The Great Indian Reek-ing Tragedy!

So by defying his rule of proper form of any text, I shall begin my write-up by thanking Aristotle and acknowledging him first:

Thank you so much for inspiring me, Sir. Even if I don’t score a 20/25 for my soon-to-be-written answer, I am grateful to you, for I at least got some inspiration to write this post :)

This afternoon, while reading his notes, the analogy between Greek tragedy and Indian politics just struck me. Having read more than 2 plays that combine elements of Greek Tragedy (that’s still not close to my claim to fame), I got enough stuff to finally write something on politics that’d make sense… or nonsense… Either way, how does it matter?

• To start off, the too many characters, and inimitable ones at that, fits the mould of a complex Greek tragedy completely
• There are many flat characters, like those who keep mum, but are still given the priority like a “first citizen”; big-mouthed ones who know a lot of things already, keep mum when they should speak and speak when they should keep their fingers on their lips; and glorified bhaiyyas and Rajas, too… Itna laad kyun bhai?
• Chorus, in the form of arguments and many ministers saying many things, all at once. Aren’t we all witness to “Shaant ho jaiye”, “Baith jaiye” by our ever-so-patient Lok Sabha Speakers?
• The chorus at times alters themselves and become Praise Singers for members from their own party. Base flatterers practicing sycophancy… How many times have we seen that?
• Hamartia (Common tragic flaw) – Corruption and greed… Kya karen, control nahi hota!
• Some ministers with their shayaris intervening in between almost miss out on being the official musicians to this drama.  Bada sawaal – “Will the chorus come to their aid”?
• In the beginning, the stakes are high, but eventually it all fizzles out because of the characters’ tragic flaw.
• The ‘Dal-badlu-reversal’ syndrome when a minister changes party and suddenly he’s handed over a new script of dialogues. How tedious, no?
• And that moment of recognition or “Eureka”, when all their goodness goes for a toss. “Hum mantri hain, bhai? Apne aap ko kisi se kamm kyun haanke?”
• The huge production cost… ‘250 crore for A vacation!’

I definitely regard this haphazard state being as good as any tragedy. Given the current state of affairs, I’m guessing the chances of improvement are as much as scoring a 22/25 for a well-written, Literature answer… highly minute. For, the more they seek to do better, the more they reek to do the worse.

(PS: I initially thought of dropping names, but then I dropped the idea itself. Risk kyun le, bhai?)