I want that bikini-clad torso back, please.

Just received this screenshot in email. Well, I thought that was kind of acceptable, but I just can't stand this. So let's just speechify this a bit.

I am not apolitical. I have never voted Congress, not even in a panchayath election. But I have this much to say: no matter how disappointing you think Manmohan Singh is as Prime Minister (I actually tend to think that he's severely underappreciated), he's a thousand times more respectable and acceptable than all Indian right-wing combined. No amount of spindoctoring, no amount of whitewashing, no amount of autobiography writing, no amount of blogging, no amount of Internet advertisement, is making me forget the blood trails of Advani's many a rath yathra.

So I'm anxiously waiting to see how a billion unwashed and undereducated are going work their magic this time around. They overthrew Indira Gandhi when her autocratic tendencies started to show up, they overthrew Vajpayee in spite of India Shining. Or consider this: 1984, Delhi riots, in which Sikhs were violently persecuted. 2004: a Sikh for Prime Minister, leading the same party some of whose leaders were accused of inciting the 1984 violence. That was as thrilling as anything else. You all can celebrate Obama as much as you want and wait for an Indian avatar of Obama, but we've already had people like K R Narayanan (a dalit President) and Manmohan Singh. Our media will project Advani, Mayawati, Narendra Modi or whoever else they think will manage to fool the nation, but one thing is sure: they will get it wrong this time around also.

And then I will have my laugh at this banner ad.