MUSHFIQUR RAHIM FORCED TO EAT HUMBLE PIE.........

I for one always thought that sports persons were above such pithy sentiments of vengeance and gloating but am much chastened now after releasing that my idols do indeed have feet of clay after all.........
Former Bangladesh skipper and current wicket keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim is one cricketer for whom I always had the utmost respect and reverence but sad to say that I have lost all that and a lot more besides after reading the tweets put out by him after team India's semi final loss to the marauding West Indies in the ongoing T 20 World Cup..........
Unduly elated by arch enemy India's loss in a pulsating match at Mumbai's iconic Wankhede stadium last night and seemingly unable to accept his teams one run loss to team India in an earlier round robin (Super 10 fixture) in which his team committed hara kiri and snatched a humiliating loss from the jaws of victory; Mushfiqur put out these twin tweets on his twitter handle........
The first one went "Happiness is this !!!!! # ha ha ha # !!!!! India lost in the semi final" while his second tweet read; "Happiness is this.......Now I can sleep much better and blissfully........Windies u beauty"; to compound matters he also shared a photograph of him watching Indian captain M.S.Dhoni's post match conference trying to explain away the largely disappointing loss and gloating over Dhoni's discomfiture and misery..........
Little did Mushfiqur anticipate the severe backlash and vitriolic angst caused by his pithy and pitiful remarks and taken by utter surprise and consternation by the violent reaction to his unseemly comments; Mushfiqur was soon forced or then coerced into deleting the same and issuing a lame duck apology to the effect that he was an avowed West Indies fan and thus exulting in their euphoric victory while feeling sorry and contrite for the harsh and offending words used by him that hurt the collective sentiments of thousands or then should I say legions of team India cricketing fans..........
One ardently hopes that this unsolicited or then should I say thoroughly warranted lesson in humility and etiquette as well as his having to eat humble pie after gloating and exulting in/after team India's semi final loss will not only serve to make Mushfiqur Rahim a far better and more polished human being who will learn to accept both victory and defeat with equanimity and brevity instead of exulting at others losses and miseries........

JUDGE JURY AND EXECUTIONER..........

Can one justify the dispensation of justice by oneself or then appropriating the role of judge; jury and executioner notwithstanding the barbarity; heinousness or savagery of the alleged crime..........
Two young Jharkhand based men namely 24 year old Rinku Paswan and 21 year Chhotu Paswan were apprehended by the Jharkhand police sleuths late on Tuesday evening on the twin charges of bludgeoning their inebriated father to death and subsequently hanging his senseless body from the ceiling in an amateurish attempt at disguising the inadvertent murder as a successful attempt at ending one's life voluntarily........
According to the confession made by the two brothers or then should I say alleged cold blooded murderers the elder Paswan sibling (Rinku) nipped his thoroughly inebriated 49 year old father's (Suraj Paswan's) clumsy attempt to molest his elder daughter in law late on Monday night and let him off after warning him off dire consequences if he ever again deigned to cast his amorous eyes on his wife of four years standing........
Lo and behold both Paswan siblings to their utter shock; consternation and disgust found their sozzled father repeating the same inappropriate and seemingly incestuous behaviour with his younger daughter in law (Chhotu Paswan's wife of eight months standing) a mere hour or so after his first sexual tryst was nipped in the bud by his elder son.........
Incensed beyond belief and inexorably vexed with their father's wild and wanton behaviour both sons set upon their drunken with a vengeance and ended up bludgeoning him to death before they realised the consequences of their vengeful actions..........
In a rather childish attempt at passing of an inadvertent murder caused in the heat of the moment as a successful suicide attempt the brothers hung up their father's lifeless body from the ceiling of their humble abode but soon found their attempt coming to naught when confronted by the relentless questions posed to them by the local police officials who had been alerted by the neighbours who happened to see the ghastly sight of Suraj Paswan's swollen and bloated body hanging from the ceiling..........
Unable to sustain the intensity and ferocity of the volley of questions fired at them by the cops who had arrived on the crime scene pertaining to the numerous injuries inflicted on their father's persona both the alleged suspects confessed to their crime while trying to justify the same by touting the reason that they were left with little or no choice in the matter as their father continued with his nocturnal behavioural pattern of molesting his daughter in laws frequently despite numerous dire and stern warnings and threats to the contrary.........
The murderous siblings were formally arrested by the local police (Buka Village Police Thana of Jharkhand's Garhwa district ) late on Tuesday evening and charges of murder were framed against them; they were subsequently produced before a judicial magistrate on Wednesday morning and he in turn remanded them to 21 days of judicial custody..........
Which brings us back to the moot question of whether or not we can apportion unto ourselves the triple role of judge; jury and executioner no matter however ghastly and unseemly the alleged crime may be.........

