Complaining about apathy on the part of functionaries in administration may or may not trigger action in response, if at all. Criticising, often in unsavoury language to express disagreement with others, targeting some person or institution in particular, invariably triggers reaction only to earn more criticism. In the former case, a complaint seeks redressal to some problem or the other, such as clearing of an overflowing garbage bin or replacing a street light that has ceased to work and so on, familiar to readers of this daily. Criticising without sounding harsh in both words and intent is not everybody’s cup of tea. Going by reports in the media, the nation’s most authoritative judicial body, namely the Supreme Court of India, unfazed by the fact of not delivering judgement in lakhs of litigations, is criticising the Union Government left, right and centre, justifiably or otherwise, inviting the response from the Attorney General, speaking on behalf of the government, asking the Apex Court not to criticise because the government has problems aplenty awaiting measures to solve them.

The administration in the land with the law-makers merrily adding laws to the already existing God-knows-how-many laws and the babudom overwhelmed by the load of laws seem to be sandwiched amidst the complaining public and criticising intellectuals. All the parties (law-makers, government employees and the complaining masses) are in the national game of somehow managing.

If someone chooses to embark upon the task of identifying one or more issues not figuring in the long, miles long list of complaints and criticisms by the land’s people that have already appeared in print of the dailies published across the land, the outcome can be expected to be the number whose creation is attributed to Aryabhata (476-550 AD), a mathematician-astronomer of the classical age of Indian mathematics and astronomy. That magical number is not hard to guess by the literati. Criticising about all matters relevant to daily life of people at large may be a pastime but complaining about inadequacies causing discomfort to one or the other section of society cannot be taken lightly or ignored by the administration. One such complaint that pops up on and off in Mysuru is about roadside eateries across the city, whose number of more than 5,000 is thick in the air.

The authorities of Mysuru City Corporation, as reported in a section of the press a few days ago, has once again put its spotlight on the eateries, unfazed by the fact that lakhs of Mysureans are savouring the delicacies (pakodas, bajjis…) offered by the eateries operated mostly by youth. The question that looms large: Who is complaining (!?)