hidden image

Oops..!

Robert Clements Robert Clements
04 Mar 2024

Yes, oops, is what the people in Mumbai said, who drove their cars across the newly repaired Gokhale bridge, connecting Andheri East and West, drove high above the railway line, and then found, to their shock, they could not drive to Juhu, because the Juhu arm of the bridge was six feet lower!

Wait a moment, folks, this is not 2000 years ago, not a hundred years ago, but today! A day and time when we could have fed all the data into a small laptop and got all the measurements for construction before the work started.

The bridge is a concrete example, and pun intended, of policies going wrong, especially the ignoring of checks and balances, which tell us if our beloved country is going in the wrong direction.

One check that is being removed quickly is thinkers, intellectuals, and journalists. Instead of heeding them, we think they are anti-national, far from it. These men and women have only the betterment of their country in mind. Instead of listening to them, we act like spoilt children, spoilt by a misguided, ill-informed mandate, fed on fake news and non-issues:

"Mother," says the spoiled child returning from school, "A few boys were making fun of me!"

"I'll get them removed!" says the mother, "How dare those children make fun of my son," shouts the mother as she storms into the school, I am the managing trustee's wife. "Expel them!"

"Do you know what they said?" asks the flustered teacher, "They told your son he was wearing his pants the wrong way!"

"How dare they!" shouts the mother.

"And your son was!" says the teacher.

"It doesn't matter, throw them out!" says the mother.

And that is what is happening in our country. In that misaligned bridge, we see the beginning of many cases of pants being worn wrongly, like that child.

Just as we build statues, memorials and monuments to extoll acts of triumph and victory, we need to preserve this misaligned, misjudged piece of concrete work as a museum piece. Because this can either be a turning point, as we, the people, become aware of where we are headed and where we will land or sadly, we will continue turning a blind eye, will bring rope ladders, pulleys and other contraptions, stop our cars, jump down that six feet, turn smilingly and help our obliging spouses and aged parents down, telling the world with an artificial smile, "So what?"

So what if unemployment statistics show a huge rise? What if we are placed somewhere last in the poverty index? What if we are losing our freedom of speech. So what?

Even as you say, "Oops", decide what you're going to do after that..!

Recent Posts

Close at the heel of our other neighbours, Nepal's journey has swung between hope and betrayal. The monarchy fell, the republic faltered, and now its youth demand dignity, justice, and a future free f
apicture A. J. Philip
15 Sep 2025
The recent Vice-Presidential election has exposed deep cracks in India's democracy. Cross-voting, intimidation, abstentions, and invalid ballots have raised serious doubts. It ultimately begs the ques
apicture M L Satyan
15 Sep 2025
September 11 carries memories of violence and division, but also of Gandhi's Satyagraha and Vivekananda's call to end fanaticism. In a world scarred by war, injustice, and hate, 9/11 must challenge us
apicture Cedric Prakash
15 Sep 2025
India may soon become the world's third-largest economy, but its low per capita income, unmitigated inequality, weak healthcare, and fragile education system reveal a different truth. GDP milestones a
apicture Jacob Peenikaparambil
15 Sep 2025
Modi's long-delayed visit to Manipur are mere optics. After two years of silence amid ethnic cleansing, displacement, and inhumanity by the Meiteis, what peace, protection of minorities, and restorati
apicture Dr Manoj Kumar Mishra
15 Sep 2025
Umar Khalid, the Jawaharlal Nehru University scholar who has spent more than five years in jail, on Thursday, September 11, told a Delhi court that the larger Conspiracy case in connection with the 20
apicture Joseph Maliakan
15 Sep 2025
Looking back at the 100 years of Medical Mission Sisters, there was a pioneering spirit to begin health care facilities for the less privileged, openness to look at themselves critically to make their
apicture Sr. Mary Pullattu, MMS
15 Sep 2025
Though declared a secular republic in 2008, the nation's legal and cultural frameworks remain steeped in Hindu-majority sentiment. Nepal's National Penal Code of 2017 criminalises religious conversion
apicture CM Paul
15 Sep 2025
To be a "Carmelite on the street" is to unite deep prayer with public courage. We must build interior castles yet opening their gates, carrying contemplation into classrooms, farms, protests, and parl
apicture Gisel Erumachadathu, ASI
15 Sep 2025
In today's India, more than flyovers or metros, what we desperately need are bridges. Bridges between communities. Bridges between faiths. Bridges strong enough to carry us into the future without col
apicture Robert Clements
15 Sep 2025