Depression

Far and away the most desolate birthday of the past decade. Reading a cliche-ridden article about Hindutva in Caravan Magazine has *not* helped. Sample soundbites: "The cynosure of all eyes at the convention is not[...]"; "the bubble of my youthful confidence in the party burst, and the dark underbelly of its politics was [...] laid bare"; "the entire top brass of the leadership". Bah! I'm not, as a rule, crotchety about the odd cliche; I recognize that journalistic articles are written under a time constraint, and mannerisms do tend to slip through. But this article (to which I will *not* link) has the reverse problem: too much time on the author's hands, enabling him to draw, Rushdie-like, a parallel between the trajectory of his life and that of the BJP. He meditates on the apparent coincidence that he and the BJP were born on the same month, and follows himself into some 'brilliant' conclusions, conclusions which are supposed to lend a 'form', or 'structure', to an otherwise idea-bereft essay. Well, Mr Chowdhury, not only is your essay bereft of ideas, it is also insincere, strenuous and an utter waste of time.