Aarushi Rant.

I don't usually post about cases like these.

Hell, I don't usually post at all.

But I ended up ranting about the Aarushi Case on Facebook Chat a while back.

the Transcript goes a little like this.

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Dylan:Was it you, who posted a link on FB

about Arushi Talwar case

Me:yeah\

I got that from Mystiques blog though

Dylan:is there any way you can get it agaian?

Me:yeah one sec

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/worse-than-a-daughter-s-death

Me:whats the occasion? fancy a re-read?

Dylan:Just wanted to link it to Samadrita.

Me:

Ah. She hasn't read it?

Dylan:maybe she has read it

I dunno.. but she says she thinks that the parents killed her

Me:oh shiiii-

But who can really tell, man?

I mean, the article was compelling and all

Dylan:Yeah I guess

Me:but what kinda ninja would get into a house, kill two people, get out, and not even steal anything AND not wake anyone.

Dylan:http://twitter.com/#!/AuraofDreams/status/61027885619744768

Me:This looks like a job for detective school Q

Dylan:yeah its all very strange

Dylan:sad

Me:Sad?

whats sad is that a shitload more people die everyday in various places in our Country

it never gets reported, and the police pin the blame on someone convenient and call it a day

the only reason this one got attention is cause the victim was well to do

Dylan:...and with the murder pinned on the dad the media could sensationalise it

Me:also, Aarushi was a 'Gen Y' person or whatever.

so she was more relatable

'Today her. Tomorrow it could be you'

thats what the media was trying to say

Nobody mentioned the servant

who was also killed

Dylan:oh yeah

Collateral damage

Me:cause he's poor. Who gives a fuck about poor people if they aren't starving in africa, ay?

those kind of people aren't relatable to the average TV news viewer

give more coverage to the rich kid, pull out her facebook pictures, check her 'morality' and shit

Middle class people gonna lap that up

Me:...

wow

Dylan:and they did

Me:I'm ranting aren't I

Half a mind to copy paste this and put it up on my blog

would you mind if I did?

Dylan:Not at all

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I just got down to watching 'Natural Born Killers' recently. Maybe thats why this topic stuck in my mind when it was brought up.

The movie, for those of you who haven't seen it, is basically about how society perceives violence vs. how murderers perceive violence. It's filled with caricatures of media people and thinly veiled parodies of 'America's Most Wanted'.

Lemme break it down to explain what the problem is:

The media loves violence. I doesn't mean to encourage it, or foster it, No sir, don't get the wrong idea.

But violence is powerful stuff for a media person, and thats because the general public gravitates to it like flies on meat.

Why?

Maybe it's ingrained somewhere in our collective psyche. Maybe we're all creatures of violence and thats why we're so fascinated by it. It taps into some primal part of our psyche and just can't look away.

I don't mean in television or the movies or whatever. Few months ago I saw a drunk man on a railway station get clipped on the shoulder by a train when he stumbled too close to the edge of the platform. Poor guy was bleeding out right there on the platform, and people walking by at the peak of Rush hour stopped in their tracks.
Seconds ago, they had things to do and places to be, but then they all took time out to watch the man bleed.
And don't tell me it's because they were going to help. Most people were content to make comments in the crowd, about how drunk people were the worst, he deserved it, yada yada.

Simply put, it brought out a sort of morbid curiosity in people.

Maybe its evolutionary. If we see what happens to our fellow man, we may be better prepared for if it happens to us.

Whatever the reason, it works.

It stays in your mind, and thats exactly what the media wants. In a nutshell, they want your attention, and they get it by getting you nice and afraid.

Thats basically what was done with the Aarushi case. Victim was a bubbly, sweet, mall-going, facebook using, 'Gen Y' teenager. The kind of person we all might know. Someone we could relate to

They never used the exact words, but they presented all the facts with the implied underlying meaning that said 'If it can happen to her, it could happen to you'.

