A tale of two MUNDAs

 At peak of the currently ongoing Presidential campaign in USA, I remembered this incident exactly 8 years back when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were in their final throes of political slugfest. On one fine morning of a Fall day of 2016, I took my car to the same mechanic I have been seeing over several years. A huge Trump supporter and a staunch Republican, he had already made up his mind. At the same time, he was still nervous about his candidate Trump victory, the same way the Democrats are now about a Kamala Harris win.

"This tainted bi*ch (referring to Hillary Clinton) is going to destroy our great nation built by our founding fathers. Along with her philandering husband Bill Clinton, the duo are going to convert the sacrosanct White House into a Whore House", he lamented. Though I wasn't a big fan of Hillary and disagreed with some of her policies, I wouldn't get personal and call her a b*tch. But I liked her husband Bill Clinton who in my opinion was a good President during whose tenure the American economy was booming in his 8 years of Presidency and he was the last President who saw a budget surplus.

I told my car mechanic to look back into history and the days of JFK as the President of the United States. Jack Kennedy was a Casanova of his time and his affairs included Interns inside the White House and females outside it. "Do you know JFK once surprised his Brtish counterpart Harold McMillan by telling the later - "If I don't have sex everyday, I get headache". "Oh, Is it so. I didn't know that"- my car mechanic buddy burst into laughter, as he took a drag from his Marlboro, complimenting me with his Southern drawl "Awhh Myaan, you seem to know a hell lotta stuff about America than me".

Shaking his head, he replied - "See the hypocrisy here ! The liberal media ain't say nothing about the Kennedys, or Bill Clinton but they are after Trump's ass". But he acknowledged, "Kennedys, though Democrats were Patriots who loved our country and fought for it. This Son of a Gun Bill Clinton is a draft dodger predator and pedophile. (Son of a Gun is the accolade reserved for the progeny of pleasure ladies who used to accompany Sailors during their long shipping sojourns during Medieval times). He added - "Can't fault the Kennedy brothers as their dad Joseph Kennedy was a notorious womanizer and his sons inherited their father's legacy." I wanted to say Trump was a draft dodger and a notorious womanizer too, but preferred to remain silent.

Never knew that womanizing is part of genes and passed on as inheritance. But he did have a point. We humans are champion hypocrites, always lenient towards the celebrities we worship, turning blind eyes towards their shortcomings, pushing them under the carpet. At same time, we lose no opportunity to chide and mock at others whom we don't like if they do exactly the same. Kennedys were after all the Camelot family, no less than Royalty, a cult figure whom the Americans still adore.

It reminded me of Aparti, the coconut plucker from our Brahmin dominated Susan village near Puri, who tilled our paddy fields. A staunch supporter of the Congress party those days, he believed Indira Gandhi always fought for poor. In between tying a rope knot around his legs and waist before climbing the tall coconut trees, he would take long drags from his BIDI (thin cigars of raw tobacco popular in India) while extolling the pro-poor virtues of Indira Congress. No matter what I say, not withstanding any visible change in his economic status, he had unflinching loyalty to the "Hand" symbol of the Congress party and Indira Gandhi.

It is another matter that until 1991, with Gandhis at helm, India was bracketed with sub-Saharan Africa in povery. It took a non-Gandhi to rescue India from the economic doldrums by opening up its economy with liberalization, which since has moved tend of millions of Indians out of poverty.

Aparti (also addressed as Apartia) has never driven anything beyond his dusty bicycle, with a hanging, perforated leather seat, its two wheels with multiple patches on the cycle tyres barely able to hold enough air, the tube almost touching the ground. My auto mechanic drives a swanky Chavy Trailblazer with Michellin tires glistening under a bright Fall sun.

The best brand Apartia ever smoked in his life is New Odisha BIDI. My mechanic friend intermittently pops up a Marboro from his pocket and takes drags and puffs out smoke and frustration with these liberal Democrats who are hell bent on snatching away his gun rights and freedom.

Reiterating again what I opined earlier - it's the saga of two MUNDAs (an Odia diatribe towards folks with diehard, unflinching views). Both Aparti back home in India and my car mechanic in US, are common people separated by two worlds on the opposite sides globe. One illiterate and poor riding a decrepit bicycle, the other literate and economically much better off driving a SUV - yet both with unwavering loyalty to their political parties, MUNDAs nevertheless.