates not headed by cockroaches.
How can I understand the hue and
cry and the frenzy of humanity, to seize my hairy legs to climb up the stairs
of relevance? I am living in a dark forest full of difficulties, then how do
you expect me to water your potted plants?
But I do have questions for the
common man. With what intent you spoke about the global and local reach of insects
like me? Why did you not attempt to expose the double standard of politicos in
power or smarting under loss of power? Why
did not you question such people, when they come out in support of an issue
which they could have refrained from creating, in the first place or could have
solved it easily?
Finally, I have questions for the conscious bitten good Samaritans. How am I to make sure that you are not playing sympathy card, victim card or a trump card for personal fame? Of all the insects in the world, why single out, an insect like me to be your torch bearer? If you have cared to read current research paper on cockroaches of my lineage have been selected and fitted with a suit, oxygen supply and instruments to function as an underwater cybots, you would not have done this. I am permitted to have drainpipe dreams, can you live with pipe dreams?
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