Life goes on...

It happens only in India…

This morning I read in the newspaper about a young boy who had been convicted of stealing Rs 200…and his punishment? A bail of Rs 10,000…

Reading it forced me to wonder on the enormity of the crime committed. The usual penalty of such an offence is an imprisonment of up to three months, a year of which has already passed since his arrest. He was one of the many lesser mortals who could a squeeze a year out of three months. I wouldn’t go into the debate on whether he was guilty or not, but what bothers me is the situation. How could someone be expected to pay up 10,000 bucks if he was accused of stealing 200 bucks? Is it a mockery of the judicial system or is it a very not-so-subtle way of making a small crime big? After all size does matter…

In a country a certain chief of an organization gets away with stealing crores of rupees in fancy scams, ministers swindle millions of rupees and each one makes it a personal battle, making each scam bigger than the previous one. Even if they are sent behind bars due to some stroke of good fortune, they are spotted having high tea with the warden squandering the hard earned money of the tax payers.

The boy’s father passed away without being able to meet him since his imprisonment. There are no takers for him in jail now but a certain terrorist accused of manslaughter has been living in luxury in one of our jails for more than a couple of years now and millions of the taxpayers’ money is spent on his security and well being.

Such dichotomy really leaves me speechless and the more I think about it, the more mindboggling it becomes. We boast of being a peace loving nation which believes in giving an equal and fair trial to all but the definition of equality and justice differs with every case. Such a variety is not available anywhere and certainly not desired by anyone. A boy loses a year of his life , his father and above all his innocence for stealing a mere Rs 200 whereas a wannabe actress not only walks scot-free for being a partner in a gruesome murder but also bags a movie based on her life and ‘struggle’.

The struggle of us mortals seeing all this happen never ceases...so does the cliché ‘life goes on’.

My First Crush!

While surfing channels on the TV today, I came across the movie ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ on Set Max and that was the end of all suffering…err …I mean surfing. That movie has my earliest and fondest memories attached to it. It is the first movie I remember watching in a theater. Prtam Dada had come to visit us after his ICSE exams and Ma had taken him for the movie as a treat. Lata aunty was the third one in the team and Sanju and I were tagged along since there was no one to babysit us. We were what…five years old! It was after the final exams of class Prep and our new session of standard One was yet to begin. I still remember the moment I saw Aamir Khan… Oh my gosh! Still the same set of butterflies flutter in my stomach and I still go weak in the knees every time I watch him, especially in that particular movie.


Aamir Khan was my first ever crush and boy did I start early or what! I don’t remember much of the movie from then but what is still etched deeply in my memory is the cover of the audio cassette of the movie with his picture on it. That was my companion for a long time to come and Pritam Dada bears testimony to that. The thrill of something never felt before, the immensely cute looks and the super lovable factor of THE Aamir Khan has not left me till date.

Just a fortnight after my first ‘real’ movie the new session began. I was still seeing Aamir Khan all around and there came Chetan. He had flunked class I and hence was destined to be with us. I took it as God’s signal that Aamir and I were meant to be together because Chetan, to my birdbrain, looked exactly like my darling Aamir. I used to follow Chetan around since he was the closest I could get to my LOVE…silly me!

Time passed and I outgrew the affection for Aamir? Naah… it was Chetan whom I wasn’t attracted to anymore. I still wonder what made him Aamir’s lookalike in my eyes and the answer still eludes me. As far as my loyalties are concerned, Aamir still rules my heart and there is still a very special corner reserved for him. Love you Aamir!