PC – Open to interpretation

I have been thinking about the above acronym for quite some time. What comes to mind when you think of the alphabets – ‘P’ and ‘C’ taken together? Well if you are a well read person who follows politics – Mr. P. Chidambaram comes straight to mind – PC the ex-finance minister and current home minister. PC in white lungi and kurta is a sight for sore eyes - he has dazzled the UPA government with the last four budgets – been part of the growing economic hype and was handed over the finance ministry when the curtains have more or less come down on the global economy. A PM in waiting has got the finance ministry again after 24 years – Pranab Mukherjee I meant – and this poor guy had to present a Vote on Account in the election year. He has come out with a damp squib of an interim budget, by-passing the chance to score brownie points - all to the considerable relief of the opposition BJP.

Have you ever heard of someone in politics holding a PC – hmmmmmm – holding Mr. Chidambaram? – not on your life! Personal Computer – again hmmmm - maybe the younger generation of politicians – definitely not the older. I have seen some senior bureaucrats and politicians eyeing the personal computer with Permanent Confusion – like if they try to touch some part of the machine it might Personally Chew some part of their appendage if it comes in contact with the Personal Computer – that would then leave these guys with digits Permanently Chewed – won’t that be a sight – they won’t be able to show the finger at election rallies and during the course of election speeches! That would be priceless – just imagine the headlines – “ Politician Chewed” – most people will not realize that the politician has been fingered – what will come to mind is the politician indulging in ‘Paan Chewing’ - another of their favorite pass times, specially up north.

In lots of meetings whether official or social you would have come across the phrase – stop the PC get down to serious stuff – meaning stop indulging in Polite Conversation and get down to the substantive part of the discussion. But no polite conversations in parliament - what do you see in Parliament? – again lots of PC – Parliamentary Calisthenics, we actually see a lot of that in the UP, Bihar and Orissa Vidhan Bhavans – that is when our elected representatives climb on to tables, pick up chairs or anything that comes to hand and throw – that is another interesting form of PC – in fact you could call it Parliamentary Communication by means of Parliamentary Calisthenics – easy way to let out your frustration – specially when the tax payer pays for the damage!

Enough of taking pot shots at the north – lets go south – in fact Mr.Mutalik of the Sri Ram Sene has single handedly made PC very popular in Karnataka! In fact so popular that all the ladies undergarment manufacturers had to come out with special manufacturing cycles to feed the building demand! For what, I heard someone say! For Pink Chaddis – you dumbo! – thanks to Mutalik, at least a small portion of our economy got a boost with some extra production and sale. Great going – to the people who ran the campaign – we could actually call it the Pink Campaign against the Peculiar Character of Mutalik and his ilk. I kind of like the sound of that! Muta‘lik’ and ilk! With all the Pink Chaddis available at his disposal, it was last heard that he is now getting into the Personal Care business, personally tending to customers for his pink chaddis!

Do let me know if any of you have any further interpretation on PC…..hopefully the most famous PC won’t mind!