… also known as the week that was

At the outset Chief, please accept the apologies of the Man from Madras Musings. He does know that you Chief are averse to any political overtones appearing in this column. MMM’s rejoinder to that being such is the standard of MMM’s column that no politician worth his/her salt is likely to ever understand even a word. However, you Chief did not agree. And it was left to MMM to take an oath (thankfully not accompanied by three whacks on a granite surface) that he would forsake politics.

But last week was different Chief, and you have to make exceptions. Imagine Chief, had this been the defeat and subsequent sending off of Napoleon to Elba (see Chief, MMM did not allude to St Helena mainly because the present scenario does have possibilities of a triumphant return) and had MMM been reporting on that, would you have objected? Surely not.

And so, when it came to last week, MMM remained glued to the TV and social media and got very little other work done. And what he saw distressed him. He alludes mainly to the complete ignorance of those up north as regards happening down south. They found our names difficult to pronounce, had no clue as to what our politicians in their thick Tamil accent were saying and began asking anyone and everyone whom they knew even slightly as to their views on the happenings here. And thus it was that all kinds of people became experts on the situation.

Oh why is it that the Governor has not called the main claimant to the legacy lamented a grey-haired, self-declared psephologist who had clearly never travelled further south than one of the South Delhi colonies. Two days later, after main claimant had made a stormy departure, three whacks on granite alluded to above included, the same grey-haired woman praised the Governor for his foresight. A man from Chennai, whom MMM knew in another avatar (the man’s and not MMM’s), suddenly began spewing extracts from the Constitution. The Tamil expression for such fly-by-night Alladis is, so MMM understands, Killadi. This man also resorted to verbiage when not sure of what he was saying. At one point he said that the Governor selects a Chief Minister after consulting the Advocate General just as the President selects the Prime Minister after consulting the Attorney General.

Mention of the PM reminds MMM of that great man’s devotees on social media. One of these fanatics posted that Tamil Nadu did not deserve any sympathy as its people never voted for Mr DeMo. MMM was rather surprised at this. Is it necessary Chief to adore this De-Noted Man like the way MMM was asked to like pussycats when he was learning his rhymes? In fact on those lines, why is it not expected that all of us should chant everyday – I love my PM/His beard is so warm/And if I criticise him/His devotees will do me harm?

MMM too was asked for his views by a TV channel or two. He refused but could not resist when someone asked him about the history of the house that could become a memorial. MMM in all seriousness said that initially it was a plot of empty land on which a house came to be built. The interviewer disconnected at this point. Truth has no value these days Chief.