Talking to a former colleague the other day, an interesting point came up: that beer is way cheaper than water in Germany. Well, I haven’t verified this, but I am inclined to believe it, especially at the time of Oktoberfest. I am reminded of one of those emails that somehow linger on like ghosts in the cyber-sea, rising up for a breath in our inboxes at unpredictable intervals – this one starts by telling you that India is a country where lime juice is made of artificial flavouring while dishwashing liquids have real lemon extract in them.

Now, I might have read the above factoid on Facebook as well, because Facebook is one huge wellspring-cum-megasink of material which gives you the fake satisfaction of having thought of something serious when all you did was think of some clever comment for a friend’s photo. (A quick aside: the other day, an article in The Hindu mentioned that “most Facebook users have low self-esteem.” You can find the article at http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/internet/article625076.ece till it vanishes. I would think that most Facebook users love to hate Facebook.)

Getting back to the initial point. This Antoinettesque phenomenon reveals itself elsewhere as well. And I am not necessarily talking of cars being cheaper than bikes. How many times have we longed for a sip of water, only to find that the only thing that gets drained faster than the bottle is our pocket? And this, at a railway station where there is a drinking water fountain right next to the shop where you bought the bottle, but you just know instinctively that the fountain must be avoided at all costs.

Fast food is cheaper, easier to find and more aggressively marketed than healthy, balanced meals. A taxi ride is more easily accessible than a bicycle for rent (if at all the latter is ever available) or even the healthiest and cheapest option of walking – for when roads are in pathetic shape and footpaths non-existent, jolting over potholes is preferable to twisting your ankle in an unexpected pit on what passes as the footpath. Moreover, the car that looms around the corner is any day a greater hazard than the cardiovascular illness that five minutes of walking might help avoid.

Now that the Commonwealth Games is near, no writer can desist from taking a jab at the glaring inefficiency and corruption. Or is it indifference and complacence? So you read about sports equipment allegedly procured at unbelievably high prices, while sportspersons of all hues decry the lack of attention paid by authorities to actually advancing sports in the country. As for meeting deadlines, even Octopus Paul would refrain from predicting whether the preparations for CWG would be completed in time or not. Bill Gates supposedly once said,”I like pushing things to the edge. That’s often where you find high performance.” Is there some unsettling inference to be made here? After all, the much touted jugaad philosophy might yet save the games and whatever is left of names and faces. Or will people heed voices of popular writers and boycott the nation’s time of reckoning?

All this has to be taken with a pinch of salt, for the highly fashionable “paid news” system in the media has made it difficult to decipher news and views from sensationalism and cleverly-couched mudslinging. Talk of turning on its head the old adage of fact being stranger than fiction. Fact is now not a stranger, but a really close ally of fiction.

PS: I shudder to think of what would happen if any of the millions of fans on Facebook’s Facebook page happen to read this article. Or, given declining attention spans, even the first two paragraphs. But I am smug because they are too busy for that!

PPS: Yeah, I agree. The title seems rather sensationalist…