A difficult choice...

As India readies itself to complete the formality of officially endorsing the selection of first woman president (I am writing this post on the eve of the announcing results of Presidential polls) my mind is indulging into infighting with my soul. No, my dilemma is more intricate than what Bal Thakeray was undergoing through prior to making out way from catch-22 situation and announcing Shiv Sena’s support to Pratibhatai Patil. It isn’t just an issue of Marathi pride but an emotional connection we (I and her Excellency) share.

Here my regional genes also have begun riding high. She is not just from Amravati from where I too belong to, but also a native of Jalgaon district, the sleepy town from north Maharashtra where my Father spent his childhood and later did cast his vote in favour of her when she had contested assembly election. Thakeray’s predicament was just about choosing one way out of hindutva or Marathi asmita. But mine is about expressing joy over an Amravatikar by karma or Jalgaonkar by janma, occupying highest constitutional post in the country or lamenting over a person who even by the minimum common denominator isn’t eligible for heading three armed forces vis-à-vis Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, another presidential contestant.

Here, I keep aside Vidarbha issue on which I usually don’t spare a chance to vent my pent up anger against its antagonists. Well, eligibility also does not mean her educational qualification which is far far more than her rival. While the lady presidential candidate has done her MA and also completed her LLB, her rival, I am told, is just Eight standard pass out. It is more to do with her ability to act defying a silent code of ‘rubber stamp’ or political shrewdness.

I am traumatized especially after giving a thought to columnist Rajdeep Sardesai’s article in which he says… “there are two Maharashtras: one is a state of intellectual and social ferment, which produced the men and women who lived by the ideals on which modern India was built. The other Maharashtra is a far less noble entity, it is provincial, it is small minded, and it no longer produces original thought”. I don’t know which side I should take when it comes to choosing an option between supporting my soul, a carrier of emotional thoughts connected to a string of regionalism, or mind, which harbors holistic if not intellectual view. May be Patil herself will clear out the haze from my mind when she will do something great to gather an important milestone while enjoying the opulence of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Here I have become slight idealistic while relying on her…