C Shivakumar
Chennai:
It was an unbuilt house on a busy L B road that was bustling with activity as slogans of Vande Matran rend the air. Inside was a frail looking old man, who with his wrinkled hands was giving a massage to the activists demanding a Jan Lokpal bill.
“I am passing on Reiki’s energy to them to wipe out negative energy and give them positive energy,” said the 71-year old S Sambasivan, a former materials manager of a sugar factory in Meerut.
“They need energy and strength for the cause. All of these people look like Anna to me. I am passing on the positive energy through them to Anna,” said the septuagenarian, who lives all alone in a single room in Velachery after he lost his wife a year ago.
“Some magnetic force has dragged me here and after witnessing the protest was for a just cause, the movement has now become a part of my life,” he said.
“ I want to support the movement and pray for the longevity to see the truth of Lokpal Bill so that citizens of tomorrow should have a nice life,” Sambasivan said.
And does he believe a Jan Lokpal will do wonders, “Yes” he says. Lokpal will be a torch in the darkness of corruption. The bill itself will inculcate fear among the corrupt, he said.
The movement has also attracted some women who are on a fast. Sujata, a businesswoman and a mother of 18-year old is on her fifth day of fasting. She is weak and with great difficulty she rises and introduces herself. The businesswoman, who runs her own business process outsourcing, is fasting for the fifth day.
Her husband visits her quite often at the venue and he manages the chores in the house. “This fast is for the common cause,” she says. “I have a grown-up daughter who can manage her own chores,” she says.
And then she adds, “One has to sacrifice to get something.”
And then there are people who are balancing both work as well as their protest against graft. Pushpendra, an IT professional in TCS, joined the indefinite fast after being witness to corruption at passport office as well as getting a licence. “For everything you needed money,” said Pushpendra, who has to run to office whenever there is a client meeting going on.
“I haven’t broken my fast till now and I don’t want to break it,” says the 23-year-old. “I don’t know how my officials will take it. I had sought two days permission till Sunday. After that I will see,” he said. He hoped the protest by people would bring in a change.
And Charley Aryan, who is among the only two women to go on a fast shares his vision. A migrant from Bihar, 23-year-old Charley began her fast on Saturday. It is the simmering anger against corruption that has made this young IT professional take up the cause for demanding Jan Lokpal bill. “I had applied for education loan. And had struggled to get it sanctioned after a seven month battle,” she says. Besides she has also seen her dad, who owns a small business, pay bribe to get his shop running smoothly. “I will be on fast as long it is possible for me,” she says, adding that her parents are angry with her for going on fast. “They will understand, I think,” she says.
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