The property tax receipt came back in no time at all. The woman municipal employee at the counter had told a pushy fellow cutting the queue with a stack of forms: "Yeh aam aadmi ka raaj hai. Please get back in line."
Household members who voted for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) heard this and clapped. I tried not to. I'll wait until it's clear that the AAPsters are as good for democratic politics as they were clever at campaigning. I don't think they will be. (How long can holier-than-thou last? What happens when an AAP voter wants extra FSI for his building, or a government job for his child, or domestic gas cylinders diverted for commercial use? Or reservations for his caste? Business is business, and government is not just about opportunities for corruption.) But the party has put a moral force into politics that some other - one hopes less humourless - political outfit will pick up in the future.
Just one example of this lack of a leavening touch: when the Indian Express a few days ago asked the bemufflered CM-designate, among other famous names, what books he read in 2013, Arvind Kejriwal said, "I have not had the time to read any books this year." Even if it's true, what a stifling, comfortless answer. The man positively reminds one of Girolamo Savonarola, the stern 15th-century preacher who was the scourge of clerical and sarkari corruption in Renaissance Florence. (I'm not the first to make the comparison.) It was Savonarola who organised the famous "bonfires of the vanities", in which books, too, were burned. He came to a bad end.
That's all I have to say about that. So let me turn to Frank Muir, the British comedy writer and broadcaster who put together several very entertaining collections of literary quotes and anecdotes. I opened The Frank Muir Book: An Irreverent Companion to Social History (Heinemann, 1976) to see what he had to say about politics. To my consternation there was no chapter on politics. However, there was a chapter on Theatre.
"It is a most unholy trade." - Henry James the novelist.
"It is nearly impossible for a woman to remain pure who adopts the stage as a profession." - Clement Scott, whom Muir calls "a moralistic dramatic critic". (This statement was widely reviled even in the 19th century. Yet when the AAP tars all politicians, it goes unchallenged.)
"The modern theatre is a skin disease, a sinful disease of the cities. It must be swept away with a broom; it is unwholesome to love it." - Anton Chekhov, the playwright.
A nice anecdote from the Roman historian Plutarch about the great Greek legislator Solon, who 2,600 years ago went to see a play by Thespis, the pioneer of organised theatre. "[A]fter the play was done, he addressed [Thespis], and asked him if he was not ashamed to tell so many lies before such a number of people; and Thespis replying that it was no harm to say or do so in a play, Solon vehemently struck his staff against the ground: 'Ay,' said he, 'if we honour and commend such play as this, we shall find it some day in our business.'" A wise statement, but the fact should have been obvious to Solon already. No fun that fellow was.
"Those who have free seats at the play hiss first." - Attributed as a Chinese proverb; but so apt. TV anchors and other opinionisers should thank Kejriwal for giving them something to harangue about.
And here's my favourite, though I'm at a bit of a loss to know how to apply it. Something about the emperor's clothes, perhaps. It's a comment by Australian theatreperson Robert Helpmann on Oh! Calcutta!, a stage revue featuring naked actors that ran in New York and London some 40 years ago. "The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music stops."
rraote@yahoo.com
