On my way home from the airport, I had a long chat with the taxi driver. Almost as soon as I got in and a lit a cigarette with his matchbox, he started pleasantly chatting. He said, Aap bahut bure din Dilli laute. Modi aaya hai. (You have returned to Delhi on a very bad day. Modi has come) I could have hugged him right then and there. We got chatting and he said that a lot of the votes were just anti-Congress, and that AAP would have won at least 4-5 seats in Delhi and 2-3 in Haryana and more than 4 in Punjab if Kejriwal had not quit. Kursi chhodke bahut galti kar di Kejriwalji ne. (Kejriwalji committed a big error by leaving the chair). He is from Bihar and said a lot of migrant workers in Delhi are AAP supporters and they still voted AAP. It was the comfortably off who lost their tentative trust when Kejriwal quit. He was home --Monghyr, near Patna-- for the polling and voted Nitish Kumar. Then he asked me who I voted for- I said AAP in Delhi. He gave me a reassuring smile. Ab kyaa honewaala hai? Dange? Gareeb log hi marte hain dangon mein--chaahe musalmaan oh yaa hindu (What is going to happen now? Riots? It is the poor who die in riots; be they Muslim or Hindu.) He seemed very upset at the BJP winning so many seats in Bihar, a state whose communal harmony he us proud of. His name is Pavan. He must not have been older than twenty five. I wish the 16% Indian electorate that voted for the BJP had a quarter of his intelligence, knowledge, reason and compassion. But then I felt hopeful. It is young, bright, rational people like Pavan who will save India. We--you and I--have a responsibility to lend all our support to Pavan and his comrades. He gave me his phone number. I thanked him and told him it has been my privilege to know him. We said salaam and parted. Pavan has given me so much hope and determination that I can never thank him enough. Stay safe and wonderful, dear Pavan!
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 16:34:14 +0000
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