I was indulging in my morning cuppa and newspapers when a cuckoo called outside my window. Now the Indian cuckoo (koel) is a much glorified bird, due mainly to its sweet call. Many a female singer has been feted as the "koel" of India. It is fact that we Indians find a pre-adolescent female voice attractive- the further south you go, the more pronounced this preference. Shades of paedophilia.....? Lets keep that for another post.
For all its sweet voice the cuckoo has no other redeeming feature; but a few that are shocking. It is not a particularly good flier known for its aerobatic abilities. It does not have noteworthy plumage. Unlike the humble crow it does not clear up the mess that we leave behind. It is not social, preferring a lone existence.
It takes no responsibility for its offspring, abandoning them to the care of someone else. Specifically, it has this habit of laying its eggs in the nest of a "host" after dislodging as many of the host's own eggs as possible. The mother cuckoo plays no further role in the upbringing of its offspring. Resembles politicians, doesn't it? Passing the consequences of your deeds to someone else?
The cuckoo chicks for their part grow faster than the host chicks, are more ravenous, and compete vociferously (and more successfully, I might add) for the food the host mother brings. Some chicks are even known to push the host chicks out of the nest. If all that sounds like Mamata, it does so because it is. All in all, despite its sweet voice glorified in Indian poetry, there is nothing glorious about a cuckoo and a lot to despise, even hate.
Cuckoo is used in slang to denote a crazy, silly, person or a simpleton. Going cuckoo denotes going out of one's mind, becoming mad. As we have seen so far, the word cuckoo doesn't stand for anything admirable. Cloud-cuckoo-land is a place of fancy, unreality. The sort of place politicians usually inhabit. Manmohan lives there.
Cuckoonomics results when cuckoo politician meets real economics.
Cuckoonomics is practiced when you buy votes with subsidies and the like, leaving the economic eggs to hatch in someone else's watch, leaving that someone else to feed the hatchlings. When you refuse to take responsibility for your electoral dalliances and liaisons and leave someone else literally holding the (economic) baby, it is cuckoonomics. When you empty the coffers of state, when you pile up deficits, when you hand out doles to those shouting the loudest, when you make Tughlaqian retrospective tax laws out of pique and then claim it has not frightened off investors (presumably the $12 billion that exited was to pay overdue electricity bills back home) it is cuckoonomics.
Our FM, Pranab Cuckooji, doesn't believe that our growth is faltering, and asserts we will grow at 9% until the facts are too overwhelming to continue the denial. Analysts and rating agencies are the eggs that this cuckoo kicks out so that their views don't survive. Mr Cuckooji does behave like an ostrich in the face of adverse news. This particular imitation of an ostrich by a cuckoo has not been observed elsewhere.
Oh, by the way, the Cuckoo's Nest is at 10, Janpath and nothing flies over it..
For all its sweet voice the cuckoo has no other redeeming feature; but a few that are shocking. It is not a particularly good flier known for its aerobatic abilities. It does not have noteworthy plumage. Unlike the humble crow it does not clear up the mess that we leave behind. It is not social, preferring a lone existence.
It takes no responsibility for its offspring, abandoning them to the care of someone else. Specifically, it has this habit of laying its eggs in the nest of a "host" after dislodging as many of the host's own eggs as possible. The mother cuckoo plays no further role in the upbringing of its offspring. Resembles politicians, doesn't it? Passing the consequences of your deeds to someone else?
The cuckoo chicks for their part grow faster than the host chicks, are more ravenous, and compete vociferously (and more successfully, I might add) for the food the host mother brings. Some chicks are even known to push the host chicks out of the nest. If all that sounds like Mamata, it does so because it is. All in all, despite its sweet voice glorified in Indian poetry, there is nothing glorious about a cuckoo and a lot to despise, even hate.
Cuckoo is used in slang to denote a crazy, silly, person or a simpleton. Going cuckoo denotes going out of one's mind, becoming mad. As we have seen so far, the word cuckoo doesn't stand for anything admirable. Cloud-cuckoo-land is a place of fancy, unreality. The sort of place politicians usually inhabit. Manmohan lives there.
Cuckoonomics results when cuckoo politician meets real economics.
Cuckoonomics is practiced when you buy votes with subsidies and the like, leaving the economic eggs to hatch in someone else's watch, leaving that someone else to feed the hatchlings. When you refuse to take responsibility for your electoral dalliances and liaisons and leave someone else literally holding the (economic) baby, it is cuckoonomics. When you empty the coffers of state, when you pile up deficits, when you hand out doles to those shouting the loudest, when you make Tughlaqian retrospective tax laws out of pique and then claim it has not frightened off investors (presumably the $12 billion that exited was to pay overdue electricity bills back home) it is cuckoonomics.
Our FM, Pranab Cuckooji, doesn't believe that our growth is faltering, and asserts we will grow at 9% until the facts are too overwhelming to continue the denial. Analysts and rating agencies are the eggs that this cuckoo kicks out so that their views don't survive. Mr Cuckooji does behave like an ostrich in the face of adverse news. This particular imitation of an ostrich by a cuckoo has not been observed elsewhere.
Oh, by the way, the Cuckoo's Nest is at 10, Janpath and nothing flies over it..
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