The Commonwealth Games. Whose Commonwealth?

I am a bit vexed and chagrined by all the hullabaloo surrounding the Commonwealth Games. So, whose commonwealth is it? God, how insensitive and callous people can be? They have embezzled money and now disown any responsibility. Their silence shows their guilt. Is it commonwealth of the people of India? Certainly not, by the way things are going. The hypocrisy of our political class has come out once again to the fore. It has resulted in our being ridiculed in the foreign media instead of paeans being sung.

When the shit hit the punkah, I felt so relieved that, at least, we have a press that is partially free. (I mean except for the advertorials [advertisements masking as editorials] the press is free and our journalists are professionals with high standards of integrity. A few bad apples don't make cider, you see.

First of all, the powers in Delhi want to make a huge impact on the world by holding the Commonwealth Games. That we are ready for conducting the Olympics and that we are making a lot of progress, we are the back office of the world, we have the largest number of engineers, we are an emerging super power, and our boys can outspell, outcalculate, outmanage anybody. But then shit is a lump of shit, whatever way you try to beautify it. This shit of corruption must go, no doubt about it.

Now, the situation is such that nothing they can do can remedy the situation. Anything they say or declare is ridiculed and exposed by the press. What have we done to deserve such a political class that is rife with corruption?

The following is the biggest gaffe of all, unforgivable by all Indians anywhere because it accuses us of being dirty, of the habit of dirtying toilets, soiling beds and most inexcusable of all using Rs-4000 toilet rolls to clean our behinds. I read today that the workers building the stadiums and the roads aren't earning a month even the cost of one toilet roll these people embezzled. They are paid a measly Rs 80 to Rs 120 a day!

Here's the first in a line of foot in the mouth quotes from the people organizing the Games:

"Everyone has different standards about cleanliness. The Westerners have different standards, we have different standards," said Lalit Bhanot, the Delhi Games' spokesman. People, we must give this man his due. Actually he was saying that Indians have a higher standard of hygiene because we use those lovely, hand-embroidered, gold-coated, Rs-4000 a piece toilet rolls. Really!

Here's the second installment of the foot in the mouth (anything they can be held against them):

When a bridge collapsed a worthy said that the bridge was not meant for competitors in the Games but for the general public. Meaning? Am a bit slow but am not that slow to gauge the meaning here. This again is a big affectation of the foot in the mouth, which besides low hygiene level is turning out to be a standard Indian characteristic.

Poor, poor, IOC, or, whoever planned the grandiose Commonwealth Games. Like friend Anthonybhai is fond of saying, "What-what they planned, men, and what-what it turned out to be."