I was mostly used by people in their day-to-day conversations in past tense, often laced with strong dose of nostalgia to lament about the loss of good old days - be it college life, first crush or pre-nuptial courtship. Hence when BJP, sometime in the beginning of this year, chose to use me to refer in future tense, it came as a pleasant surprise.
I was all over radio and TV as part of its campaign to woo voters and as they say the rest is history (read hysteria) - the dope worked well on voters and turned them delirious. And for me it was a heady feeling and brushed off warnings by my ageing uncle 'garibi hatao' (thought he was being plain jealous) that soon I might get reduced to a joke and be used in pejorative sense.
For a couple of days it was celebration time with money bags of Dalal Street fuelling Sensex rallies. Soon the government rolled out more slogans such as 'swachch Bharat', 'Make in India' and other less catchy cousins and I was never short of company.
But gradually like the wearing off of anesthesia after surgery, reality began to dawn. After a 'ho hum' Rail and Union Budgets, which only resulted in rise in train ticket fares and prices of essential commodities, sceptics began thinking aloud "when will achche din begin", but the besotted bhakts tried to silence them with angry trolls.
Then came the somersault over Aadhaar card for which countless Indians (even some Bangladeshis) had queued up to get photographed and finger printed. It was initially dismissed as UPA's folly and put in cold storage. But now it's on the way of being an instrument for getting LPG subsidy (as was planned by UPA). Moreover it has now become even more kosher - the finger prints taken during Aadhaar enrolment may be used to help start bank accounts as per Jan Dhan yojana. Sounds like 'puraney din' remarked a wag.
Of late many columnists who had vociferously believed that NDA would usher achchey din are having second thoughts about the government's performance with one of them lamenting that somebody has done black magic on Prime Minister.
About current ministry's performance another admirer and former minister cryptically remarked 'When all is said and done, more is said than done'. Then he regrets that 'The reduction of oil prices has put blinkers on people’s eyes and has delayed a reality check'. Another well known financial columnist observed that NDA was riding more on achchey sitrey (good luck) than achchey din, but wondered for how long.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
I was all over radio and TV as part of its campaign to woo voters and as they say the rest is history (read hysteria) - the dope worked well on voters and turned them delirious. And for me it was a heady feeling and brushed off warnings by my ageing uncle 'garibi hatao' (thought he was being plain jealous) that soon I might get reduced to a joke and be used in pejorative sense.
For a couple of days it was celebration time with money bags of Dalal Street fuelling Sensex rallies. Soon the government rolled out more slogans such as 'swachch Bharat', 'Make in India' and other less catchy cousins and I was never short of company.
But gradually like the wearing off of anesthesia after surgery, reality began to dawn. After a 'ho hum' Rail and Union Budgets, which only resulted in rise in train ticket fares and prices of essential commodities, sceptics began thinking aloud "when will achche din begin", but the besotted bhakts tried to silence them with angry trolls.
Then came the somersault over Aadhaar card for which countless Indians (even some Bangladeshis) had queued up to get photographed and finger printed. It was initially dismissed as UPA's folly and put in cold storage. But now it's on the way of being an instrument for getting LPG subsidy (as was planned by UPA). Moreover it has now become even more kosher - the finger prints taken during Aadhaar enrolment may be used to help start bank accounts as per Jan Dhan yojana. Sounds like 'puraney din' remarked a wag.
Of late many columnists who had vociferously believed that NDA would usher achchey din are having second thoughts about the government's performance with one of them lamenting that somebody has done black magic on Prime Minister.
About current ministry's performance another admirer and former minister cryptically remarked 'When all is said and done, more is said than done'. Then he regrets that 'The reduction of oil prices has put blinkers on people’s eyes and has delayed a reality check'. Another well known financial columnist observed that NDA was riding more on achchey sitrey (good luck) than achchey din, but wondered for how long.
Also Read: Bangalore Beat
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