We’re literally surrounded by rats of all sizes and nature. There are the benign ones and there are the aggressive ones, the evolved scum-lords and the camouflaged saintly ones, the suave intelligent brains and also the dodos of our society!
‘Rats?’ asked Specky, ‘you mean the rats that climb up the sewage pipes and gnaw away our precious curtains at times. I hate them. But I really did not know that they too had so many categories and castes.’
‘Ah! Never underestimate the attraction of a word like reservation,’ I said, ‘these rats that I am talking about are no less and are always ready to pounce at any advantage they sight.’
It was only when I saw her curiosity getting intense that I revealed to her the real meaning of rats in my mind. I wrote this on a piece of paper:
corpoRATes
autocRAT
democRAT
bureaucRAT
technocRAT
Specky seemed happy to read the list and asked, ‘Interesting species of rats. I’m happy it includes the netas, babus, and even the techies.’
We do have an abundance of rats running all around us and these are just a few of them. I remember having first had this rather ratty thought during a monthly conference where a regional manager boldly misspelled ‘corporates’ as ‘corporats’ and I had actually guffawed loudly and said, ‘Yes indeed, the business world is full of rats and that explains why we have such stinking policies.’ That manager did take some time and effort to be placated but by then I had resolved to dive deeper into the murkiness of a ratty world some day.
And today is the day when I bring out the rats in the open. We are living in a society that is so plagued by rattiness that it has become necessary to start calling a rat a rat and not a bloody mouse anymore.
‘These rats,’ I then explained, ‘come in all sizes and have the attitude that gets them riding the Page 3 headlines all the time. They walk away with all the goodies. In fact, they get their choicest goodies created and then they walk away with them with a nonchalance that is so enviable.’
Yes, the world has changed a lot ever since the population of these rats has gone up… and now this rise in numbers is going up exponentially. Everyone wants a part of this pie, as they have realized that this pie isn’t just a statistical way of projecting an untruth. This pie is as real as the real can get. The rats were always looting us and this hasn’t changed a bit. It is just that now everyone wants to graduate to being a rat and get into their loot-mode.
Will the rats realize that it isn’t possible to go on looting forever… and that you can loot only if there are people worthy of being looted. Something tells me that this is always a one-way mutation of society and that it is time for the rest of us to let our tails out of their recessive hiding and join the Gangs of Rattipur!
Arvind Passey
Written on 08 September 2013
8 comments
Rickie Khosla says:
Oct 8, 2013
It really does feel like we are infested with the plague, doesn’t it? But there is precious little we can do about it because we are trapped in this world run by RATs.
Perhaps there will be a pied piper who will come and save us someday. Until then we will continue to be the cheese (thing) that is of no worth or consequence to these mighty rodents.
Arvind Passey says:
Oct 8, 2013
A Pied Piper from Gujarat?
Or one from some dynasty?
Or someone who believes he has risen from the masses?
A Pied Piper with goonish traits?
Or one who hates toons?
We’d need 100 Pipers to free us all! 🙂
Karan says:
Oct 9, 2013
No one is or will be coming to save us from these RATs. Its time to guard ourselves and our crops on our own. We really need to take our stand now. But we can not alter things unless we change our mentality, ideology etc. etc..
Otherwise, we are already running on the path of these RATs and soon we will join them unintentionally.
BTW 100 Pipers is the best option…;-)
Arvind Passey says:
Oct 10, 2013
Yes, things change only when we change. The tragedy is that most of time we want everything around us to change as we go on committing one blunder after another. 🙂
Diwakar Narayan says:
Oct 11, 2013
Some rats are good, some are bad. The real challenge is to wipe out the bad ones. Nice observations of those ratty words. 🙂
Arvind Passey says:
Oct 14, 2013
Wiping out the bad ones is one challenge that civilisations have not been able to do… civilisations are wiped out but not these pesky rats!
Subroto says:
Oct 11, 2013
Politician’s bRATS will be taking over soon. Maybe time to take kaRATe lessons.
Arvind Passey says:
Oct 14, 2013
Those are interesting ‘rats’ that you’ve mentioned… and yes, firm action is certainly needed. 🙂