ON INCEST AND SUCH OTHER MATTERS.........

Yours truly vividly remembers reading a well meaning article in an Amnesty international publication pertaining to more than 90% of all rapes being perpetrated by either fathers; brothers other blood relatives; friends and acquaintances well over a decade and a half ago and sadly the same holds true to this very day and age........
In the latest reported instance of "forced" and unholy incest reported from our so called civilised; ancient and woman deifying country; a 14 year old minor hailing from Uttar Pradesh's iconic Agra city is reportedly or then should I use the term allegedly five months pregnant after being repeatedly sexually abused and impregnated by none other than her very own father and elder brother.........
This utterly shameful; despicable; condemnable and deplorable episode came to light on a rather eventful and fateful Wednesday (March 30;2016) afternoon when neighbours and other residents of the Agra based locality overheard the amorous as well as depraved father and son using the choicest epithets and abuses while blaming each other for the rather sorry and horrendous plight of the 14 year old minor..........
Well meaning neighbours and other residents of the teeming locality immediately rushed to the local police station and brought this heinous episode to the notice of the men in khakhi who intervened and took the 14 year old girl to a government hospital for the medical termination of her pregnancy but conspicuously failed to register a FIR against either of the two accused (father and brother) of the 14 year old for reasons best known to them.......
Seeing no action being initiated against the rampaging duo a few educated and well meaning residents of the now infamous locality brought this matter to the notice of the Superintendent of Police (Agra Cantonment) Sushil Ghule and this meeting did indeed bear fruti as cases were registered against both the father and son under section 376 (rape) of the IPC as well as the applicable sections of the POCSO Act 2012 thereby leading to the arrest and incarceration of the accused duo.........
Utterly shamed and exposed before the locality and the rest of the world in general and his immediate surroundings in particular; the 26 year old brother of the victim who was married a mere 6 months or so ago tried to end his life by consuming a bottle of pesticide but was stopped in the nick of time by fellow neighbours who spotted his cumbersome and amateurish attempt at committing suicide.........
In the meanwhile the 14 year old survivor's bhabhi (sister-in-law) gave her husband a clean chit while pointing fingers at her father-in-law by alleging that the rotten old man satisfied his raging and immoral sexual urges by repeatedly raping his teenaged daughter as his wife had left for her heavenly abode many moons ago..........
What was that eminent sociologist and social commentator Rajni Kothari said about a woman being another woman's worst enemy..........

"WE NEED A REVOLUTION".........

