Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Kohl Lined Eyes







A bird trapped in a room fluttering with fear, or an eagle keen to soar with blood on her claws?
The stoic face revealed nothing. The kohl lined eyes remained expressionless. The eyes had witnessed a ghastly killing. At that point did they widen in horror? Or did they narrow with hatred. Perhaps the vision blinded with shock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yu2tQ6zBo

Did the hands shudder while buying a butcher’s knife? Fingers which might have ruffled the young man’s hair at some point, did they quiver while shoving him in a sports bag?

Did those black stilettos worn at the press conference realize they were treading on a grieving mothers heart?

When she bought a perfume to remove the emanating stench, she did not realize that it will never go away.

And as for drama, there was that too. The girl’s lawyer organized a press conference to inform that the young boy was not hacked into 300 pieces but only 5 pieces. And in all his wisdom he thought that the fewer number made Maria a good girl.

The wannabe who was so desperate for a small role in a television serial that she was ready to sleep with the boy who she later disposed off in a sports bag is now being offered lead roles in movies. How ironical!

Then we have Mr. Ram Gopal Verma who loves to drool over human loss, vicariously feasting on human grief satisfying his creative cravings. Immediately after 26/11 he had visited The Taj, the scene of death and mayhem. He wanted to make a film based on the terror attacks. Now he wants to play with the emotions of parents who wait for some sense of closure. Similarly a certain nobody called Kamal Khan had announced a movie on the Arushi murder case depicting the parents as killers, even before judgment had been pronounced.

Forget RGV, the intellectual twitterati are finding humor in the case. A newspaper from Mumbai has published a distasteful war of repartee's. I don’t find this wrestling of intellectual superiority funny at all.

Suhel Seth tweets: “Now that the devilish Maria is free, she could endorse some brand of knife!!!”

To which Pritish Nandy quickly replies: “Lesson#1 for @suhelseth: Do not call any woman devilish simply because you can’t handle her.”

Seth suggested that Nandy try casting Maria in one in one of his films but “just make sure there's no couch...she'll take Bobbit to another level!”

Nandy replies: “Maria can only be cast as Maria, as of now. And she has shown that her surgical skills are far better than Lorena Bobbit's.”

Firstly it was Jerome who allegedly hacked the young man and Maria was an accomplice. These Bobbit jokes are not helping the cause anyway. Do we not feel anything for the hapless parents of the murdered boy? The judge has ordered Maria Susairaj to pay Rs. 50,000 and Emile Jerome Rs. 1 lakh to Neeraj Grover’s parents as fine. Why insult Grover's family with any amount?

The only silver lining in this gory murder case is that a section of media is providing a voice to the victims (Priyadarshini Mattoo, Ruchika Girotra, Jessica Lall) and highlighting the injustice done.

What is unfortunate is that we love to reduce everything to tabloid level tamasha. Am I indulging in the same crime of sensationalizing the issue? I hope not. The aim is to sensitize and not sensationalize.

One man’s tragedy need not be another man’s entertainment.

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31 comments:

  1. You aren't sensationalizing it, maybe one of them wasn't too. But then, satires don't get into everyone's head easily. Had it been so, people would not make fool of themselves by posting silly replies.

    Cheers,
    Blasphemous Aesthete

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  2. Where did my comment go? :( Move to WordPress. :)

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  3. mine n couple of the earlier comments are missing.....:(

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  4. lets hope n pray that some sense prevails among these ppl n they stop reducing such incidents into "tabloid level tamasha"....

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  5. Since you changed it back to normal my "achha khassa" comment is gone. Sob-sob.
    "I flared some rants over RGV.", Synopsis. :P

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  6. In the end its only the boys who suffer and the girls escort free. In recent case one boy died and the other is in jail just 'coz they couldn't control their adrenalin rush.

    And, no matter what RGV do his movies are all blockbuster disasters.

    I guess, Honorable SC will do justice to the case.

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  7. ...to me I would say its sad!
    whatever the case might be ...Public knows all..cant fool anyone!

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  8. i am going to stay away from taking sides ...just recently read a writer acquiting arushi's parents....so convincing and confusing

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  9. What is being widely reported is someone's interpretation of a crime he did not witness. The media needs to show some maturity while making speculations - someone's life depends on it.

    Look what a mess they made of the Arushi case - an entire family was destroyed.

    But it's not as if I am supporting Maria - I am convinced all that is an act. But then again my opinion is based on assumptions.

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  10. I feel very very bad about what I have read. It seems to be a shameless world of publicity these days. Every issue is trivialized. Behind the muck-slinging and the rude comments, who remembers the human beings who face the tamasha. Welcome to the world of tabloid journalism.

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  11. There is something wrong with comment posting

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  12. @Anshul...Satire sure needs mature and sensible heads.

    @Ajay... I read it dear. It is this new intense debate/comment luv thing my son installed on my blog which appears and disappears on its whims.Your comment was...

