PERMAFROST SETS IN??????????

Well, if the ominous signs visible at the "father of the nation's" mausoleum (samadhi) are any yardstick or indicator to go by, the "thaw" in the mostly warm (?) and congenial (?) relations between the Gandhi's and their "pet" prime minister are certainly there for all to see....... Yes, that is indeed right, the two luminaries came eye to eye and face earlier this morning at Rajghat, wished each other courteously and then ended giving each other a wide berth, with Madame Sonia Gandhi placing herself on a pedestal at least fifty odd feet away from her loyal vassal and serf........ You, still don't believe me, or continue to doubt me, well then check out the picture put out on the headlines today webpage as the same is more than self explanatory and worth much more than the cliched thousand words........ A certain "Yuvraj" or heir apparent (Rahul Gandhi) certainly seems to have succeeded in driving a wedge between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, though many a challenge, controversy and earnest efforts of friends and foes couldn't do so........ For the record and public consumption, Sonia Gandhi has been nothing than more than fulsome in her praise of the prime minister in her last two public rallies and also gone on record saying that the beleaguered prime minister continued to enjoy the unstinted support of the party and such..... But, what she didn't go on to say was that the very same cabinet ministers who were privy to the contents of the now controversial ordinance pertaining to tainted legislators and members of parliament are now conspicuously toeing the line advocated by the heir apparent and also singing hosannas in his praise and benediction heralding him as the new "messiah" and "man of the masses".......... Welcome, to the age of the new and improved (?) Rahul Gandhi, a Rahul who is more than willing to stick out for the much vilified and kicked around Aam Aadmi and is also showing a yearning to be the voice of the same and espouse causes dear to the hearts and minds of the same.......... A flash in the pan or then a belated attempt at countering Modi's "trail blazing" image amongst the middle class and the youth of this gargantuan nation????? Watch this space for further details as a one on one meeting between the two warring satraps is just about coming to an end even as we speak, and the prime minister is slated to meet the president at 12:30 pm and explain his government's reasons for coming up with this nonsensical ordinance as the Yuvraj chose to describe it........ The cabinet meeting slated for 6 pm this evening should be the proverbial last nail in the coffin and give us a more than fair indication of which direction the wind finally blows in........... So let's all hold our horses until then and see where the party president let's her cards fall, though all of us are privy to the fact that she is more than sympathetic to her son's cause........ HAIL INDIAN DEMOCRACY IN THE ERA OF THE GANDHI FAMILY..........

EGG ON HIS FACE??????

Talk about starting with a bang and ending with a whimper and Amritsar Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu's antics surely come to mind...... The MP had made a grandiose announcement about going on a fast unto death as the powers that be in the Punjab government (read the badal father and son) were cold shouldering his parliamentary constituency and playing truant when it came to announcing development projects in the same....... What must be duly noted is the fact that none of the state or central BJP leadership was around to lend Sidhu a helping hand or supporting shoulder when he made this unilateral announcement; one is given to understand that the BJP party president Rajnath Singh did indeed have a telephonic conversation with Mr.Sidhu about the futility of his gesture and tried to dissuade him from doing the same, but then washed his hands off the entire unsavoury episode when the former test cricketer put his foot down........ And so began the tale of Navjot Singh Sidhu's much touted "fast unto death" that wound up within a mere six hours or so on Saturday evening with a letter expressly written by the Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal reassuring the Amritsar MP about the incumbent government's avowed commitment to making Amritsar only second to Chandigarh in terms of development and infrastructure related projects within the next eighteen to twenty four months or so......... One may do well to recall the fact that the deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had very recently reaffirmed his party's intention about making Amritsar "a model of modern development and historical antiquity" (whatever that meant) and also went on to say that tens of major and minor development projects amounting to thousands of crores were on the anvil in the next eighteen months or so......... Will the erudite and effervescent Navjot Singh Sidhu enlighten us as to why he did not take the son's announcement at face value when he was more than willing to wind up his his "fast unto death" within a mere six to seven hours after it's commencement as soon as he received a letter purportedly written by the chief minister of the riparian state......... Wasn't the very same Mr. Sidhu aware of the fact that the son was the real power centre in the coalition government and the father had all but entrusted the administrative responsibilities unto the shoulders of his much younger and far more capable son in view of his advancing years and old age related infirmities......... Whatever it was, the only thing that one can say with a degree of certainty is that Mr. Sidhu ended up with egg all over his face while the Badal duo walked away with all the credit and plaudits for bringing the much neglected Amritsar into the national glare and media limelight once again......... Or then was this amateurish attempt at a face unto death a desperate ploy by the Amritsar MP whose "wanted" posters were put up at many a vantage point by concerned constituents as the MP had been missing in action from his constituency for an inordinately long time on account of his numerous media and television related professional commitments........... One down, many more to come Mr. Sidhu, as this attempt to curry favour with your constituents ended with you falling flat on your face, reinvent yourself and ingratiate yourself with your voters real soon or you might just find yourself relegated to the already formidable number of former or ex Members of Parliament within the next six to seven months or so..........

