"बहुत बुरे दिन आने वाले हैं....
This will be bring misfortune and bad times to India..." uttered my new companion, Ravi Thakur or 'Raja-Sahib' as I would address him later... and he would call me 'Prince'!!.
We were sitting on the balcony of the 'Kullu Naggar Castel' restaurant.. I was returning from a very long ardours trip to Ladakh by road. The year was 2004, Summer.
Election in India had ended and Vajpayee had lost!!
We looked around and down into the valley from our balcony seats... Raja Sahib was then the manager of Naggar Castle and a very passionate and unorthodox man!!
We hit it off rather well... He recounted how Vajpayee would come every summer and rest here in this very hotel.. how he loved these mountains... How for his evening tea he would get him hot jalabi...
I have always admired Vajpayee and was shocked to know he was send packing without a solid reason... it baffled me and it baffles me to this day...
"When Nehru died, continued Raja-Sahib... "they scattered his ashes on top these beautiful Himalayan rivers and mountains... can you imagine that?! .. such sick wishes of a very sick man?
"And you know what happened after that? We had years of drought, landslide... Our pure mountains were desecrated by this man's ashes...!!"
We laughed but something was telling me things would get bad... and it did.
The 10 years of (Indian) socio-political scenario and 'my life' now looked so very similar.
My personal life went into a horrible tail spin.. till it crashed! Family and friends left me, my finances nose dived and every one cheated me. I got caught up in property litigation which drained the last bit of life out of me... My creative side was shut off completely.
Everyone said I had "Shani-Dasha"!!
By 2006-7 I had enough of this and decided like my childhood hero...'Netaji Shubhas' to escape!!
So I went away...
Now let me finish this with another character from 2004, he was a highly qualified IITian engineer, a Sardar. My then neighbour in Delhi. He was most pleased with the new political development!! He reasoned with me, "Look Roy, here we are going to be lead by a clean educated man and an Italian lady... nothing can go wrong!! And Sonia is not even interested in being the PM, she would bring in the "European" culture and we will all prosper etc etc."
10 years just went by... Vajpayee is now a vegetable. Modi has become very popular and the darling of the youth...
The question that haunt me most is not: 'If he will come to power?'
But 'Will he get a second chance?' and 'An absolute majority?'
Both were denied to Vajpayee... By our voters!!
This will be bring misfortune and bad times to India..." uttered my new companion, Ravi Thakur or 'Raja-Sahib' as I would address him later... and he would call me 'Prince'!!.
We were sitting on the balcony of the 'Kullu Naggar Castel' restaurant.. I was returning from a very long ardours trip to Ladakh by road. The year was 2004, Summer.
Election in India had ended and Vajpayee had lost!!
We looked around and down into the valley from our balcony seats... Raja Sahib was then the manager of Naggar Castle and a very passionate and unorthodox man!!
We hit it off rather well... He recounted how Vajpayee would come every summer and rest here in this very hotel.. how he loved these mountains... How for his evening tea he would get him hot jalabi...
I have always admired Vajpayee and was shocked to know he was send packing without a solid reason... it baffled me and it baffles me to this day...
"When Nehru died, continued Raja-Sahib... "they scattered his ashes on top these beautiful Himalayan rivers and mountains... can you imagine that?! .. such sick wishes of a very sick man?
"And you know what happened after that? We had years of drought, landslide... Our pure mountains were desecrated by this man's ashes...!!"
We laughed but something was telling me things would get bad... and it did.
The 10 years of (Indian) socio-political scenario and 'my life' now looked so very similar.
My personal life went into a horrible tail spin.. till it crashed! Family and friends left me, my finances nose dived and every one cheated me. I got caught up in property litigation which drained the last bit of life out of me... My creative side was shut off completely.
Everyone said I had "Shani-Dasha"!!
By 2006-7 I had enough of this and decided like my childhood hero...'Netaji Shubhas' to escape!!
So I went away...
Now let me finish this with another character from 2004, he was a highly qualified IITian engineer, a Sardar. My then neighbour in Delhi. He was most pleased with the new political development!! He reasoned with me, "Look Roy, here we are going to be lead by a clean educated man and an Italian lady... nothing can go wrong!! And Sonia is not even interested in being the PM, she would bring in the "European" culture and we will all prosper etc etc."
10 years just went by... Vajpayee is now a vegetable. Modi has become very popular and the darling of the youth...
The question that haunt me most is not: 'If he will come to power?'
But 'Will he get a second chance?' and 'An absolute majority?'
Both were denied to Vajpayee... By our voters!!
