Too smart for my cards

Source: http://www.moneymint.in

“If only we were living in China, things would be entirely different.” the middle-aged man announced, looking disapprovingly at the man standing behind him.

“How exactly do you mean?” the other man nervously glanced at his four kids, his youngest had recently celebrated her first decade on the planet. Not that he was any proponent of large families but one had to account for some evidence of conjugal bliss.

“I mean this – standing under a hot sun in a queue full of sweating people, waiting for a card that will do goodness knows what!” The thirty-one odd people who were standing in the queue instantly checked their underarms, a few opened a shirt button or two.

The card he was referring to is the newly introduced UID – or “Aadhaar” card  – as it is colloquially called. The Government has outsourced the project to several software companies and they are currently operating at different centres, taking people’s fingerprints and retina scans. The end product will be a shiny new citizen identification, with unique track-me-down records imbibed in its being. Taking a step at a time, this is deemed to be the much awaited silver bullet that will counter terrorism.

The man, it seems, did not consider the UID potent enough to be India’s superman. Now, if we were in China…

“Do you have any idea where their figures are going? Top of the charts I can tell you! And their head count is no less than our sacred motherland. Trust me,” he shook his head, “it’s high time we have a monarchy here.”

“And you can sit on the crown with a queen by your side.” murmured the man in front of me, under his breath.

~

Sacred or otherwise, this motherland of ours is definitely a breeding ground for a multitude of personalities. The die-hard cynic, the optimistic to a fault. The eavesdropping bystander too, if you please. I have no idea if the UID will really serve its entailed purpose – but our Government has undoubtedly been busy. There are always new forms to be filled, some new names to be coined, a revolutionary or two to be fed.

Well, I am game for anything that stems from authenticity and tries to better, if not eliminate, the problems of our bourgeois.

…I am now UID-smart. Are you? 😀