Statue-tory Warning
Was the fall of statue of Saddam, harbinger of his final fall at the end of the rope? Has Mayawati added a new numeric dimension to the whole issue?Being a statue can be a tough job. I had the first hand experience in my childhood while playing statue-statue. It is hard to stand still and not move or react to provocations. Whosoever had the apparently brilliant idea of putting up statues at the public places or road crossings, was either too pure at heart or too naïve. Too pure at heart, because the idea was to pay respect to great men, to keep them alive in minds of general public and set example for generations to come. Too naïve, because it overlooked the vagaries of weather and uncanny habit of birds to do droppings at the most unexpected places.
To add to the list of anti statue forces, we have anti social elements whose favorite idea to rouse a rubble seems to be, to deface a statue.And they do it with the uncanny precision of doing it on a specific day, at some specific place and choosing a specific ‘statue-d’ person. Then we have kinds of Taliban for whom the idea of blackening face of statues is too mild even to consider. They have devised a very simple and effective way of bombarding the statues into the oblivion. I am still to fathom what birds find attracting in statues, though I am sure, doing droppings can not be their idea of paying obeisance to the worthy fellow. May be it provides a stable platform to them which is not as devious as a scarecrow. Or, maybe, by sitting atop the statue, they want to add new feathers to the cap, posthumously.
If they could, all the self respecting statues would request for a courteous burial. Getting cleaned and garlanded on ones birthday and death anniversary, and ignored the rest of the year is not the idea of romancing the stone. We should put up statues of criminal like Veerappan and Godse and let people blacken their face, let birds do the droppings as they wish. There will be no communal riots and we wont have to spend money on the upkeep or deploy forces for their protection.
As for me, if I become a famous man one day, I sure will write instructions in my will not to put up my statue.