Do we really need a revolution to set things that we have consciously and inexplicably neglected since August 15;1947 or then do we really need a change of perspective; love; caring; giving and sharing; bestselling author Sachin Garg's latest praiseworthy effort "We Need A Revolution" certainly raises these pertinent questions and lot more besides..........
Dark; direct; poignant; exciting; unusual; somewhat eccentric and last but not the least a treatise with a soul; this 262 page long heartfelt and heartbreaking work of sublime art highlights the rather sorry; pitiable; worrisome and inglorious plight of the all but forgotten Jarawa tribe of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands who have been reduced to mere objects of amusement and entertainment by their so called more civilised and sophisticated fellow humans........
Shubhrodeep Shyamchaudhary; the main protagonist in Garg's noble venture is an aimless and directionless drifter sauntering across India in an effort to rediscover his lost mojo and find his life's purpose when he rather unintentionally and unwittingly stumbles upon these tribals who more than willingly welcome them into their midst........
Shubhrodeep who suffers from an incurable character trait namely being unable to tolerate any wilful or then deliberate instance of injustice or prejudice wreaked upon a fellow human being (yours truly is also afflicted with a similar predilection) soon finds himself inextricably drawn into a vortex of rape; disease; decadence; masterly exploitation and last but not the least beastly and inhumane treatment meted out to these trusting; gullible and innocent tribals by their seemingly more advanced brethren.........
I for one have not forgotten the utterly demeaning; degrading and despicable visuals of the Jarawa men and women dancing and prancing around in all their unabashed glory in an earnest and at the same time heart rending effort to entertain the human safaris who were given permission to pass through their humble abodes and areas populated by them by the powers that be in the afore mentioned islands.........
Human exploitation and trafficking is a crime according to the existing laws of the land but what can one say when it is officially ordained and justified under the pretext of promoting domestic and international tourism as the same would not only enable these unsuspecting tribals to fill their empty and distended bellies but also help them merge with the so called mainstream society that has unscrupulously and selfishly encroached upon the vast tracts of lands held sacrosanct by these very people for centuries........
As it it's wont the English visual media especially one news anchor who is best known for his uncanny ability to shout down his invited panelists and only allow those panelists who agree with his so called informed point of view cried themselves hoarse and shrill for the best part of a week or so in an effort to unmask the so called culprits and unmask the nefarious deeds of the government officials and other powers that be who were instrumental in promoting and propagating these unpalatable human safaris........
Yes; their sterling (?????) efforts in this regard did indeed bear fruit and these now infamous and inflammable human safaris were banned forthwith but soon made a surreptitious re-entry under various other garbs within a pithy three weeks or so as the media frenzy had died down by then and the long suffering Jarawas who were reduced to a few thousands from a few lakhs as a result of these misplaced and misguided efforts to integrate them with the so called mainstream were reduced to a mere footnote in the islands chequered history..........
Garg's "We Need A Revolution" is a telling expose on the antics of self serving obsessed and promoting politicians and officials who can stoop to unimaginable levels and willingly fall into the innermost recesses of hell as long as it fills their coffers and satisfies their insatiable appetite for moolah no matter however it comes their way..........
Will Messrs Modi and his government pay heed to Garg's plaintive cry to do right by the utterly neglected and callously discarded Jarawas and other such "original" settlers of these largely forgotten islands who are on the verge of extinction or then will their wild and wanton exploitation and trafficking continue until they are are a mere footnote and statistic in the history and social anthropology texts of the future........
Will all the self appointed and anointed self appointed guardians of public morality and human rights wake up from their deep and salubrious slumber after reading Garg's clarion call for an immediate and far reaching social and cultural revolution that can set right the self inflicted anomalies and atrocities inflicted on millions of our countrymen by successive governments and their lackeys and don the garbs of well meaning social crusaders who really made a difference where it mattered or then continue to espouse the cause of the Afzal Guru's and Tiger Memon's of this world as it helps to keep them in the media limelight and guarantees them their much sought after fifteen minutes of fame........
Well they and only they can answer this highly pertinent; timely and relevant question.........

YET ANOTHER FUTILE DEATH.........

