'Mukesh ka time aa gaya'

Lutyens' Delhi, the Khan Market gang and people like us need to shape up or ship out

I’m not a Hollywood or Bollywood enthusiast but one of the few and best films I have seen in the last few years is Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy. The words of the theme song of the film were echoed to me by my cook Mukesh the other day post the 2019 election results. He said, “Hamara time aa gaya.”

Mukesh, in his early 30s, is a die-hard Modi fan. His family of 100-odd — all of who live in and around Dehradun — swear by him and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), although they have been BJP supporters well before Modi burst into the scene. He’s very patriotic — often his WhatsApp display picture is the Indian flag. While maintaining a strict protocol that’s restricted to instructions on food, ingredients and the like, twice a year, he sends me enthusiastic messages for August 15 and January 26.

A few days after demonetisation, I asked him how he was coping. He’d had to wait in queues for weeks to withdraw cash but he’d be willing to do it again as he felt this was a move that favoured people like him. While he clarified that he didn’t wish people like me badly, he said there were many wealthy people who didn’t make their money honestly and the PM had tried to check that. 

I explained a few months later that the move that thrilled him may not have hit its target and caused more disruption than was anticipated. He heard me out but remained firm: He would be quite happy to go through it all again if need be. He felt it was well-intentioned. Displaying the famed Indian resilience, he pointed out to me that everything cannot work the first time it’s attempted.

I asked him if he was aware of the numerous lynchings and unwarranted deaths that have happened in the name of the sacred cow. Yes, he’d heard about a few killings. He blamed the emergence of the “goonda” element among the unemployed exacerbated by the support such elements find through various social media. He didn’t think any specific group was to blame but was puzzled on why the government had condoned these and mildly disappointed with its lack of action.

Pushing my point a bit further, I asked whether the Muslims — there’s a large Muslim population near his house — he knew were feeling particularly persecuted, threatened or insecure in some way. He said that they were, still did and have been feeling all this for the last 70 years ever since India’s independence. He didn’t think the last five years stood out in any manner. “They complain but co-exist,” he added. Moreover, he argued that he’s tired of being apologetic about his own religion. He’s a proud Hindu and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t say it.

I asked at another point whether he knew that some institutions of the government had been compromised in some way to cater to the political agenda of the ruling coalition. That four Supreme Court judges had revolted against the interference with the affairs of the highest judicial body of the country. Was he aware that various pillars of the Indian democratic system had been under the threat of subversion? He had heard of some controversy involving the judges but he pleaded ignorance of the rest, arguing that these were matters for “people like me”. He didn’t have the luxury of worrying about such subjects.

He, in turn, pointed out two or three things that had helped improve his and his family’s lot. His wider family in the hilly regions of Kumaon had benefitted from the gas connections that had been handed out. Road access has improved all around, bringing untold benefits to them. Education remained a no-go but health facilities were better. Open defecation had been checked if not eradicated. People who still went out in the open had started feeling “sheepish” about it. Even the need to keep their surroundings cleaner had begun to dawn in his view. When I asked him why he thought the Congress got the drubbing it did, his message was straight forward: “Hamara time aa gaya”. 

In other words, this genie is out of the bottle. Lutyens’ Delhi, the Khan Market gang and people like us have to wake up, smell the latest coffee brew, shape up or ship out. To quote General Eric Shinseki, a former US chief of army staff: “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less”.

PS: This Mukesh’s second name is Bhandari, in case you are still wondering...