PLUCKY WOMAN FIGHTS BACK..............

Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, New Delhi, Mumbai and now even Lucknow, will we ever see the ever increasing crimes against women quadruple, or then will the same reach saturation point with the people of this country saying "thus far and no further".......... In the latest monstrous atrocity committed on womendom in a country that allegedly reveres and worships it's womenfolk, a 20 year old US citizen had to jump off a moving auto/tempo after being molested by three men for over twenty minutes in a Lucknow locality late on Saturday night....... The doughty and fearless young woman boarded the already crowded tempo at the Tuliaganj area late on Saturday night and was the only passenger left in the tempo as the rest of them had disembarked at various places during the course of the journey........ Finding her alone, hopelessly outnumbered and supposedly defenceless, the tempo driver proceeded to inappropriately touch and feel and molest her for well over twenty minutes and also deigned to realise the volume of the music system in the vehicle in order to drown out her repeated entreaties for help......... Keeping her wits about her, the young woman who is pursuing a professional course at an institute on Gokhaley Marg and residing in a rental accommodation in Indiranagar somehow managed to evade the clutches of the offenders and jump off the moving vehicle at the Qaiserganj Chowk when it slowed down slightly while negotiating a turn........ This US citizen then made her way to a neighbouring police station on Sunday morning and refused to budge until the cops duly registered an attempt to rape and molestation case against the wannabe lotharios, she also provided the cops with the registration number of the tempo and a graphic description of the three offenders......... The police on their part, tried their level best to dissuade the victim and also negated her attempts to file a complaint initially, but they had little choice other than registering a complaint as desired by the victim when she threatened to take her case to the higher ups and also involve the US embassy staffers if required......... Subsequent to/following on from this rather dramatic turn of events, the local police station not only registered a complaint against the tempo driver Veeru and his two accomplices Rajan and Ayush but also managed to nab them from their respective residences within a few hours....... The trio are currently cooling their heels and libidos in a local police lock up and will be produced in an identification before the victim sometime on Monday afternoon......... Notch up a victory for womanhood and it's innate ability to fight seemingly insurmountable odds.......

THE END OF INNOCENCE..........

How much worse can it get for the bruised, battered, careworn and world weary Indian woman; she is being raped, abused, attacked, dismembered in the name of so called honour and now to add insult to injury, she is being held in captivity against her will and randomly sold to various men as her captives look upon her as a medium through which they can enrich themselves in the shortest possible interim.......


A 19 year old girl/young woman was held in captivity for nearly a year and repeatedly "sold" to many suitors in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district, the 19 year old resident of Pipri village was abducted from just outside her humble abode by two men on the fateful day of November 13, 2012, she was firstly raped by her abductors on numerous occasions and things only got from bad to worse subsequently..........

She was held against her will in captivity ever since that fateful day, shifted frequently from one location to the other by her enterprising and shrewd captives and also "sold" off to many a suitor who handsomely compensated the devious duo handsomely for the use of the young woman's lissome and lithe body.......

The victim had deigned to visit her aunt's place in Bhojpur village when two male residents of her own village Pohri, Bablu and Pasiram happened upon the spot and duly informed her that her mother had been taken seriously ill and admitted to the local government hospital.........

Without trying to ascertain facts for herself and verifying their claims, the young woman set off for her village in the company of the two men with whom she was slightly acquainted...........

Her two male companions however had an entirely distinct agenda on their calculative and devilish minds and led her to a desolated, deserted and isolated place and then proceeded to force themselves upon her to their heart's content.......

And so began a tale of captivity, sordidness, brutality, the end of innocence and the worst imaginable from of bestiality which came to an abrupt and satisfying end for the victim when she managed to make good her escape from the clutches of her abductors and tormentors late on Friday evening on the pretext/excuse of answering nature's call..........

The doughty victim somehow managed to keep her wits about her and make her way to her aunt's abode in Bhojpur village in the wee hours of Saturday morning, she then narrated her tale of woe of horror to her aunt who accompanied her to the local police station so that she could lodge a complaint against her tormentors.............

Showing remarkable alacrity on their part, the local police duly recorded the victim's statement and proceeded to book cases against the two abductors, their female accomplice and the men to whom the victim had been sold under section 370 of the IPC pertaining to the forceful abduction of a woman against her free will with the intention of expoliting her.........