Resisting and warding off her wannabe sexual predators overtures cost a doughty and daring woman dear as she paid for her bravery with her life.......
According to her disconsolate and grieving family members the 22 year old brave heart (tribal woman) was all alone in her modest village dwelling in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district late on Monday evening when the main accused one Ramkumar Lodhi surreptitiously and stealthily made his way into her domain when he found her home alone........
Lodhi then proceeded to try and subdue her but was surprised; consternated; frustrated and flabbergasted in equal measure when this plucky mother of a four year old daughter not only warded off his unwelcome and dastardly sexual overtures but also began screaming for help at the top of her voice........
Fearing for his life and limb; Lodhi then laid his hands on a jerry can filled with kerosene that lay in the immediate vicinity doused the woman liberally with the same and then set her ablaze with the help of a box of matches before making good his escape from the spot.........
Shocked and disbelieving neighbours rushed to the writhing and piteously moaning woman's aid on hearing her piteous as well as blood curdling screams doused the flames engulfing her and subsequently rushed her to the nearby Banda primary health centre.........
Doctors on duty at the said health centre in turn asked them to rush her to the government hospital in the adjoining Sagar district (of Madhya Pradesh) as they simply did not have access to the facilities and other equipment needed to treat a person in her state.........
The grievously injured woman who suffered more than 75% burns as a result of her emulatory valour and noteworthy bravery unfortunately succumbed to her grievous injuries late on Tuesday night despite the doctors valiant attempts to save her but also named and shamed her tormentor in her dying declaration recorded by one of the doctors attending on her on his mobile handset.........
She also revealed the fact that both her mother as well as her four year old daughter had complained to both the village elders as well as the village panchayat about the sexually deviant and highly offensive behaviour of the accused Ramkumar Lodhi on numerous occasions but they conspicuously deigned to look the other way and condone Lodhi's misadventures.........
To compound matters the thana or kotwali in charge refused to register a case under the relevant and applicable sections of the Indian Penal Code against the accused as the complaint against the accused was lodged by the doctors attending on her and not by her family members who were simply too distressed and distraught on losing a loved one in this gruesome manner and also because her dying declaration was not recorded either by a person in khakhi or a judicial magistrate..........
Yet another sterling and noteworthy example of how an ancient and supposedly civilised nation and society treats it's long suffering and endlessly oppressed and harassed womenfolk.........

AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE.......

Wonders will never cease as this brave heart or then should I say foolhardy individual consumed a poisonous snake in it's entirety and yet lives on to tell the tale........
It all happened on a fateful Monday afternoon when 30 year old Surendra Oraon a long term resident of Harmu village in Jharkhand's Lohardaga district (60 kilometres west of the state's capital) devoured an almost seven foot long King Cobra in it's entirety (sans it's head) after being bitten by it while at work in his fields........
Oroan who felt faint after consuming the reptile then rushed home and informed his family members who rushed him to the nearby district government hospital after hearing of his brush with death.........
Doctors at the district hospital immediately took him under their wing and administered an antidote that not only saved Oraon's life and limb but also enable him to walk out of the said hospital in fine fettle a mere 24 hours or so after being admitted to the same.......
Narrating his tale of valour or then extreme stupidity and gulliibility (depending on how you look at the situation); Oraon pithily remarked that he had heard of at least five or six individuals from adjoining villages living to tell the tale after devouring highly poisonous and toxic snakes in similar circumstances and hence decided to adhere to the same policy..........
Backing his incredulous claim a close friend of Oraon's claims that he personally knows five such individuals who have performed similar feats and live on to not only tell the tale but also exhort others to follow in their exalted footsteps.........
Well all one can say in conclusion is that such bizarre occurrences and instances only seem to happen in our beloved country and we all love to narrate such tales right out of the annals of Ripley's Believe It Or Not while embellishing the same with our very own two bits.........
Here's wishing this incredible gent a long; healthy; fruitful and adventurous life replete with many more such instances that have us reacting with sheer incredulity and jaw dropping amazement......

BEWARE SEXUAL DEVIANT ON THE PROWL.......

