SNAFU

I am sure many of my readers and followers of my posts here in Linkedin may not be old enough to know this : the fact that this is the shortest title I have given to any of my posts, articles or stories in my more than sixty years of writing.  Hmm.. Just jokin’.

Believe it or not, I started writing – poems to start with when I was barely ten years old, egged on by my over ambitious grandmother under whose care I spent my early schooling years in Mylapore,- Madras of yore. It was she who pushed me to learn Hindi, Sanskrit, German, French and Violin all at the same time. It was so hectic on weekdays, it got to a point where I could play Gully Cricket with my buddies only on Sundays. And due to the shortness of the pitch, it was only underarm bowling with used and discarded tennis balls procured from the Mylapore Club at 50p a piece. And since it was a cul-de-sac with stumps chalked out on the back wall of the Corporation school behind, by force of circumstances, the straight drive became my favourite and only stroke.in those formative years.

 There I go again ! …… Back to the point.

The current situation in our country brings to mind an old saying – “chicken with its head cut off”. And I am not going by hearsay alone. I have actually witnessed these words come to life in a frenzy of flapping wings and feathers flying one time behind a Dhaba where I had gone for you know what, during a break driving to Mangalore.

Repeated lockdown and repeated lifting, I know not to what precise algorithm.  Various figures and statistics religiously touted every morning -  percentages, growth velocity, acceleration / deceleration and the silver lining hiding behind it all – Light at the end of the tunnel. Various obscure plans and programs are chalked out, chopped, changed, altered, modified by the day. The Central govt. proposes and the State Govts. Dispose.

In the meantime, Life goes on.  People on the streets with hardly any care, shops overcrowded, Politicians and Bureaucrats back to their wicked old ways of profiting from the pandemic, political parties at each others' throats -  Business as usual.

And when the entire country is under siege and every day thousands of innocent lives are lost, the entire electronic media focus, 24 hours a day, day after day after day is on one single case of unnatural death…… Breaking News ! The case has now been transferred to Times Now.

And that brings me back to the Title of this story – SNAFU. An old American Army satirical witticism of World War II vintage – Situation Normal – All F#ck*d Up.  Folks ! God’s in his Heaven  - all’s well with India.  Jai Hind. !

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                           July 31, 2020