Issue: June 15 - 30, 2004

By Satya Saran

Can we begin to think 'You are our Sonia?'

AM writing this to you because you are a woman. And because the women who read my magazine would want to believe that you will do something different for all of us, and for the country whose reins might just end up, directly or indirectly, in your hands.

WE know you have a lot at stake. Not just the fact that you are, as it has been said ad nauseam, a foreigner, but also a woman, makes your path that much more stony.

But we are hoping you will walk the path and with your will, determination and ministrations turn the stones into flowers. Flowers that will grow like hopes all over the country and bring back to us a life that looks forward to a better future.

WE know that you also hope, that one day, you will stop being caretaker and be able to pass on your power to generation next. Despite the fears for their safety that must torment you, it seems impossible that you, as a mother, don't have your dreams for the future of your children. And logically, that dream has to be what we all think it is. Which is why we are able to hope you will be different. And do nothing that will shake the trust a populace, minus the carpers, have vested in you. But just in case you are wondering what it is we expect of you, let me put down our tiny list of demands:

Please instruct your party to treat the country as they would their own home. Which means, run it like they would their household, with cleanliness, safety, economy and good living as the guideposts.

Which also means that they ensure that everyone in their home gets one good meal a day, enough water, and no one stores more than he needs while his neighbour starves.

It also means that they make our lives safer. It is a sad home where women have to creep around worrying about rape and violence, where even babies in hospitals are not safe from the advances of the lecherous. And a home where girl babies are not allowed to be born or are killed at birth, is even more morbid a place to be head of. You are a woman, and we are sure you will find a way to end all this, dramatically but firmly.

We would also like you to take a close look at our cities. Cesspools of materialism that reek of garbage, where civic consciousness is a word in a long-forgotten dictionary.

Surely no household can survive in health in such filth? Surely, the large industrial houses that have their bases across the cities, could be made responsible to keep their cities clean? They have the manpower and the money to do it; is it not time they grew a social conscience? Example has proved that once the populace experiences a clean environment, it can be persuaded to maintain it... but someone must make a beginning.

OF course, this seems a lot, but women have the ability to multi task, and to care and nurture, and we are hoping you will tend this country back from the brink. I hope we are not expecting too much. You don't have to work it all out alone; there are enough young, educated minds in your party... invest in their professionalism. Just keep the oddballs, the floor crossers and the criminals out, and your job is already well begun.

ACTUALLY our list of hopes runs on... but we will hold back and let you get on with the job.

AND best of luck.

AND oh, a small wish of my own... can you save this rich, verdant, innocent agrarian country from the bane of plastic?