The Secret Sorrows Of Rahul

The more I think of it, the more I feel Rahul Gandhi is a chap who is more to be pitied than censured.

From being a carefree power behind the throne he now looks like someone who has drunk the cup of life and finds a dead bug at the bottom.

This was the chap, who said shortly after his 43^rd birthday, "Poverty is just a state of mind” and that “if one possesses self-confidence, then one can overcome poverty".

And from stating “I am not averse to politics,” today he has to be grateful for any endorsement, even a “strip support” from actress Tanisha Singh, who taped his picture to cover her frontal assets.

To make things worse he has to hear us constantly misquote Mark Twain: “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”

Yes. No doubt it is a dog’s life. The comparison to a dog is not odious. Indeed according to the Chinese zodiac, Rahul’s sign is the dog.

And according to that astrology, dogs are loyal but have trouble trusting others and are known for the occasional little white lies to make things go more smoothly. Sound familiar? Wait a bit.

Other features of this sign:

• -       trouble staying calm when an important issue is at stake
• -       very temperamental
• -       prone to mood swings
• -       irrational fears that turn into hurt feelings and
• -       prone to occasional grouchiness.

Now we come to India, which happens to be a Pig, the most generous and honourable sign of the Zodiac.

Pigs are:

• -       nice to a fault, possess impeccable manners and taste
• -       highly intelligent, forever studying and probing in their quest for greater knowledge
• -       inclined to be perceived as snobs or lazy, both misconceptions
• -       possessed of a truly luxurious nature, delighting in finery and riches
• -      unfortunately stomped on by others and yet will take the blows.

The two should make a grand match.

We now return to a Rahul who much like a champion boxer expecting a lightweight contender suddenly finds himself in a WWE Royal Rumble. He has been forced into to lowering his sights from a ‘could-be-PM’ to a ‘not-even-likely-Opposition Leader’. 

He has been driven to stake claim for his party ushering the IT revolution in India and ask the BJP to stop taking credit for it and to accuse the BJP of overlooking corruption in its own party.

Instead of calculating winnable seats on a state-wide basis, he is now forced to woo voters across the lines like women and ex-servicemen as well as try out increasingly novel steps like primaries in the 128-year-old Congress.

Things have come to such a pass that Rahul stopped his convoy and got down from his car to meet Dushyant, a class four student who was waving an NSUI flag, as he was leaving after an interaction with select students.

Speaking to reporters Dushyant said: “He asked me how are you? I replied I’m fine and then I told him you will become Prime Minister”.

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, what?