A massive manhunt has been launched to apprehend the absconding culprits at the earliest and the local police officials have exuded confidence about taking them into custody in the shortest possible time........

Cold crumbs of comfort for a devastated and grievously wounded soul??????

ONE MORE VICTIM BITES THE DUST.........

And so the recent spate of so called "honour" or then should I say "dishonour" killings continue unabated, with the fire spreading to Odisha this time around and the hapless victim (18 year old young woman) being charred to death this time around.........


One more innocent victim bites the dust, her only crime (?) being that she wanted to marry and settle down with a boy of her own choice and this assertion of her rights enraged her parents to the extent that they bound and gagged her, and then poured kerosene on her before setting her ablaze.........

A conscientious and caring neighbour Pramod Behera made a beeline towards the hutment in Balakati on the outskirts of the Odishan capital of Bhubaneshwar only to be abruptly stopped in his tracks by the parents of the victim who were looking to make good their escape from the spot, he somehow managed to elude them and pour buckets of water on the victim, alas, it proved to be a case of too little too late..........

The deceased/victim has been identified as Umabharati Mallick, her parents Radha Gobinda and Santilata mallick were duly handed over to the local police by the neighbours who beat them black and blue before doing so, the parents have duly confessed to their gruesome crime and attributed the same to the blossoming relationship between their daughter and one Nigamananda Mallick, a relationship to which they were vehemently opposed.........

The heinous and cold blooded manner in which the assailants set the victim ablaze has even taken the wizened and world weary cops by surprise, the father subdued the victim by initially sitting astride her and subsequently immobilising her limbs, while the mother firstly gagged her in an effort to stifle her screams before dousing her liberally with kerosene and setting her ablaze.........

According to sources close to the couple, Umabharati and Nigamananda had eloped from their original habitat in Balasore district a little over two months ago and settled down in a hutment in Balakati, the parents somehow managed to trace their whereabouts and managed to make an appearance at the same early on Friday morning.........

They calculatedly adopted a conciliatory approach and also made hollow promises about getting the young and oh so desperately in love couple at the earliest given opportunity thereby winning over the couple's confidence and affections..........

Putting their devious and well thought out cold blooded plan into action, they sent Nigamananda out of the house on buying a few articles for their breakfast and lunch before getting rid of their unsuspecting and trusting daughter in this blood curdling manner..........

They planned to make good their escape from the spot after executing their inhuman deed and foisting the blame for the same on Nigamananda thereby killing two birds with one stone, the alert and aware neighbours however poured water on their carefully thought out plans and handed them over to the local police not before meting out their own brand of instant justice........

All that a well meaning and caring person can do is hang his/her head in shame and despair over this rather sorry and alarming state of affairs as numerous rejoinders and instructions from the Supreme Court have done precious little about improving the situation on the ground as respective governments have dismissed the same as nothing more than breaths of hot air as paying heed to these instructions could end up costing them thousands of precious votes.........

Does anybody remember Haryana chief minster Bhupinder Singh Hooda's acerbic and telling comment about not meddling with local practices, customs and traditions as the same could cause large spread discontentment and consternation on the ground and more importantly costing them thousands of votes as the diktat of sarpanches and their likes runs riot over the minds and souls of innocent and illiterate villagers...........

As for a few hundred young lovers losing their lives at the altar of a misplaced sense of "honour" (?) and so called family prestige, do the lives and times of these young folks really matter??????? ;

NO WOMAN NO CRY!!!!!

It certainly seems to be going steadily downhill for the bruised, battered, harassed, vilified, chastised and deplored Indian woman; what with never ending rapes, sexual assaults, gropings, molestations, acid attacks, so called "honour" and "dishonour" killings, and last but not the least rampant female infanticide; yes there are a few bright sparks on a dreary and desolate horizon, but these are very few and in far between and at best offer stray crumbs of comfort to say the very least..........


It does not matter if the woman is handicapped, polio afflicted, physically impaired or then mentally incapacitated, the only thing that matters is that she is a woman and hence fair game for the deranged and delusional sexual proclivities of Indian men as this polio afflicted young woman realised to her horror and dismay.......

Our national capital certainly seems hell bent upon acquiring pride of place when it comes to the dubious art of committing untold atrocities against women; what with a crime being reported against every 18 minutes or so despite the much touted "Nirbhaya" law that keeps being touted as the panacea to all the sexual crimes being committed against Indian womenfolk..........

In the latest incident of spine chilling and blood curdling brutality, a polio afflicted young woman was brutally slashed and left for dead by her paramour and wannabe husband who had escorted the victim to the national capital of getting her a job, marrying her and providing her a life of succour and comfort.......

