Indian Lok Sabha Elections - A Ride like None Other

 Indian parliamentary elections are a miracle. Humungous, chaotic, and expensive. There are 970 million eligible voters, more than the population of Europe. The parties are going to spend an estimated $15 bn ( The US elections in 2020 cost  $14 bn). The 543 seats will see voting spread over a month and a half.

On one side, there is Narendra Modi, PM for the last two terms. Three times CM and according to  Pew surveys has some of the highest approvals in the world for a political leader. Leader of the Hindu nationalist BJP, he inspires passionate followers. 

The opposition is helmed by Rahul Gandhi, whose family has been right at the forefront of Congress campaigns and leadership for almost 80 years - Motilal Nehru for a few years in 1920s, Jawahar Lal Nehru from 1935 to 1964 and then after a brief gap, Indira Gandhi from 1967 to 1984; followed by her son Rajeev Gandhi from 1984 to 1991, and  Sonia Gandhi from 1996 to 2013 and then Rahul from 2014 onwards. 

This is a long way just 75 years back with the first elections when India graduated from a feudal colonised society with princely states to a constitutional democracy. Jawahar Lal Nehru had to go around in all kinds of transport including elephants to explain what voting is to the Indian public then with a literacy rate under 20%( females 9%).

The campaigns are also full of wild allegations, hectic travel, angry debates on numerous WhatsApp groups, and constant speculation by all and sundry. This is in sharp contrast to the seriousness of the issue - the direction that India will take after 4 June since the parties have very contrasting approaches to how the republic should be. 

Perfect Days - A Perfect Movie

 It was a strange first 30 minutes of the movie. 

The protagonist, a middle-aged Japanese man, wakes up, rubs his eyes, goes to the bathroom, brushes his teeth, wipes his face, dresses up in his workman clothes, picks up the car key, shuts his door, gets a can of coffee from the pay fridge, gets into his van, plays a cassette of happy sounding western music and goes about his job. He is a toilet cleaner in Tokyo Toilette and he opens the doors and with meticulous and even fond care cleans the rims and the surface of the pot, repeats this in more places, goes to a public bath, washes his body happily, sits on a park bench in the afternoon, takes a picture with his small camera( not phone), goes to a small restaurant, has a meal, goes home, lies down on the mat, switches on the light, takes out a William Faulkner novel from his well-stocked, neatly organized bookshelf, reads a bit, reaches out for his light, switches it off and goes off to sleep.

This sequence takes 10 to 12 minutes. And the second day, the same 10-minute ( or at least felt like 10 minutes) sequence repeats. So it does for another day and a few sidelights do take place. One is with a much younger toilet cleaner who is doing his cleaning job without the least bit of interest and then a brief stay by his niece Kiko who is reluctant to go back to her mother( the protagonist's sister) who is stylishly dressed and comes to pick her up in a fancy car.

Wen Winder is a German maestro and this movie fetched the lead actor Koji Yakusho the Best Actor award at Cannes 2023. 

The movie leaves an impact long after you see this. Some messages resonate powerfully. You can be contented with life's very mundane daily routines. Setbacks ( hinted in the movie - the protagonist's tastes in reading and music hark back to a more privileged life earlier) are par for the course. A clear sky, some beautiful music, and dedication to duty are enough for a good life. The movie has very few words exchanged, and the action does not even rise above the routine that also suggests, as a friend put it, you are better off by not giving words to your thoughts. Sometimes words can be a source of misery by the associations they bring.