    It's shocking to find people being so apathetic and taking voyeuristic pleasure in such incidents. News channels get fodder for days and they take it upon themselves to investigate the case in a detective style reducing it to a pulp fiction. It is not funny to those related to the victim. It is not funny to those who are sane and humane. It is not funny to the psyche of common man. And the so called intellectual people! I despise them. I remember reading a similar article on Arushi by you and you had raised the same wariness and I can you say are sensitizing the issue with a humane treatment.

    My reply..Thanks for remembering my previous post. Its the battle of TRPs. Some do it blatantly some subtly. At the end of the day its entertainment for all except those involved.

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  13. @Irfan... Sorry for making u comment thrice.

    @Prateek... You said, "Our Ram Gopal Verma is such a teasing celeb. People learn from failure but failure learns from RGV and yet fails. His inclination towards Bachchans on Twitter is quite personal too; in fact so personal that in fervour he once used slags and jaw dropping statements.
    It doesn't matter if the plot is reel or real, he want what he never had; limelight.


    My reply...
    So very well said. If one is willing to discuss personal life on twitter then one should be ready for everything. Imagine people betting on the sex of junior Abhi.

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  14. Its disgusting the way some people are sensationalizing these issues; they are really making a tamasha of the murder cases. And the Bollywood directors are deriving a sadistic pleasure from these issues. Everyone is out to get free publicity at someone else's expense. We have become insensitive to other's pain and grief.

    Great post, Alka.

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  15. @Rachit.. you have raised a very valid point about the gender being used to get away. We need serious debate on it. Kanimozhi also wants bail as she is a woman.

    @Harman..True.

    @Jon... I hope I have not taken sides. Only a fair trial will bring closure for the parents.Maria deserves a fair trial and so do the parents.

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  16. @Purba... Todays TOI has Bachis article which says that media is a exploiter whether it glams up the culprit or weeps for the victim. Of course Maria deserves a fair trial just as much as the parents of the victim do.

    @Rachna...True.

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  17. @BKC... Its working fine now.Thanks for informing though.

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  18. I love these posts of yours which highlight the issue in question in a sensible and sensitive manner. I had loved your Arushi post too -- for the cry for a girl who was being killed over and over by the media. More power to your fingers :)

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  19. Most disgusting was they made love after chopping his body....now what does our judiciary have to say about this?

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  20. yeh public hai yeh sab jaanti hai..
    whats sad is even though they know no one says anything ..

    but in reality one person sadness is others persons entertainment for sure

    Bikram's

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  21. hey alka.. very apt satire on a situation which is pervasive.
    "One man’s tragedy need not be another man’s entertainment." This is something which is happening at every nook and corner and something should be done to reduce it, if not completely erase it.
    Good read... Keep posting.

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  22. Pritish Nandy is the same guy who spread the Viv Richards n Neena Gupta story, if i remember correctly. RGV needs to be institutionalised. SC needs to take a stand against media passing sensationalism as news!
    The times we live in now itself is tragic, so laughter is probably the only way to let it go:)

    thanks for sharing the tweets too...Nandy needs one big ONE on his head

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  23. this is definitely sensitive and sad...and you bring out the tragedy in the tragedy that did not end in that room of the appalling murder...

    and Ram Gopal Verma I think is sick and needs help...and so does this girl who is being offered roles..it simply is WTF that i hope we can do something about...

    morals are becoming a matter of convenience now

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  24. @Zephyr...Thanks.

    @Pesto sauce...True.

    @Bikram...Unfortunate reality of TRP times we live in.

    @jyoti..Thanks dear.

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  25. @Oldfox....Its the times of TRPs and yes a bit of humour can spice up things. I was only coming from a mothers point of view. A mother who lost her only son to a crime of passion.


    @Suruchi...So very well said.

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  26. This incident has infuriated me to such an extent that I cannot possibly express in words. This is our justice system? which does not incriminate the woman who was responsible for the brutal murder after all. And how do we know for sure she didn't help murder Neeraj and just stood their and watched? And even if she were scared of Jerome at the moment, why didn't she later confess everything to the police? She played on till the very last moment.
    Women like her that give the rest of us a bad name. Shame!
    Also RGV is a failed director who is yesterday's story. He was just trying to be in the limelight by making such comments.

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  27. typo alert : *stood there and watched*

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  28. glad how you have highlighted the the issues ... seems we have lost all the sensitivity whatever was remaining...

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  29. @Samadrita...So very well said....


    @Rajlakshmi....Thanks.

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  30. Ah. What is this world coming to? Sigh.

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  31. Alka,

    You have called a spade a spade. A lot is there buried which will never come out in open. It is chance of making quick buck which makes people forget there is something called humanity or emotions.

    Take care

    PS : I do remember posting a comment in previous post which seems to have got freedom.

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