• With the absence of the TV and computer, you are forced to adopt the reading habit. This and delayed flights may be factors leading to the increased sales of English writing books in India off late.

• Makes you more social: You are forced to interact with your neighbours on a more regular basis…

• While the world hosts Earth Hour annually, we Indians celebrate it about a 1000 times a year. Some places celebrate Earth Day and Earth Week. Some villages even celebrate Earth Decade.

• A welcome check on kids who watch non-stop TV or play computer games without a break.

• India consumes less power and is hence eco-friendlier than other countries.

• Savings on your power bill.

© Sunil Rajguru

…as proud as Maya and her statues

…as spoilt as Mamata and her tantrums

…as unfulfilled as Advani and his dreams

…as stale as the Left and its government in Bengal

…as high-profile as Raj Thackeray and his miniscule achievements

…as low-key as Manmohan and his style of governance

…as destructive as Laloo and his Bihar rule

…as murky as cricket and its political patrons

…as huge as a politician’s black wealth

…as hopeless an Indian leader’s vision

…as blind as an Indian voter’s vote

…as brazen as a corrupt politician’s defence

…as ineffective as an Indian government scheme

…as opportunistic as Pawar and his tie-ups

…as two-faced as Vajpayee and his political life

…as fleeting as Deve Gowda’s prime ministerial stint

…as anonymous as Gujral’s prime ministerial stint

…as diplomatic as Amar Singh and his network

…as bankrupt as an Indian leader’s idea bank

…as fiery as a communal speech

…as enigmatic as Sonia and her mind

…as lasting as the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

This Version By Sunil Rajguru

2008: Kasab should be hanged.
2009: Will Kasab be hanged?
2010: Kasab will be hanged!
2011: Will Kasab really be hanged?
2012-2020: When will Kasab be hanged?
2021-Onwards: I don’t think Kasab will ever be hanged.

Mamata: Tata!
Buddha: Don’t raise old issues. That’s dead in Bengal and gone to Gujarat.
Mamata: Who’s talking of Ratan or Singur? Me and the State are saying tata to you and your party!

Caller: Regarding the IPL…
Pawar: What’s that?
Caller: The Indian Premier League…
Pawar: Never heard of it!
Caller: But you set it up, you’re the cricket badshah…
Pawar: The ICC has nothing to do with other boards and leagues.
Caller: But Modi said…
Pawar: I have no truck with Narendra Modi.
Caller: I give up.
Supriya: See! I told you it’s so easy!

© Sunil Rajguru

• An organizing official comes at the centre of a busy traffic intersection and says, “Great. This is the perfect place to hold the function and set up a pandal.”

• A political party secretary receives a criminal charged with murder, kidnapping and looting and says, “Finally, a serious candidate for the elections.”

• The power company official comes out and smells wet soil and says, “Ah! The smell of incoming rain! It’s time to shut power for this area!”

• An employee who comes exactly on time, leaves exactly on time and spends the weekends with his family is frowned upon: We “unofficially” want slaves who will be camped in office all day and at our beck and call on weekends!

• The Prime Minister is about to hire a minister when he is told that he is computer literate, internet savvy and active on sites like Twitter. “Change of decision, we don’t want troublemakers!”

• A politician is ostracized by his community for not being corrupt: He doesn’t fit into the scheme of things and will throw a spanner in the perfectly functioning works.

• All the movies released are full of songs and focus on romance in some form or the other and yet all of them claim to be different.

• Thinking out of the box will make you out of sync with the people around you and eventually you will be out of the general scheme of things.

© Sunil Rajguru

1000 corrupt politicians sitting on the wall,
1000 corrupt politicians sitting on the wall,
And if one corrupt politician should accidentally fall,
There’ll be 1001 corrupt politician sitting on the wall.

1001 corrupt politicians sitting on the wall,
1001 corrupt politicians sitting on the wall,
And if one corrupt politician should accidentally fall,
There’ll be 1002 corrupt politician sitting on the wall.

1002 corrupt politicians sitting on the wall,
1002 corrupt politicians sitting on the wall,
And if one corrupt politician should accidentally fall,
There’ll be 1003 corrupt politician sitting on the wall…

Notes:

1. For every corrupt politician who is exposed or caught in India, two take his place thereafter.
2. India has been playing this game since 1947.
3. If you pay good salaries, you may or may not get corrupt politicians.
If you pay abysmally low salaries, you will definitely get near 100% corruption.
Our founding fathers chose the second option.
Post-1991, the private sector is competing with the world, while the average Indian politician compares nowhere with his Western counterpart.
4. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
If you pay peanuts to politicians, then you get a monkey political system where the common man ends up being the real monkey.

This Version By Sunil Rajguru

• Indian whitening creams are getting so effective that Dark Skin will be turned to Light. Light Skin will be turned to Pure White. And Pure White Skin? That’ll become Transparent… so that you may apply whichever colour you may to suit your day every day.

• News in India is broken so many times on so many channels every day that it’s a wonder it’s not in a trillion unbreakable pieces and dead by now.

• The stuff on Indian TV news channels is so trivial that we should coin a new term called TVial. TVia. TVial coverage. TVial pursuit…

• In India, people with noisy fans sleep well as they drown out all the other surrounding disturbing sounds.

• If a man is one in a million, then will he have a problem if he undergoes an operation where the chances of going wrong are one in a million?

© Sunil Rajguru

IAL: Indian Advertisements League

IBL: Indian Bollywood League

ICL: Indian Controversies League

IDL: Indian Dollars League

IEL: Indian Entertainment League

IFL: Indian Featherbed League

IGL: Indian Greed League

IHL: Indian Hype League

IIL: Indian Injuries League

IJL: Indian Jamboree League

IKL: Indian Kangaroo League (Aussies rule)

ILL: Indian Lalit League

IML: Indian Modi League

INL: Indian Nautanki League

IOL: Indian Outsourced League (Season 2)

IPL: Indian Paisa League

IQL: Indian Quantitative League (As against Qualitative)

IRL: Indian Retirees League

ISL: Indian Sponsorship League

ITL: Indian TRPs League

IUL: Indian Unorthodox League

IVL: Indian Valuable League

IWL: Indian Widening League (10 in 2011, 12-14 thereafter)

IXL: Indian Xerox League (Anyone remember ICL was the original?)

IYL: Indian YouTube League

IZL: Indian Zeppelin League (Blimp ads)

This Version By Sunil Rajguru