And suddenly it’s news!!! Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel is now going to get a big statue…supposedly bigger than the Statue of Liberty. Oh wow!!! Where were we all these days? How did we forget him?

And suddenly the Father of the Nation is no longer Page 3 material. Obviously his statue won’t do. His name you see is a bit of a problem. Because if it is a question of using a Gandhi for statue-tory purposes, which Gandhi will you use?

The original Gandhi’s standard pose of an old, balding man wearing glasses and a stoop and carrying a cane is so servile that today’s generation  will just not accept it.

Indira is a woman…so she’s out. Sanjay’s most memorable feature is that he couldn’t make an ‘emergency’ exit. Rajiv would not like his statue to be so tall that it may hinder air traffic. And a Sonia statue may need more Italian marble than we can afford.

Rahul would have been a good bet but he is under aged. So Patel it has to be…or does it?

Today’s generation recognizes a Tendulkar and a Dravid more. Admires them. Venerates them. Even looks up to them as God. Another tall claimant for the honor could be the Bachchan. Of course if either Katrina Kaif or Deepika Padukone was the chosen model, the statue may at least merit a second look and maybe even a whistle.

So Rahul Dravid has to be content with having been labeled as the Wall…the Chinese Wall be damned to Greatness…and Shahrukh has to console himself with a stammer and a stutter. And Patel (nothing to do with the motels in the US) is by default, the chosen bakra.

Why not PV Narasimha Rao? Why not NTR? Why not Rajasekhar Reddy? Or bloody hell…why not Mahesh Babu?

Is it because none of them can serve the purpose of being a rallying point for an opposition party?

I think a lesson has to be learnt from Andhra Pradesh who to my understanding is the only one state that has idolized its vary thought. The Telugu Talli (the mother of all Telugus) is a borrowed concept for sure…the original was obviously Bharat Mata…but in our projecting the father of the nation for namesake we seem to have forgotten our lady.

I think if we are to make a statue to rival the Statue of Liberty we should work on Bharat Mata…that would be a concept to rival liberty…or have we all lost the freedom to think?