Khatron ke khiladi

Of late it seems every thing Indian is happening in South Africa from movies to IPL or for that matter even Akshay kumar’s reality Game show. ”Khatron ke khiladi”. This game show found huge success among the viewers here in India .But it appears strange and to an extent even foolish to pay glamorous women perform those stunts that are rather pale in comparison to the stunts an average Indian performs daily. Take me for example … every morning I have to rush through a stream of people , then jump over a dozen of them sleeping on the footpath keeping in mind to avoid waking or trampling them .Finally I have to hold on to my courage( and my breath)to somehow force my self into the already over crowded over loaded Metro. Finally after fearing my life for another bomb blast or worse, a swine flu infection from my nearest neighbour I reach my stop .Then it takes more courage than Akshay Kumar to cross the wide highway where the busses whizz pass you even when the lights are red. Finally I reach office and gather all my courage to face my Boss and his mood swings. So basically I have faced more “khatra” than any one of those “babes” and its not even 9.30 am yet.

This however is a very comfortable life in one of the most comfortable cities in India in contrast to the city I used to live in before. Mumbai, which easily should host this game show .Average Mumbaikar does all stunts possible in a train to reach office. The site of many mumbaikar hanging in the trains sitting on the top just to reach office is an eye opener. Every year there are 1000 “official eliminations” reported in Mumbai suburban railways. The stunts get tougher during Monsoons where it spares no one. Why do we showcase such bravado to live our lifes? Why has an ordinary Indian been compelled to become an extraordinary “Khatron ka khiladi”?

A couple of days back I came across a news that was more unnerving than the Indian team’s recent loss. A pregnant lady gave birth to a baby girl in the toilet of a moving train .Infact the baby slipped out of the seat and landed on the railway tracks.The Mother jumped out of the train and found the baby on the tracks alive. While the papers were busy celebrating the miracle of life the question constantly nagging me was would this “miracle” be allowed in any other country anywhere on earth?

Recently I read a story in economic times titled “It’s official life in India sucks”. Well it was about how India was ranked 134th in the world in terms of Human development index(which by the way is better than India’s Ranking in World football).This figure was a reality check for naïve Indians like me who have grown to believe the “India Shining” story. The analysis the data revealed (one doesn’t have to be an MBA to figure that out) our lives are getting worse. India’s ranking has slipped 6 places in a year ,whereas countries like Venezuela and china has improved considerably. Even our neighbours Bhutan (132) and Sri Lanka ( 106) are placed better than us .Although some ‘optimistic souls’ may take refuge in the fact that Pakistan(141) is ranked after us, but seriously whom are we comparing with. This is alarming as we claim to be the fastest growing nation and a super power on the rise .What is the use of such inequitable growth if we can’t improve the lives of the people?

Isn’t it time to take stock of the whole situation and perform a reality check rather than blindly following the India shining story? Haven’t we performed enough stunts already? While you figure out how long you choose to be part of this madness I am making a move to Bhutan.