Dagger’s Drawn

Ms and Ms Mahindra, two spicy young lovelies, were my breakfast companions one morning — Ms Jatia of Hyatt Delhi-fame, another dash of spice, that said a quick Hi! The gorgeous, spicy grand daughters of "the greatest statesman of all" — Mr Jyoti Basu — were mirchi & masala to an evening of `Fun’. All of whom, I predict, are perfect swadeshi replacements to the other `Spice girls’.

Our nation produces the originalspices and these lovelies are look’s wise and otherwise perfect replacements to the `pretender Spice girls’. When I see blossoming lovelies like the homespun beauties mentioned above I cannot help but feel a warm glow of pride, tinged with perhaps a little maternal protectiveness. Being the mother of two gentle sons one nonetheless wants to protect all little girls for as long as one can from their vestal awakening.

Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya may be a great title for a film, but to love and be courageous about it takes more than we folks back home have. Love, that glorious, ecstatic, wonderful word — a perogative of the young, or is it really? It takes every breath of one’s life, energy and insides yet fear of losing it, is the great leveler. Having lost to life itself a loved one, what about losing the love of a loved one? Gosh! One so wants to protect these home-grown spices. Guarding these young lovelies, spicy and saucy as they are from the vagaries, aches, pains, ecstasy, purity and revelry ofyoung love, but can one? Should one?

I must admit they all seemed more than capable of taking care of themselves and their hearts to boot in soul parlance. Without an exception, they seemed confident, gutsy, with street chic clothes and attitude with a capital `A’.RUDE as the homecoming was, what with the `Heat’ all 46 degrees of it and the `Dust’ of Dilli — the combination of polite custom officials, cool `local’ aircon car, courtesy the hotel and the charming hostesses on arrival, all made it rather `nice’ as the `angrez’ would put it, to be back home! If the angrez had been around though, they would have hot footed it to the hills.

That evening, the touching hospitality of a young-at-heart, and younger-to-look-at `today couple’ with another spicy daughter to boot, made it all feel so `right’ to be back home in "Ballistic India". The scorching, searing heat got me thinking that this must definitely have something to do with us going ballistic. The earthquakes in Afghanistan and Mumbai and theunbearable flare glare heat had a little more to do with India going nuke, than any spice girl.

The tit-for-tat tests by our neighbour, I felt, were too trivial and trivia it shall remain till the US does more to rein in their tin-pot dictators. Scattered as they may be over time and personages of non grata status today, we mustn’t forget Papa Doc, Zia, the Shah, Yahya Khan. Various African regimes propped by then and finally Suharto, where will it end?

Why cannot the US support the largest democracy in the world? Why do they lend tacit support to every dictator or commie but shy away from the `real thing’ and I am not talking `Coke’. If America doesn’t do something quickly about this spicy situation, they will pay a heavy price for `policing’ the world. Their word is the law no more. They cannot even get all the G-8 nations to be uniform in applying sanctions — Horror of Horrors! Using the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, CTBT sanctions and other tools of imperial torture can work only thus far and nomore.

India may feel a pinch, Pakistan will be crippled. I am of the firm belief that the Asean tigers getting so badly mauled was the handiwork of the United States and its economic terrorist forces made of fund managers and currency speculators, coupled with the IMF and World Bank. We are a proud and sovereign nation and will not be brow beaten. So stir away world, a pot of curry only gets spicier and tastier from it. Here’s to Girl Power!