Young and innocent boys seem to be finding themselves at the receiving end of sexual deviants sinister and macabre antics now..........
In the latest reported incident of sexually deviant behaviour reported from the National Capital Region (NCR) a minor nine year old boy was allegedly sodomised by his neighbour in Haryana's Faridabad city late on Monday evening........
According to the grievously injured boys parents; Vishnu a 23 year old young man who has been residing in the house next to theirs for a number of years lured the gullible and believing nine year old into his abode on the pretext of showing him his favourite cartoons starring Chhota Bheem and Mighty Raju.......
He disrobed the young boy pulled off his underpants and then proceeded to sodomise him thereby inflicting grievous injuries on the minors nether regions before dropping the now copiously weeping boy back at his residence before making good his escape from the crime scene.........
Noticing their son's rather pitiable and harrowing plight the parents proceeded to question their son who haltingly and painfully narrated the inglorious fate that had befallen him a little earlier in the evening.........
The parents then proceeded to lodge a police complaint against the main accused Vishnu at a neighbouring police station before admitting their darling son in a corporate hospital where he is slowly but surely recovering from the injuries inflicted on him by a monster who deserves to be castrated as soon as he is caught by the cops who have begun turning heaven and earth in their efforts to apprehend him at the earliest.......
Yet another sterling example of our sexual depravity; unnatural tendencies and convoluted tendencies of inflicting the maximum punishment and shame on those who deserve to be mollycoddled; embraced and nurtured at this stage of their budding lives........

AND SO THE HORROR STORY CONTINUES........

Actresses of repute are also not immune to the wiles of marauding sexual predators who more than have their way with them.......
In a candid and heart rending expose up and coming Marathi film actress Nikita Gokhale painstakingly and emotionally revealed how she was sexually exploited on her arduous and perilous journey to the pinnacle of fame and glory.........
According to the doughty and more than candid cine star her horror story began when she was a class IX student in a Pune based school and subjected to all kinds of sexual depravities and perversions by her tuition teacher at the time.......
" Yes; I was fortunate enough to escape the ignominy and trauma of being sexually abused when I was a little girl but my nightmares began when this maths and physics tuition teacher whose home I used to frequent while in the ninth standard began touching me inappropriately and clicking photographs of my intimate body parts despite my being mostly clad in demure and old fashioned salwar kameezes".........
"He also began to blackmail me and sought sexual favours from me as he held the Damocles sword of revealing those photographs of my intimate and secret body parts before the rest of the world if I did not accede to his nefarious and outlandish sexual overtures".........
" I somehow managed to summon up the courage to confide in my initially disbelieving and distraught father who confronted the teacher and threatened to have him arrested forthwith if he repeated the same behaviour/s and did not mend his ways forthwith; my harrowing and traumatic ordeal ended as my father stopped sending me for further tuitions; but I still continue to wonder how many more young girls like me must have fallen into his unholy clutches as a leopard seldom changes it's spots".......
Episode two occurred when I had just began embarking on my professional career in a reputed marketing concern located in the national capital when the national marketing head of the concern visited the Delhi office on a professional visit and tried to force himself on me on two separate occasions when I was alone with him in the cabin allotted to him.........
"Raising my decibel levels to their maximum and screaming at the top of my voice saved my honour and chastity as my colleagues rushed to my aid on hearing my ghastly entreaties for help; showered more than a few hefty and rather painful blows on him and subsequently banished him to the darkest and deepest recesses in the concerns hall of shame where he must still be lurking".........
And to think that we still continue to sweep our ugly and heinous truths under the carpet while hanging onto the veneer of a caring; nurturing and so called enlightened society that respects venerates and worships it's womenfolk..........

BRUTAL AND BLOOD CURDLING.........