The assailant Amar (25), who is currently cooling his heels and ardour in police custody led the victim to the national capital posing as an IT professional from Noida; he promised the victim who had lost the use of her legs due to a polio attack during her childhood a "secure, comfortable and reasonably good life", but ended up brutally assaulting her, repeatedly slashing her face,body and limbs with a blade and then leaving her for dead on the roadside........

Thanks to her resilience and never say die spirit, the victim managed to drag her tortured and profusely bleeding self to the busy Govindpuri locality of the national capital before she lost her senses and collapsed in an ungainly heap........

This gruesome incident occurred in the early hours of September 15, and the victim who was rushed to the AIIMS trauma centre by relative strangers is currently our of danger and recuperating from the grievous injuries inflicted upon her by the assailant..........

According to police sources and the doctors attending upon her, the victim had deep gashes on her face, neck, hands, and torso as well as being brutally sexually assaulted on more than one occasion........

Narrating her tale of woe, the hapless victim says that she is paying the price for taking the overtures and offer of unconditional, selfless and life long friendship at face value, the assailant began to spin his web of intrigue and deceit some eight or so months ago by randomly calling her up on her mobile and also texting her at any and every given opportunity........

He soon took to stalking her whenever she left the house with the aid of her crutches and clandestinely befriending her making the optimum use of the opportunities being accorded to him; he soon managed to win the trust and heart of the victim who left behind her parents and six siblings in Bihar as Amar had promised her a life full of love and relative comfort.........

The only bright cloud on the horizon (if one can call it that) for the victim is the fact that an NGO and a few well meaning folks have voluntarily come forward and offered to counsel, rehabilitate as well as provide her with life sustenance skills; the victim on her part steadfastly refuses to go back to her family and says that she will make the best use of the cards that her fateful life has dealt her thus far and serve as a living example of the follies of trusting and believing relative strangers and taking them at face value without verifying their antecedents and credentials...........

HONOUR: HARYANA "ISHTYLE"..........

The more progressive, forward looking, emancipated and oh so modern we pretend to become, a gruesome, heinous, barbaric and inhuman incident puts paid to all our lofty expectations and pretences, thereby exposing us as a primitive, medieval, racist and caste ridden society that clings on to the age old irrelevant and impractical customs and traditions as if they were going out of fashion.........


We may be crying ourselves hoarse at every given opportunity; tom tomming our supposed virtues and oh so upwardly mobile mindsets and thinking, so much for pretences and the art of making a virtue out of blatant hypocrisy; the fact of the matter is that we are still bound by iron clad blood thirsty and stone ageic practices that place or hold the so called "honour" of the clan above the precious lives of their very own.........

Well, the so called "honour killing" industry seems to be alive and kicking what with a young man and woman who also happened to be college as well as life (?) mates being put to sleep in the most calculated, callous and blood curdling ,manner in a village in Haryana's hinterlands on Wednesday.........

Local police officials disclosed the fact that they were closely investigating and probing the deaths of Dharmender 23 and Nidhi 20, residents of Kalanaur village in Haryana's Rohtak district (about 70 odd kms away from the national capital) as their bodies were found under mysterious and perplexing circumstances within the village on Wednesday evening........

While the body of Dharmender was recovered in a dismembered state; with his head lying some distance away from the rest of his body at a spot in close proximity to his humble abode, the mortal remains of the girl (Nidhi) were cremated by her family members in a clandestine and hush hush manner after sunset on Wednesday evening.........

Neighbours however let the cat out of the bag saying that Nidhi's heart rending and piteous screams were heard by one and all a long distance away until her voice and screams were hushed for eternity; on being asked why they did not intervene and make an effort to save the tortured girl's life, the very same neighbours doeled out the excuse of the two deceased young adults being involved with each other in a romantic relationship and such relationships between two people from the opposite sexes are frowned upon by the all powerful khap panchayat as all young men and women belonging to the same village are brothers and sisters in their hackneyed opinion........

More importantly, none of the villagers was able to summon up the courage and wherewithal to raise their voice against and oppose this nonsensical diktat as doing the same would have led to a social boycott, ostracisation and last but not the least banishment from the village for life........

The families of the two victims have made good their escape from the hotspot and both their dwellings were found to be deserted according to neighbours and the very same police sources; the local police on their part have launched a massive manhunt to trace and apprehend the alleged culprits........

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the India of the 21st century, an India wherein sublime and heartfelt love is purported to be the most heinous crime of them all, and misplaced and stereotyped notions about family honour and prestige, the greatest "virtue" of them all..........