Hartal is a term in many South Asian languages for strike action, first used during the Indian Independence Movement. It is mass protest often involving a total shutdown of workplaces, offices, shops, courts of law as a form of civil disobedience. In addition to being a general strike, it involves the voluntary closing of schools and places of business. It is a mode of appealing to the sympathies of a government to change an unpopular or unacceptable decision.
So begins the Wiki page on the term Hartal. A word that was unheard of till 1998, the year when the Supreme Court banned the festival of Bandh. Back in the good old days we had the fortnightly celebration of various forms of bandh like local bandh, state bandh, transport bandh, medical bandh, diary bandh, textile bandh and so forth. Finally the court themselves were fed up and decided to call it the quits. Within days popped up its sequel – The Harthal.
From my understanding of the Wiki definition, a Harthal is an voluntary event unlike a bandh which is mandatory in nature. The process is simple, some dude who has some beef (pun intended) over someone or something in a position better than himself stands on top the tallest tower and calls out ‘harthal’. The voice resonates through the nation amplified by print, visual, social and antisocial Medias, and the public gear up for the event. On the due day the Harthalees line up to make it a success while the police lines up to keep the harthalees in line. The entire nation goes to work and keep the productiveness intact except in the southern tip of the peninsula, a bitter guard shaped spit of land, people celebrates the event. No one ventures out of their homes, the beer stalls and meat shacks would have been cleared off on the previous night which is designated as the Uthradam for the Harthalonam. The channels puts on Harthal day special events and we chillax.Shankaradi from Sandashem would love it, had he witnessed it.
Today was such a lovely day. In contrary to the previous events, this time I decided to go to work. Repairing a bike is much cheaper than changing the cracked windshield of a car and hence I decided to take my motorbike, the flying Dutchman to work. Yes I do have a black car called the black pearl. My work place is around 50Km from home and I travel through the city, NH, SH, suburbs and finally the rural area and 100km is a good distance to judge the effectiveness of the Harthal. This is what I saw.
Almost all the shops remains closed even medical stores; I did plan to step into some institutes of worship to see if Harthal affects the deities, but was too lazy to get off the bike. Next time maybe. As I proceeded I could not find any local blue collar worker on the streets but the bus stop was crowded with our migrant work force. The Blue collar bhais, good for them for they remember the hunger they suffered back at their home, the very same one we Mallu’s remember when we work in the gelf. No harthals there. Moving on, I reached the hub of Harmony at Work, a packed police van unnecessary parked there. I am sure the educated and sensible techies have better use of time as it is highly doubtful that the Whiteman across the Atlantic may appreciate Harthals. I blitz on the NH hopping from radars and traffic cameras happy that the Dutchman finally got a chance to fly while I watch the party flags fly. The satellite town where Bheema showed up recently looks deserted as the satellites in Interstellar with only a couple police jeeps and yawning cops. A dude in check shirt throws out his thumb like he insists on getting a lift from me, but sorry I can’t stop, Not this close to a bunch of cops as I like most of you guys feel more paranoid than protected when a cop is nearby. Finally I reach work earlier than ever only to find few lost souls wandering there. ‘Its full strong Harthal, no bus, big problems, no one will come’ Security maman says. Right, as expected.
I open my FB and there I find all the Mallu’s who have been missing on the roads and at work. We say in chorus, ‘No to Harthal’ while we change the channel, crunch the Onam’s left over banana chips and play the online activists. A few souls ventures out because either their jobs are in stake or their finances are as bad as the Red party’s future. The rest of the population in the bitter guard state enjoys this Onam just as the regular Onam and Maveli should have stayed for a couple more days.
As the day draws to a close and while the news lady who has a perpetual judgment look in her face announce how complete the Harthal was I look forward to see when can I have another one of these? The biggest irony I observed is that I never found anyone in the roads attempting to block the traffic or push people back to their homes when they come out. We just subdued to the proclamation of Harthal that is 178% sure not going to achieve anything. Just like Loki said, ‘Is this not our natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation’ and of course relaxation from work. But to subdue to the proclamation of ideologies and methods that died back in the nineties will not progress us as a nation, a state, a family or a person. Period.
NB: Did anyone notice that one of the demands of the Harthalees is a minimum pay of 15,000Rs for laborers. Yea you read it correct, fifteen followed by three zeros. Keep in mind that the average pay a dentist in Kerala gets after a state entrance, five years of study, innumerable exams and an internship is around 8000. Bitter guard state indeed.
Happy Harthal or bandh or strike or whatever.
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