Once and only once in an eternity comes along a thriller that not only causes you sleepless nights; leaves you thirsting for more; has you on the proverbial knife's edge throughout it's tumultous and heart stopping 325 odd pages that leave you gasping for breath and thirsting for more.........
Debutant author Uday Satpathy's "Brutal" is all this and more and not only has humble and insignificant old me going ga ga over it but also has authors of the eminence of Ravi Subramaniam showering encomiums of thoroughly deserved praise on the same.........
It all begins with a beloved; respected; revered and dormant as a door mouse school teacher standing trial for the murderous; depraved; seemingly inhuman and blood curdling act of massacring eleven of his students for no sane rhyme or reason and the very same Satan reincarnate falls prey to the wiles of a world weary and wizened sniper who guns him down while on his way to a bursting at the seams courtroom in the company of a posse of bewildered and flabbergasted policemen who know no better........
An obscure; hitherto unknown and seemingly nondescript militant outfit claims credit for serving the much desired justice to this mutant monster who deserved no better according to the populace who is baying for his blood and more than willing to lynch him at the first given opportunity; a nation pacified and one more case buried in the teeming millions of police files lying buried in thousands of police stations dotting the landscape of our beloved motherland..........
Two jaded; faded; broken and wounded crime reporters who are nursing seemingly incurable wounds of their own namely Prakash and Seema who seek redemption by uncovering the skeletons lying buried beneath the surface and unravelling the mystery that began eight or so years ago in the Bandhavgarh Tiger reserve think otherwise and hence begins an utterly fascinating and death defying journey.........
Thought they work for opposing television conglomerates who will leave no stone unturned in their efforts to grab the nation's eyeballs; the two friends and professional confidantes find themselves confronted with a global conspiracy and a mind altering drug that can turn a docile; god fearing and rational human being into a devil incarnate and something out off the annals of Alfred Hitchcock's hair raising ghost stories within a mere matter of a few minutes........
Do Prakash and Seema succeed in their mission that places them in death defying situations at every stage of their perilous journey and serve the cause of justice and humanity or then perish in their equally heroic; foolhardy and daredevil attempt to do so; pick up this hair raising thriller at the pocket friendly cost of Rs. 250 from your neighbouring book store as not doing so would only leave you poorer for the experience.........
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED PLEASE DO READ THE SAME WITHOUT FURTHER ADO IF YOU ARE AN ADRENALINE JUNKIE LIKE MOI..........

I AM BACK AT LONG LAST.........

I am back hopefully wiser; wittier; wackier; 32 kilos lighter; far more patient; forgiving; accepting and last but not the least accommodating (I fervently hope so).........
Yes the hiatus has been rather long and arduous; some of it enforced and the rest of it simply due to my innate ability to procrastinate find multitudinous reasons not to do the right thing; incessant travelling and recuperating from the rigours or then should I say after effects of a seven odd hour long life altering surgery..........
On the brighter side this enforced hiatus has made me far more accepting of friends; fellows; countrymen and women and more importantly or significantly relatives with whom I simply did not bother to touch base with for years together........
Wisdom dawns lately on some people and I unashamedly am one of them; my beloved Papa's demise a little over three years ago did make me sit back reflect and realise that it is indeed time that I stopped taking life and people for granted as people who really matter simply vanish into eternity before you even begin to realise their true worth and invaluable relevance and importance in your blessed existence on this planet........
I can now unabashedly say that I touched base with my darling chachu after three and a bit years; visited one of my favourite uncle's (well he has always been Jogesh Uncle to me) abodes in Ahmedabad after a decade and more; honoured my long standing promise of visiting my better half's Mamaji's (mine too) tastefully and artistically constructed residences after years together and last but not the least spent two and a bit blissful and restful days in the company of my favourite Didi (maasi) and her lovely family in Mysore after seven years or so..........
My beloved; revered; respected and adored Baba (Shirdi Waale Sai Baba) summoned my better half and me as he does once every year or so and we we were indeed blessed and delighted to have spent two and a half days in his august company and charan (feet) meditating; contemplating and hopefully bettering our lot as caring and sharing human beings out to make a difference no matter however insignificant it may seem........
The third week of April will see me taking off for Ahmedabad once again; this time on the pretext off attending one of my cousin's weddings and accord me with the opportunity of rekindling and re-establishing dormant and stagnant relationships with people who were dearer to me than life itself in the first two odd decades of this rather eventful 46 year long sojourn on planet Earth.........
Here's looking forward to new beginnings; enriched and mutually rewarding relationships and a far more improved and rejuvenated version of cantakerous; boring; stuffed and staid me.......
P.S: I am technologically challenged and all this twitter; face time; and all such other communication tools and devices seem like Latin and Greek to me so do condescend to communicate with me via facebook or my trusty mobile phone and I promise that I will promptly respond to each one of your queries or efforts to reach out to me...........