Choti Mata’s Note: Given the
enthrallingly happening weeks that rang in this New Year, there were multiple contenders
for the topic of this post. But ultimately, Arvind Kejriwal and Alok Nath
emerged as the top contenders. Well, them and Devyani Khobragade. But, then
this is Choti Mata’s space and is all about ‘good’ life lessons—lessons that
were hard to find in a diplomatic mess replete with feet stomping nations,
underpaying diplomats and cavity searches. So, in the end it was a coin toss
between Kejriwal and Alok Nath. Only the coin did a Sholay (Remember the one
time when that wretched coin stands on its edge. Yeah! That one) and the
following is what…well followed.
Arvind Kejriwal is the new Nayak of the real world. Alok Nath is
the new Rajnikanth of the virtual world. This is the latest world order. And it
is, quite frankly, disturbing.
A whole lot of this disturbing
for me is because every single time I think Nayak, my mind automatically
replays that iconic mud fighting scene from the movie. Now, it may be just me
but there is something about naked men in mud that is a total turn off for me.
Even when the man in the mud is John Abraham (Remember Dhoom’s Tata Young
video?). Replace John Abraham with Anil Kapoor and it’s a total power grid
shutdown. Replace him with Arvind Kejriwal and I’d rather switch to solar
power.
But of course I know that mud
fighting skills were definitely not in the list of credentials that make Arvind
Kejriwal who he is. His preliminary credentials are in fact way more impressive
than his fictional counterpart could ever boast of. Nayak’s hero got lucky.
Kejriwal, on the other hand has actually worked pretty hard for it. Which is
exactly why I find Kejriwal’s Nayak comparisons so wrong and belittling. Apart
from the weirdly disturbing imagery of course.
Validity of these comparisons
apart, Kejriwal was as much of a sensation online as he was offline. He had
captured imaginations…and the webspace. Which was obvious and understandable.
But then something happened. Something that was neither obvious nor understandable. Something called Alok Nath.
Out of the wild, unknown blue…or
sanskari saffron, as the memes would have us believe, he came. He saw. He
conquered. And became an internet phenomenon. Everyone went for a piece of
it…him…well, the phenomena I mean. The social media was flooded with memes and
jokes and everything else that the netizens thought was necessary to fulfill
their sacrosanct duty towards this holy internet sensation.
Kejriwal had needed strategy,
hard work and genuine intentions. But Alok Nath…he needed nothing except to be
his awesome ‘sanskari’ self. Well
that and couple of Hindi movie channels armed with way too many Sooraj Barjatya
movies than can be deemed healthy for any society.
Juxtaposition of Arvind Kejriwal
and Alok Nath is, however, in fact much more than a clever blog post device. It
is a telling sign of our times—times where our contemporary virtual world is
characterized by the incredible co-existence of idiocy with intellect. The
virtual world where Kamaal R Khan is as iconic as Shah Rukh Khan and no one as
much as squirms in discomfort. No one except, I presume, Shah Rukh Khan.
Vagaries of our fickle virtual spaces aside, there is something else which ties Arvind Kejriwal and Alok Nath—something that is slightly more meaningful and in deference to the spirit of this blog, you know lesson-ish.
The thing that ties them both up—is of course Sanskar. Only that Alok Nath,
ostensibly, subscribes to the kind where one is required to touch elders’ feet
while Kejriwal subscribes to the version where one is required to pull the rug
from under elders’ feet…if they are corrupt that is. The point is, both are
high on symbolism; both stand for (different) values that we had long presumed
to have been buried in books and fed off to the railway rats (Those rats
practically spend their entire life-spans between the rails. They still manage
to be awfully fat. There has to be a reason!); both look better with a
moustache.
Okay, you can ignore the last
point.
There is, however, a difference.
Alok Nath doesn’t thrive on the symbolism. Kejriwal does. And so, after his sanskari image went viral, he went on record to actually claim that he had a
*ahem* wild young life complete with drunk outings and crazy girlfriends. The
fans of his sankar, however, chose to ignore this. Possibly because they were
incredulous. Imagining Alok Nath as a wild child might need a (un)healthy dose
of creativity and quite a few rewatches of Bol
Radha Bol. I doubt if anyone was up for it.
But there is another possible
reason. It was ignored because it was convenient—because sustaining a symbolism
is easier than actually questioning it. A human socio-intellectual inertia that
is bound to replicate itself in case of Arvind Kejriwal. Not that he is going
to do anything to damage the symbolism that defines his position. Quite the
contrary. But there are others. There are always others. The others that will
be ignored…for now.
The trouble with symbolism,
however, is not these others. The trouble is that it has a short shelf life,
presence or absence of others notwithstanding. It needs to be backed up—with
substance…plenty of substance.
Because sooner or later, people
will get bored with Alok Nath. Not because they are offended by his drunken
romps and anti-sanskari past life. But because that is what people do. They get
bored. And go back to Rajnikanth. And CID.
Kejriwal will need to remember
this.
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