ALL FOR A FALL

" President   takes  a  tumble",
shouted every front-page caption with the picture of a white-haired main struggling to get up on his feet, helped by aides and guards.

Make no mistake dear readers. This was no call for alarm. No calamity. No rush. No cause for collective concern or sympathy. The fall was just a harmless 'trip' over the carpet at the Sangeet Natak Akademi awards for Mr. President.

No bones cracked. No blood spilled…and by no imaginable stretch of imagination a case of - "Fall from Grace" for the great man.

Never.

But, still, the pictures of a clumsy fall seemed to grace every newspaper front-page, taking precedence over other more 'pressing' concerns of the nation. It almost seemed a national disaster or furthermore, a reminder which tried to impress something more grave, something more deep. Something which missed our busy eyes. Something which had an element of an indiscreet snide in it. Somewhere, I felt.

Firstly, I fail to comprehend what such a wide coverage of a Presidential triviality actually implies. A very normal and human one at that. Just a slip, trip and fall.

Is it just honest concern for his health alone? Or, Is it a reminder to the nation that he is getting old ? Is it a call for change ? Or, is it a tactical ploy of 'Videshi Shakti's  to lampoon our collective clumsiness by a symbolic public-fall of the Head of the State?

Mindless conspiracy theories kept apart I would like to point out certain things through this seemingly innocuous post of mine.

One:  A President is after all a human being, like you and me. Like any other person save his post and prestige. Then, Why doesn't he have the liberty of making an accidental fall look foolish 'only for a fleeting moment', gaining his balance , rising up on his feet, brushing the dust off his suit and go about doing his business like any other man. Why can't we give him this little space to be himself? Even in an event of an untoward fall which might have caused him some pain otherwise.

Two: Why is the press so disgustingly sensational about daily trivialities?

After all Mr. Kalam is no pop-princess that the tireless paparazzi would gain a priced glimpse of some of his 'hitherto unpublicized assets' in the process of a 'trip-n-fall' incident. He is just a very humble person trying to serve the nation in the best possible way he knows. By interacting with school-children, championing their cause, answering all the questions those blemishless, fertile minds can throw up to adults, and in the process hoping to build a better India for us all.

Three: Is it not a matter of collective shame for all of us (newspaper aficionados) that the press doesn't have the gumption to stop publication of such a trivial matter concerning a great public figure like him. THE   PRESIDENT   OF   THE    STATE. The Supreme Commander of our Armed Forces. Shouldn't it have been few from amongst us who should have registered their open disapproval at such gross absence of discretion on the media's part much earlier?

Four:   Are we trying to make our Presidency glamorous by licensing unwarranted sensationalism? Is this a hidden policy of the state…or the media for that matter to intently make our entire political ladder seem alluring to foreign onlookers? Will it in any conceivable manner glorify our status as a nation?

We must realize that American standards are far from applicable in this half-sprinting-half-resting nation of ours. A Clinton-Lewinsky affair is not what one will get in here. Because, our Presidency is a position symbolic of Colonial redundancy most of the times and the actual executive powers are held by the cabinet of ministers. So, no personal glorification looks feasible or 'saleable'….. so to say.

So dear press journos and cameramen, better slip a banana peel beneath Mr. Singh and keep your flash-bulbs ready for the kill.

"PM takes a public slip"….that would make some headline.

What say shutterbugs ????