Much of what I wrote on this page twelve months ago has come to pass, and as we close in on the day of reckoning – not to be confused with the day of counting – the air is polluted with a cacophony of claims and counter claims, accusations and counter accusations, impractical promises and unrealizable expectations. One wonders why all these promised welfare schemes and economic measures were not implemented all these years. Voters need to remember Peter Marshall’s observation, “Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned”.

The changing scenario in which politicians big and small move randomly from party to party due to expulsive forces on the one hand and magnetic forces in the form of promises of lucre and office on the other, reminds me of a phenomenon known as Brownian movement in Physics. It is defined as, “the erratic random movement of microscopic particles in a fluid, as a result of continuous bombardment from molecules of the surrounding medium”. Of course, it is not a new phenomenon. When it first happened, in the 1960s, they were called Ayarams and Gayarams but with the exponential multiplication of political parties since then, these terms are no longer adequate. Maybe we should call them Brownies.