'Why So Serious?'

        This very question, made so famous by THE JOKER himself, was put to me recently by a friend after I objected to the repeated refusals of my Table Tennis Doubles partner to join me at the table, sowing the seeds of this blog post. Indeed, the utterances of this character immortalized by the Great Late Heath Ledger had left their impressions on my mind long ago. But it was the context of this question that truly enabled me to fully fathom the depth of this character.

        What most people find unbelievable is my insistence on adequate preparation for the scheduled tournament with my assigned partner. In a non-sporting nation, preparation for a sporting event figures very low on the general list of priorities. Hence, when a individual arrives who demands ‘unwarranted importance’ for a ‘dispensable’ issue, it is seen as disturbing ‘The Plan’. Indeed, ‘The Plan’, prompted by my 'irritating taunts', was for me to accept the 10 minutes within the lunch break offered from my partner’s busy schedule which was considered as enough preparation.If I were to bend over backwards in order to accommodate the whims and fancies of my partner, nobody would have noticed my spineless behavior as things were going ‘according to plan, no matter how horrifying the plan was.’ But the moment I asked for respect for the game, ‘the established order was disturbed and everything turned to chaos’.

        Indeed the established order is so sacrosanct that everything upsetting it is met with ridicule. A person without a sweet tooth in a sugar hungry world is ridiculed. A silent person in a world full of motor mouths is an outcast. A driver stopping at a red light on an empty road has to bear the brunt of incessant honking. He is rude, arrogant, stand offish, ruthless. He is ‘a freak’. Everything he touches is reduced to chaos. He is an ‘Agent of Chaos’.

        This affinity for ‘The Established Order’, is not limited to an individual but it does affect the society at large. Corruption at the CWG 2010 was not an issue until its very existence was threatened. ‘The Plan’ was only to host the event irrespective of the cost and corruption involved. ‘The order’ also defines a certain party as the ruling party and another as the opposition. Hence, corruption in the 2G Scam, rising communalism in sensitive border areas, rising inflation do not ‘Introduce Anarchy’ as The Order is not threatened. But the continued success of a certain Narendra Modi upsets the entire Plan. The ‘Schemers’ are made to work overtime to ‘make plans to control their little worlds’. Non-existent dirt is dug up, smoke is created without fire, all in a bid to restore ‘Order’.

        Sometimes, one wonders if it would truly be more fruitful to behave like a ‘dog chasing cars who doesn’t know what to do with it if he ever caught one’. Hats off to the genius of The Joker! A better student of human psyche is yet to be born.