Why 'The Angry Indian' needs a happy vacation

New Delhi: In 1958, William Lederer and Eugene Burdick wrote the deeply influential 'The Ugly American', later converted to a Marlon Brando feature film. The inadequacies of American dealings in South East Asia were linked sternly to fallacies in attitude and conduct, empathy being a prime culprit. In 2025, a suitable candidate may well wish to pen 'The Angry Indian' as an account of our times, for the homeland in particular and the diaspora as collateral accomplice.

It is commonly understood that anger can be a function of inadequacy as well as abundance. The former was the cause of the Bolsheviks and countless other uprisings. The latter is dangerously exemplified by Donald Trump and his freshly minted USA, where rage seems to be a constitutional stock in trade, whether goods or people.

India, over the last few decades, is on a consumption upswing and has seamlessly moved on from 'less' to 'more'. What has stayed intact is a prolific appetite for rage, nowadays from a position of socio-economic strength, occasionally valid while usually delusional.

The right to be rude seems to be the key foundation for 'The Angry Indian', 2025. It is truthfully rooted in our historical, arguably hysterical, class system, aided by ample doses of patronising patriarchy.

Most new age success stories are first generation, thus in rewind-revenge mode, as finally they are blessed with a socio-economic magic wand, UPI being the accomplished conductor.

Thus, the ability to afford a product or service is being systematically confused with the license to be abusive, to both human providers and community ecosystems.

A process aided amply by social media, the elusive fifteen seconds of fame now an hourly, not once-in-a-lifetime, possibility. Funnily enough, everybody is after everybody, as hierarchies blur in a democratised commercial universe.

Irate fliers are Platinum members of this fiery club, as airports seem to merge with bus stations, in more aisles than one.

Just recently, a worthy ticketholder irritated by secondary checks, post Operation Sindoor, exhorted that he may have a bomb in his personal cargo. As per global aviation procedures, this led to troublesome and loss-making delays for the airline and the airport.

Similar encores often happen during fog season, with bravehearts in the cabin or terminal resorting to fisticuffs, amongst an array of multi-sensorial missiles. To restore societal equilibrium, perhaps a section of Kaala Pani should be reinstated for its original purpose, with an indigenous version of Trump's Dominican Republic flights slotted for Veer Savarkar Airport. Else, good old Tihar Jail will do, for an exhaustive and bespoke summer internship programme.

'The Angry Indian' was in full attendance post the ceasefire, during the recent Pakistan skirmishes. In tenor and tenacity, surpassing the acumen of the S-400 warlords, berating the leadership for not destroying Pakistan or annexing PoK, in no particular order.

A flaunting of semi-literate authority that comes from productive career choices, abundant commerce, cosy holidays and a continuing sense of security.

In tandem, instigating fingertip bravado, the mobile phone armed with ample broadband makes each of us a potential Heinrich Hynkel, of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator fame.

Modern tracking devices can surely shortlist such opinion mongers and assign them quasi-conscription packages, whether Siachen or Thar can be a matter of choice. Three months, perhaps, with all meals included and free airfield pickup and drop, the latter wherever applicable.

'The Angry Indian' is highly dominant in the playing fields of Swiggy-Zomato, as well as the courtrooms of Netflix and fellow entertainers. When a pizza is cursed with half-breed Mozarella, the chicken in the biryani is of modest girth, the sambar is tasting unjustifiably somber, or the Blinkit boy is a minute astray - the Line of Control is breached and how.

The act of relentless abuse seems more attractive than the process of rightful redemption, in deep rooted vendetta mode.

Ditto for cinematic content, as we struggle to find the good in any and are determined to define the deficiencies of many. A primordial and predatory sense of 'violence', with a mission to undermine. We seem determined to nurture our new age anger, with Viagra and not Ozempic our preferred ally.

Our role models are also fuelling this culture of unreasonable rage, Jaya Bachchan achieving iconicity for her deeply consistent tirades with the paparazzi. Virat Kohli, legend et al, is known to exhaust his selective vocabulary, as if standard playing procedure. As India becomes an inclusive and passionate sporting nation, the application of abuse is being unfairly projected as a necessary tool for success.

Even in poster boy corporate startups, toxicity is making a comeback in the facade of accelerating performance potential. Bosses find fury to be a strategic tool, to bulldoze targets and pacify investors, while employees work till they churn.

Large corporations have 'evolved' work culture, but the fear remains that such new age eccentricities may alter their hard-earned composure. Me Too may be off the grid as a headline grabber, but robust cousins are clearly in the vicinity.

Apart from every other ill, 'The Angry Indian' is surely contributing to the mental health crisis that India is currently grappling with, either on camera or 'in camera'.

Rage affects both the provider and the receiver and creates an environment of unproductivity, unhappiness and distrust. Quite naturally, it ferments a propensity for hate, acting as inflammable fuel for more divisive provocations.

Anger stemming from a 'sense' of abundance can be more dangerous than the version that arrives from limitations. The latter can often be resolved by a one-off solution, like the toppling of the Tsar in the Soviet Union or the unseating of the Communists, closer to our times. Since abundance can and should be a long-term truth, rage management becomes an ongoing process, not a surgical procedure.

'The Angry Indian' must therefore go for a happy vacation, literally and figuratively. We must learn to be comfortable with our affluent selves and shelves, with no pressure to misuse the perks of arrival.

Positive societal influence can play in tandem with punitive actions to manage this urgent transition. To a win-win sense of community, where we sincerely believe in each other and the potency of our country. 'The Hungry Indian', much more palatable than 'The Angry Indian'.