Thumbs UP By Satish Padmanabhan

OutlookIndia

Listen to excerpts from Outlook's All is Well issue by Pragya Vats  #Press #Journalism #News #Newsroom #Expression #Broadcast #Journalists #HappyNewsIndustry #Writing #Publishing #PrintMedia #Media

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00:00 Thumbs up by Satish Vadmanabhan from Outlook.

00:03 Happy days are here again. The slanting sun rays lose their sting of September.

00:10 They are mellow like the lions in the older national emblem.

00:26 Benign with their thick grinning whiskers and not snarling and saber-toothed like the new avatar.

00:34 The wind no longer feels like a slap across the face but a zephyr.

00:39 Its sweet embrace is soothing and languorous, with political pundits trying to gauge which way it's

00:46 blowing. Plump Mexican silk cotton flowers twirl down from the high branches like Vishnu's Sudarshan

00:54 Chakra sans the firepower, landing silently to make a spongy pink-purple carpet.

01:01 The neem and the pilkhan have a blow-dried look. The generous rains and the assorted acids in the

01:09 air have bleached them to an indescribable green. The parakeets and the barbots, the trippies and

01:16 the hornbills, the doves and the babblers, chirp around, merrily flying hither and thither as if

01:24 they are in Ashok Vatika. There is peace in the mind, warmth in the heart and a zing in people's

01:30 steps as the festive season is approaching. The entire city is bathed in brotherhood and camaraderie.

01:38 Shouts of "Ram Ram Puran Kaka, Sab Khairyat?" "Haan Haan Khan Chacha, Aapke Aashirvaad se."

01:46 Ring the air. The Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb is at its zenith. The barrier between castes has been long

01:53 broken. Crime has been bulldozed. Class difference is so minuscule that even Engels will need a

02:01 magnifying glass to detect it. Wherever there are men, there are 33 women too. The following scene

02:08 is typical of a day in this just and kind society. At a traffic signal, a gig worker loses his balance

02:16 on his bike and falls because of a tent-sized package on his back. A Bentley screeches to a

02:22 halt. The man at the wheel, a clean-cut millennial in a sheer linen jacket that discreetly reveals

02:30 his ripped, gym-toned muscles, picks him up and rushes him to the nearest hospital. The free

02:37 super-speciality hospital is a shiny building built for the middle class. There are no poor.

02:43 Garibi has been huttowed long time ago. With cutting-edge equipment and doctors from all over

02:50 the world, the police picket outside the hospital, specially kept for accident victims, takes over

02:56 from there. The constable runs to the Bentley owner's help, picks up the gig worker and dash

03:02 through the hospital corridors to inform the dean about emergency. No paperwork is needed. The

03:09 biometric of the gig worker is already in the hospital's database, updated up to what he had

03:16 had for breakfast that morning. He is wheeled into the emergency room. A hundred doctors,

03:21 33 of them women, and nurses attend to his few bruises on the elbow and knees. And to overcome

03:29 the shock, he is taken to another room with a plush bed, a mini-fridge, silent air conditioning

03:37 and a big TV on which the Truman Show is playing. Ten minutes later, he is discharged with fresh

03:44 dressing and a packet of millet biscuits. Meanwhile, the insurance agent has come to the

03:50 spot. He quickly assesses the damage to the bike and sends it to the workshop. The motorcycle

03:56 company tells the worker that they will give him a new bike while the old one is mended. The gig

04:03 company transfers a handsome compensation to his UPI account for the trauma he had endured while

04:10 on duty. The Bentley has been patiently waiting outside the hospital gate to drop him back home.

04:16 For this and more, read the current issue of Outlook.

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