Merry good governance day, in the right spirit

In the confusion about the government declaring December 25 as Good Governance Day, some schoolkids have already allegedly submitted write-ups about the event. Here they are:

Good governance day song

Jingle Bells, jingle bells/Jingle all the way/Oh what fun it is to write/A Good Governance Day essay/Hey/

Writing line by line/Not going out to play/I’m feeling really fine/Laughing all the way/Hey.

Good governance day essay

Good Governance Day is such fun. The excitement starts long before the day, going out shopping for Good Governance presents for family and friends. We select the Good Governance tree, on which to hang the presents. Bands of children go from house to house, singing governance carols. My favourite one is ‘Silent Night, Holy Night/All is clear, all is bright/Little Madan Mohan Malaviya sleeping so tight/Sleep in Heavenly Governance, sleep in heavenly governance’. Some homes prepare a governance crib, with the infant Madan Mohan Malaviya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and their parents. My mum bakes a great Good Governance cake. There’s an ancient legend about a fellow with a beard in a red suit and cap called Santa Modi, who climbs down chimneys and delivers goodies to kids on Good Governance day. This year, I’ve asked for a hat with feathers, like our prime minister wore in Nagaland. A Merry Good Governance Day to all of you.

Good governance day speech

Brothers and sisters,

Today is Good Governance Day. The day has been chosen with great care, for it is on this blessed day that great men like Madan Mohan Malaviya, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Nawaz Sharif and Jesus Christ were born. I want all of us to go from 2G to 4G, or Good Governance to Gloriously Great Good Governance. I ask you all to Come, Govern in India; come, govern in India. But we must be careful — the last time somebody said that, the East India Company landed up. In school, we must, in addition to the 3Rs, also learn PR, or public relations. And best of all, we must export all our teachers, starting from this school. Jai Hind.

Good governance day poem

There was a minister called Smriti/Which is a bit of a pity/She gave the students a fright/By getting them to write/ Tough essays on governability.

Essay on origin of governance

Like nuclear weapons, plastic surgery and almost everything else, government too originated in ancient India. In fact, the word ‘government’ is derived from the Sanskrit word for cow-dung, or ‘gobar’. Back in the old days, when people got together in pubs to drink somras, the talk often veered around to the sorry state of the nation. ‘The authorities are blithering idiots, look at the gobar-ment they are doing’ was a common comment, meaning the rulers were creating a big mess. The word ‘gobar-ment’ soon became government, while the local boss was scathingly called a ‘gober-nar’ or ‘cow-dung man’, later corrupted to governor. And ‘gobar-nance’, or governance, became what governments do.

manas.c@livemint.com
Manas Chakravarty is Consulting Editor, Mint
The views expressed by the author are personal