1. Home
2. Opinion

Paint the whole building..!

By Robert Clements. Dated: 5/11/2019 11:45:19 PM

It was one of the most ludicrously funny sights I’d ever seen: Three quarters of a building painted! Aajor portion of the building, a four story one had been given the best colouring job I’d ever seen, with, it was obvious, the best paint available in the market. It shone out, loud and clear and proclaimed to the world that the owners were proud of their building, at least that was what they intended to say, but that message never reached, since the other quarter of the building from the ground to the top, had been left unpainted!
It had been deliberately done, with a definite break! It looked absolutely comical!
I have seen this in slums where small portions of an exterior would be painted and others either given a different colour or left undone, but to see a whole building going through the same experience left me wondering: It would have been either a disagreement about the colour, or the lack of finance by a few, and the majority, instead of having the patience to persuade the people on the side left undone, or help ease the financial burden had gone ahead. But the building instead of looking better than before looked even worse, and was the object of constant ridicule by all who passed by.
And that sadly, is how one particular political party is trying to sell its agenda to the people of this country. Instead of unifying everybody under one colourscheme, it is trying to paint and give a better look to just over three quarters of the people.
“Come and be painted one colour!” cry the two painters as they go from city to city, carrying their giant paint brushes with them.
And they start painting.
But is the country going to look beautiful after this?
I saw other people on the road, glancing up at the building. They did not see the painted portion; they only saw disagreement. They saw a residence divided. They saw leaders who had not been able to take all the residents along with them.
They saw division!
And in my imagination, I walk to the building and see tears rolling down its sides, “Couldn’t they have left me as I was?” cries the building, “Instead of making me look so ridiculous?”
“But three quarters of you look good!” I whisper.
“I am not just three- quarters!” cries the building, “I am the whole!”
“I am not just one colour!” cries my country, “I am the colours of all my people: Be they Hindu or Muslim, Christian or Sikh, Jain or any other, each adds colour to the kind of country I am!”
“Come, look at this building!” I whisper to the two painters with their giant paintbrushes, “And learn..!”
bobsbanter@gmail.com