In a World Megalomania Contest, who would be crowned – Julian Assange or Mayawati? Taking jokes seriously is one of the symptoms of megalomania, say psychiatrists the world over.
Mayawati the Super-Architect believes in building grandiose edifices and statues; Julian the Super-Iconoclast believes in demolishing by leaks, real and imaginary. Both are the creations of the media. While Mayawati’s dream is to reach Madame Tussaud’s (wax museum in London), the Louvre in Paris and the Washington Monument (now closed but when re-opened), Julian would love to shift his office permanently to the White House, with offices in Elysee Palace and 10 Downing Street to make the noble profession of leaks easy.
One speaks politics all the time, the other economics. Hence there is no meeting ground between the two. If Nitin Gadkari and Manmohan Singh were to spend five minutes together, Nitinspeak would be Greek and Latin to Singh, just as Singhspeak would be Mandarin and Malay to Nitin. But in political gamesmanship, they score a fax pau each. When Manmohan held a Press Conference without the Press, so to speak, Nitin admitted in effect BJP has no leaders when he stated the party is ready to follow Anna Hazare. (That’s the Congress interpretation, you might dismiss; then it has a serious implication that Anna Hazare is the genie manufactured in Nagpur and let out of the bottle in Delhi!!)
In antics, Kiran Bedi is contesting Lalu Prasad Yadav, hoping Harvard University would take note of her. Special planes have been flown to Harvard (and even Hollywood) with video-tapes of the Bedi show!
In dancing, Sushma Swaraj is trying to steal the thunder from Mallika Sarabhai, who may have performed abroad. What makes Dancing Sushma so very special is that it was a sacred dance in a sacred place. And it is rumoured that she is opening a bale dancing school near Raj Ghat!
(This opinion piece was earlier published in Times School's of Journalism's blog site: WIKIJOKES)