Walk - a short story

He had begun to like this English weather. Though he missed lying in the scorching sun back home in India, there was something exotic about walking in this weather. He enjoyed strolling in the drizzle in his rather over sized Barbour and his favourite handled umbrella. Though it was the middle of the noon, it appeared more like the late evenings in Kochi.

Today he felt like visiting his old mate, Matt who sold burgers by the dock. Without the bike, it was going to take him around an hour to get there. Perhaps a quick drop at the local on the way back; he smiled at the thought of it. Nothing better to complement the weather than a warm Guinness at the old bell inn.

Though there was an air of uneasiness about the lonely pathways, he had got accustomed to this. Predictably, Jim was the first guy he came across by the docks since he started from his small apartment at the quaint stokebridge maltings; an 18th century maltings converted into flats. Jim was always around feeding the pigeons at the dock bridge on a good weather. With no pigeons out in the wet, Jim had settled in his humble shed by the river Orwell. A bit too much of the Ale on Jim, as he could see.

Time appeared to stand still when he walked through these paths; there stood Wolsey gate with a great story to tell. History stays still; he thought. Back by the calm Orwell and no sign on Matt, he headed towards the boats. Chris should be on his boat; has been a a while since he met Chris. Chris should be back from his round the Island trip now that trawling has been banned for the season. Yup. There was his boat and he could see his shadow by the mast. Chris always had a story to tell; some about his family back in London whom he dearly missed and sometimes a bit of history. Always interesting. Especially after a shot of whisky. Perhaps someday he too would travel round the world in a boat with all the time to himself like Chris.

With enough time spent he decided it was best to leave Chris on his own. For the quick walk back, he took the unpaved paths now all sludgy by the rain. At this moment, the only thoughts were the caskets of beer at Old Bell Inn.

Pratibha Who?

Pratibha Patel? Tried googling for her? Try hard. Other than the various allegations and scams, you wouldn't find anything worth mentionable about her. Sadly, this lady is the UPA nominated presidential candidate. The detailed wikipedia entry too does not bring out any great achievements in her name. She appears to have been in the news for the wrong reasons all the time. Just another Indian politician with the right amount of allegations and scams; from purdah controversy, bank scam'S, murder allegation against her brother and her role in helping him out among others. Nice!

To summarise her profile, her loyalty to the Gandhi family during her half decade political career appears to have paid off more than once. Pratibha appears to have made the right political choices and has definitely climbed the political-ladder right!. The question to ask here would be - if you start your political career now, stay loyal to Sonia and other bigwigs in the lead now, have your list of successful scams, can you become the president of India in another 50yrs? Perhaps!

Have we run out of clean candidates who has had some achievements? Why would be want a candidate like Pratibha for the President's role? An office where greatest thinkers/leaders/achievers of all times like Dr.Rajendra Prasad, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, K.R Narayan, Dr.Abdul Kalam have occupied, definitely needs a great candidate.