At that point you might step in and say that te media can do as they want, it's up to the people to make their own decisions.

The problem is, all the media attention put greater pressure on the investigators. For all we know they may have manipulated evidence just to get the case closed as soon as they could. Or they may have done their job well, we don't know. Fact remains though, the minute they declared that the victim's Dad was the prime suspect, it was almost as if every news network in India had a simultaneous orgasm.

The case turned from murder to family drama. They called it the breakdown of the Indian Family. Irrespective of the fact that over 40% of murders occur between victims and offenders who are relatives. No, hell with that, THIS case is where Indian Family values have been killed, never to be seen again.

Then they started questioning the victims 'character' which just fucked my mind completely. Who gives a shit about that? Would you abandon the investigation if it turned out that the victim had 'loose morals' (whatever the fuck that means)? Are you saying that promiscuous people deserve to die?

And there, the media could finally link things to the other big daddy eyeball magnet of the masses. Sex. The 3 things that always interest the middle class. Scandalous Scams, Sensational Violence, and Salacious tales of Sexual escapades. If they managed to link, lets say, a land scam to this, I'm sure a lot of journalists would have been able to make enough to retire right then and there.

No respect for the dead. No peace for the living. Her parents must've gone through hell by that point. And thats why I'm ranting.

Come on,man. Have some respect. Honor that girls memory and don't be dwelling on those aspects of her life that got nothing to do with anything.

After all, she's someone we can relate to, right? A mall-going, facebook using, 'Gen Y' teenager

Politically Correct

Last week, I was chatting with Shady when the topic of The Elections came up. He asked me if I had exercised my new found right to vote, and I answered in the negative ( I haven't got my voters ID yet).

We then got into a discussion about politics in general and the depressingly low turnout in Mumbai South. Most people call it a lot of things, apathy, laziness, the aloofness of the upper class and whatnot. The truth is, it's more of an intelligent man's dilemma.

The number of people living in Bombay with a reasonable income and level of Education is extremely low, when compared to the number of people in the Lower Income or Illiterate bracket. Thus, as the masses are to be pacified, the educated minority feels no need to vote. Besides, even if he's old enough, considered fit to vote, educated and equipped with a Voters ID, who is he going to vote for anyway?

Lets be rational here, there are technically two sides to governance in India. The Right Wingers, with extreme views and a general attitude of Intolerance to most minority denominations. 12 Attacks on churches in 3 states in the last year itself, all of those states under BJP's governance.

Then There's the secular side (Congress). While it may be argued that they are intelligent and can probably do wonders for the country, too many cases have been reported where they have siphoned funds to their own accounts, scammed the crap out of the general populace, that sorta thing.

So that's a decision between a Cunning Scammer or a Dangerous Fanatic. Aren't we spoilt for choice.

Then the Third Front, a confused mess of a coalition with so many contrasting ideologies in one place, their mutually repulsive forces can only be overcome with the prospects of money and power. So much for beliefs.

Independent Candidates? Great locally maybe, but not worth a lot on a national scale.

Small parties like the PPI? maybe if they had a few thousand more candidates being fielded. Of course, as the size of the parties increase, the more people there are who may be susceptible to more base behaviour, no matter how pure the partys declared intentions may be...

49-0 is an even worse option. Unless a vast majority of the people choose the option, it's just as good as not voting at all.

Maybe five years later things might change. Then again, maybe we'll be riding flying pigs then...

P.S.- Just got news that Congress won. Well at least they won't run around setting people on fire...

Sliver of Doubt.

Doubt, it's quite a thing. Sneaks up on you when you least expect it and hits you with all the subtlety of a frag grenade. Not being content with that, it flings those bits of flak at you, which find their way into your brain, and leave you paralysed...

I have temporarily pulled myself up out of the cesspool of depression that my daily routine has become, to take five minutes doing what I do best. Whining and Bitching like no one else can.

