Monday 13 June 2011

In the end...

In the end, it doesn't really matter!
Funny, how these words from a Linkin Park song seem to be swirling about my mind since the past 2 days...As a matter of fact, the entire lyrics (or maybe just the chorus) of the song suddenly seem to be making sense to me now wrt my situation. Ahh well, I don't want to sound melancholy but " I (did) try so hard, and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter!"
Hah! I always end up with this sing-song, kind of lyrical notes..I've noticed this a lot. Not that I do it intentionally, but I guess, it just comes out this way.
Anyways, lets shift focus to something else altogether. The "drinking age" limit! 25 years! Are u "kidding"(pun intended) me? I mean, do they really take us as kids/juveniles/ *immature adults* till the age of 25?! Apparently, this is the govts' new *de-addiction policy*. Well, then lets increase the voting age to 25 too! I know a few of you would feel this is just a knee-jerk reaction but hello? If the so-called politicians feel that we do have the sense at 18 years to vote for a political party, then,I'm positive that we do have the sense to drink responsibly too! Yes, there are a few reckless binge drinkers and drivers here and there, getting into brawls, mowing people down and getting acquitted with money exchanging hands, but, the point here is about this flimsy reason given which made the Maharashtra govt issue such a statement..I'm sure they have other, more pressing issues to focus on too..But as Linkin Park says, "In the end, (to the Maharashtra govt), it doesn't really matter". There are various online protests, a leading newspaper has launched a citizen protest and various film personalities have voiced their dismay too. But do we really see all of this heading somewhere? Or do we as usual blindly accept whatever has been laid upon us? Has the govt thought about the number of road accidents and related deaths because of the decrepit condition of roads or pot hole ridden roads? From the looks of it, they want to focus more on road accidents due to a case of drunken driving which has become their latest cause. I'm not denying the fact that there are road accidents due to drunken driving but there are an equal number of accidents because of road repairs being left incomplete or worse, the road was built or repaired using substandard material.
Coming back to the drinking age being extended, I'm writing because, unfortunately, today, everything has been reduced to a numbers game. Be it from the scams enveloping our country to this drinking age permit, just about everything is riddled with numbers. The bureaucrats/politicians are playing a good numbers game without even thinking where exactly what numbers should be used. I fail to understand why the govt suddenly likes to focus all its attention on such issues when it could do more on completing all the infrastructure projects on time in a *ever growing* city like Mumbai and using sensible *numbers* (as in completion dates of these projects and making sure they do not *extend* beyond the required date!). If they are so interested in toying with numbers, then, I would like them to do some number crunching on the tax-payers money spent on making sure that Kasab gets his meals on time and sleeps with *Z-security*. Can the Maharashtra govt promise its people with such security? Again, in the end, to them, it doesn't really matter! or does it?

Note: I didn't intend to make this an inflammatory note but I would appreciate if there could be a discussion, as, to me, in the end, all of this, does really matter!