The Cool Crusader

December 9th every year is International Anti-Corruption Day. I would probably never have known this bit of trivia had Shaarad, my flatmate, not been working for an NGO doing stuff to prevent corruption in India. His NGO, the Public Affairs Centre (PAC) was also one of the members of the Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) forum. This year, the CAC was planning on assembling on MG Road and protesting against corruption.

Since I had no real work to do at my workplace, and since I thought that some beautiful women might turn up for the protest, I decided to join Shaarad at the protest. No points for guessing what the main motivation was. So we reached the place, put up some banners and signed a large anti-corruption poster. The protest started in full-swing with some village women shouting slogans in full earnest.

I had no intention of crying myself hoarse just for my voice to be drowned out in the incessant noise of the vehicles passing by, so I contented myself with holding one of the placards that read "Join the fight against corruption to free India". I proudly displayed it to every curious motorist who bothered to slow down to see what was going on.

After a while, when my delicate eyes that were used to staring at a computer screen all day couldn't take it anymore, I took out my aviator sunglasses, and continued to combat corruption. The small grins on the faces of people around me and in the vehicles gave me the impression that I looked real stupid, but I didn't care.

So after a few hours of doing his bit, the cool crusader called it a day, and headed back to the comfort of his beloved little cubicle.

<- check out the determined look
(short event writeup: http://pacindia.org/news/international-anti-corruption-day/)