It wouldn't be so bad if I was sure I'll never get into IIT. That's fine, I can live with that. It would be friggin sweet if I knew for sure that I'd get a rank, but that's really not the case either. It's this whole 'in between' thing that makes it hard. If I don't try, it's sad cause I'm passing up the chance that I might get in. But if you try and end up getting screwed, well...it's two years wasted and a lifetime's worth of depression for nothing...

I'm not even sure getting in is worth it, now. Sometimes I feel like I just might make it to a seat in IIT-B, other times I feel like my optimism is delusional. Somewhere in the middle, I end up hoping I get into the new IIT-G, which is being mentored by Mumbai, so I'll end up studying in the IIT B campus even if I'm ranked low...

But for it to be worth all this, all the work, all the crippling depression that students endure, IIT has  to be pretty fucking mindblowing. The professors better be some sort of psychics, chanelling the spirits of Einstein or freaking Newton, for this to be worth it. The campus ought to be a damn beach resort, for this to be worth it. Upon graduation, we ought to be declared supreme rulers of the free freakin world. Throw in 42 virgins in heaven and some M&M's, and all of that might just make it all worth it...

I end with a (doctored) line from South Park, which I think summarizes the whole dilemma nicely.

'Trying for IIT is like a man dying of thirst, getting cow urine poured down his throat. He thinks, "Well, I AM thirsty, but this is fucking Cow Piss..."

Assoholic...

My Math professor is an Assoholic- which is to say, he's addicted to being an asshole...

It doesn't give him enough pleasure to give us IIT level sums which he knows we haven't covered in the portion yet, but he shouts at us like a cranky drill seargent hopped up on a coffee and red bull cocktail...complete with his special brand of trash talk...

 

I'm not saying that he says things like 

'You call that differentiation? My Grandma differentiates better than you!'

or

'You boys couldn't integrate a straight line...'

or

'You need to solve a sum every 10 seconds in CET, soldier, and you know what, listening to me, you just wasted 10 seconds! Hop to work, ya lazy no-good, sleep loving, life-having scumbag!' 

But I'm saying he's almost there...

He also takes great pleasure in discussing his weekend plans, smack dab when wer'e in the middle of a real mind boggler, and as a result, I really don't know the answer, but I know that gaping asshole has watched 'You don't mess with the Zohan, Chaos Theory, Hamlet and Hari Puttar (WTF ?-_-) in the past week, not because they were any good, but just because he could...

Arrogant IITian...one of the few bad examples I've met. Here I take the opportunity to quote Samuel L Jackson from one of his most intellectually stimulating movies...-XXX...

'Why is it always the Assholes who pass the tests?'

'The Unwilling Somaiyaite'-How I got into this Hell-Hole...

A lot of you...(If anyone even visits this corner of the net) may wonder WTF the title stands for...

An Explanation is what you deserve, and here it is:-

(WARNING- GRATUITOUS RANTING AHEAD)

After living 16 fun years, the education system decided that I was finally old enough have my ass chomped down on by the jaws of Board exams...

(for those of you lucky folks who are blissfully oblivious, My college admission depended on the shitty 2-digit number I got as a total percentage...Why oh why does the board exam give you the right to judge a person??its a F***ing test result, not a background check...Must be an 'Indian' thing)

So when I finally realized that people look at you funny and discriminate because you didn't cross the 85% barrier (In the case of a science student anyway) I had 3 months to get my ass in line...

Gifted student that I am, I scored 86...

Sadly, this year the yardstick was raised to an 88, after a lot of students crossed the 85 barrier...

This meant that I missed the college I wanted to get into by 1%..and I was presented with a dilemma...

Go to a respected college thats far away...
OR
Go to an O.K. college thats close by...

'Far away' means I have to spend 3 hours a day travelling by train with people packed in like sardines in a can, and my nose stuck in some fellow commuters armpit...this is the reason I picked the O.K. college...lenient attendance, nice timings...close by...what else could a guy want...