Fight Corruption - I Moved beyond FB - I made my point

Today is the third day of the protest against corruption led by Anna Hazare. I have been active on the internet since a few days adding status messages, pictures, videos and notes all in support of the movement. But that's so convenient, isn't it? Sit on your couch with your laptop or mobile with music playing in your ears and type a few words and enjoy the comments and likes.

The real support is out there on the streets. The slogan shouting, the tricolour flying around you, the banners...just took me to another era altogether. An era which I thought was lost among the black and white pictures. The era which I thought existed only in the Indian history books. I was so wrong.

I got a text in the morning about a rally in Pune from Balgandharva Chowk till Sarasbaug. I called up a few people and got the exact route of the rally. It was Balgandharva Chowk - J.M. Road - Deccan - Lakdi Bridge - Alka Talkies Chowk - Tilak Road - Abhinav Chowk - Sarasbaug. I then coordinated with my roommates and got Venu and Kaushal into the act as well. We decided to join the rally at Deccan at about 6.15

I was excited. This would be the third instance of participating a rally for a cause. The previous two were when I was in my engineering college. The very first one was in 2000. The students in Mumbai were protesting against the 4 KT a year rule for advancement to the next year. We reached Azad Maidan with our chest inflated with the feeling that we have finally grown up. As we reached, a police constable tapped me from behind and said 'Chala Chala'. I thought may be he doesnt want us there. Then I positioned my eye towards his pointed finger. And then it struck me. We were being boarded onto a police van. I looked at Stanley and Bala, who in turn looked at Gaurav and we said 'Chal Bhai, lifetime experience hai'. We were taken to the Colaba police station and they left us by 3. While we were inside they scared us by saying that we will spend the day in the station and that they are going take pictures son and publish in the paper. By 3 we were so worked up that as soon as we came out of the police station, we took the first cab and ran away from that sight.

So my point is, though I was juvenile then and got scared a bit at the end, I know what to expect now and be prepared for the inevitable. I took my car and we reached Deccan by 7. It was my only second trip into the heart of Pune and Venu my guide was also clueless. We kind of got lost but the people were very helpful in helping us locate the exact rally wala lane.

We got our voices mingled to the screams of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Hamari bas ek hi maang - Jan lokpal Jan lokpal'. The moment I joined, I felt like - this is what I was missing on FB. The real shouts, the real banners and the real peaceful protest.
As we saw people just looking and not participating we screamed  ' Bhagtay kay? Shamil vha' which means 'what you looking at? come and join us'. As in when police used to appear the slogan used to change to 'Yeh Andar ki baat hai...police hamaare saath hai'. This more often than not left a smile on the tired and grumpy faces of the policemen.
The amazing part was to see families, starting from the grandmother till the grandchild who may not even speaking, coming together to join the rally. I also saw a lot of college students in the crowd. Many of the guys had lanyards on them. Straight from office you see. Different sights.

Its been 3 days and there is no incident of any stone pelting, fights, messing up with cops etc yet. And that's what is the beauty of this protest. You come out, show your support, make your presence felt and go home safe. This rally too was as peaceful as you can get.

We finished the rally at Sarasbaug by lighting the candle as a sign of our support to the Bill.