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A man gets weird looks from all around for telling off a litterbug who doesn't use the dustbin hardly a foot away! He is thought a lunatic for trying to enforce the "no-smoking-public-places" rule. Another day, he is considered to be off his rockers for asking why he has to pay Rs. 2 more than what is printed on the parking token.

Does this man strike a chord in you? Were you once in our man's shoes or were you the one giving the weird looks?

I've been quite often in the position of this not-so-hypothetical man, especially of late. And more often than not, I end up feeling disgusted when I am perceived as an "unsteady ^[1]" person whenever I stand up for my rights!

What released me from the "blogger's block" was a set of events that happened in the last few weeks, each forcing me to raise my voice to merely get what my rights entitle me to, sometimes not even managing that!

• First :

I was in Kanchipuram visiting the Ekambareshwarar Temple, snapping photos plenty of photos (all outside the sanctum sanctorum). Just as I finished and was coming out, I noticed a board saying "Camera fee : Rs. 20". Just then the guy at the counter said "Sir, Camera token Ten Rupees". I thought it was a mis-print until I saw my 10 rupees go straight into his shirt pocket. No receipt. No qualms either. I asked him for the receipt. "Athu iruvathu rooba saar(That costs twenty rupees saar)" was the retort. As simple as that. When I persisted further,he withdrew into the counter, muttered some curses and the fact that I was in a hurry to leave did not help matters. I was party to the creation of black money, even though just ten rupees in value!

• Second :

While standing at a bus stop, the person next to me was smoking. I requested him to stop smoking. He continued puffing on his cigarette. I tried once more. This time I was met with a huge puff of smoke that would have put the no-longer-running steam engines and still-running MTC buses to shame. I was losing my patience but tried explaining that I have Asthma (which is a lie^[2]). But the all that smoking seemed to have dimmed his aural senses, for he continued to use up all of the world's carbon credits twice over in each puff! This time I did not hold myself back. I raised my voice enough to be audible to all the people at the bus stop and said, "Eey! Smoke pannakudathu ne theriyadha onakku?(Don't you know you can't smoke here?)". The response was a raising of the eyebrows as if asking me if I was addressing him. If that was not enough, the people around were looking at me as if I was doing the smoking. Fortunately there was one other person in the crowd who took offence to the smoke and with some more shouting we managed to extinguish the chimney! But the dirty looks continued. "Why do you bother doing all this?" their eyes seemed to be condescendingly asking me!

• Third:

Standing in a queue to get a railway ticket, I saw someone go past me to the counter! I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to get in line. He seemed to have suddenly contracted this hearing disability that almost all rule breakers somehow manage to get! He continued trying to push his cash through the counter. But this time, I shouted, "Pinnadi Po ya! (Get back, man)". He gave me a smirk but that was almost outdone by the expression on the faces of the other people in the queue! I got wild, shouted "Dei ! Naa enna madayana linela nikkarthukku?"(Hey! You think I am a fool to stand in line?) and gave him a shove^[3]. He lost his balance and fell. I kept up my facade of being a toughie and thankfully before he could get up and do something nasty, someone else from behind started shouting at him for "cutting" the line. Still most were asking me, "Why do you want to create such a scene?"

• Fourth:

A man pulled the chain just as a train I was travelling in was starting from Erode Junction. The reason was that in most compartments, there was no water supply in the toilets and washbasins. Shockingly, people still were questioning him on why he was acting so "childishly". Lots of Southern Railway officials seemed to be of the same opinion. Thankfully for him, a couple of TTEs supported him and he "escaped" without a fine. It was altogether another matter that refilled water lasted for a few minutes past Erode Junction! Even then people were still asking him, "Why did you do all this? No other job?"

Well I think the answer to all these questions is "It's my bloody right!" (for want of better vocabulary on the expletive side!). Why can't all those people asking these questions realise it's not criminal to stand up for one's one rights?

The Right to Information Act was introduced based on this very idea! But RTI activists themselves are an extinct species (the fact that they have to be called activists is an indication of how 'tolerant' we have become towards wrongdoing). Though various attempts have been made towards setting up complaint redressal systems, they have been too few and far in between or otherwise abortive. Something new in this regard is Mission : Safer India by Kiran Bedi.

One can only hope change will occur! But don't stop questioning violations!

Open the newspaper or switch on the TV or tune into the radio and you just can't miss the patriotic fervour that is blaring out loud. Be it a "special supplement" with "leader articles" by "eminent personalities" or a "multi-national" opinion poll about the "state of the nation at 60", they are all centred on one theme : India is now 60 years old!

Is India really only 60 years old? For crying out loud, my grandfather is over 60! And what about the martyrs like Tiruppur Kumaran and Bhagat Singh who gave up their lives well before 1947. Were they not Indians? Going even further back in history, what was the nationality of Ashoka, Raja Puru (aka Porus) and Akbar?

Is the end of the Raj The defining moment in our history? Do 190 years of colonisation and the subsequent overthrowing of the colonial power warrant the forgetting of the glorious past that preceded it? Infact, I am sure no country apart from ours does so. Have you ever heard of Egypt, which got its independence from Britain in 1922, claim it's only 85 years old? Or did France begin to exist only after the Third Reich was vanquished?

Is it merely a publicity gimmick by the media? Or have I taken the words "Armchair Critic" too seriously? Food for thought indeed.

But anyway 60 or 5000, Happy Independence Day to all!