Crime, Crime Patrol And The Police

According to a news clip, a thief who stole some jewellery from a shop in London from right under the nose of the shopkeeper and  managed to leave without being caught, is far from celebrating his successful venture. The reason? He was reckless enough to leave his cell phone behind, that too, a phone that was flaunting his own photo as the screen saver.

In Kannada there’s a saying which goes something like this- kallana hendati endidru mundane – meaning, a thief’s wife is bound to be a widow someday. Let’s not take it literally. It generally means that a criminal’s wife cannot be happy or that she cannot expect him to be next to her always. It’s obvious that some day or the other a criminal is bound to get caught despite a carefully planned act.

If you are an Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle fan you will agree with me  in the above said thing. Their Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes always managed to catch on to the most surprising, minute and unsuspected clue to catch the culprits. We commoners would just keep guessing this one or that one to be the villain only to let out a Oh! No on reading the actual name. As a child I had read hundreds of Kannada detective novels written by N Narasimhaiah and later, some of the works of  Telugu writer Yandamury Virendranath, translated to kannada. For my age at that time Narasimhiah was the best detective writer and I really enjoyed reading his books. He’s supposed to have written over 500 detective novels in kannada and very rightly called the father of  Kannada detective novels. Later when I grew up a little and read Yandamury, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie I discovered a whole new world. Whether it was Narasimhaiah or Doyle or Agatha, all of them made it clear to us that however smart or intelligent the criminal may be,  he always leaves a trail behind, of course detectable only by them and not you and me  🙂 In fact my daughter Chaitra calls me Sherlock Holmes because she thinks that nothing can escape my eyes, not even the minutest of details 🙂  She doesn’t know all mothers are Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirots when it comes to their children 🙂

This was about our school days when we didn’t have something called Television to eat into our play time and reading time. As TV came invading our lives and drawing rooms the reading habit has gone with the wind and when we talk of theft, murder or any crime in the Indian context today, the first thing that comes our mind is TV serial. No, no, not CID. Sorry, I’m not a fan of CID. I find it very childish and comical. What I’m talking about are serials like Crime Patrol and Savdhan India.  These two show stories which sometimes are really unbelievable that we have to remind ourselves that these are based on real life incidents in which the culprits are already behind the bars. Some people say that they don’t watch these because if they start watching them, then they will start suspecting each and everybody. But I say that it’s better to be in know of what’s happening outside the safety of the four walls of our house because ignorance is not always bliss. Danger can come from any direction or corner, in any form or disguise. So, why not be mentally prepared at least?

Hats off to these programmes people are now aware what kind of human beings are living in this world. Also these serials have been a kind of eye openers when it comes to the Police force. We always keep cribbing the police are useless, that they do not act on anything. Our movies have spoilt the image of police by showing them arriving only after the hero has beaten the villain and his group black and blue and rescued his heroine along with his mother 🙂 What nonsense! There are good and bad, useful and useless people in all professions and the police force is no exception. So, leave the bad police aside and look at what the good police is doing- is what I learnt after watching these crime based serials. Here, it’s really surprising to see how much of hard work the police does to solve crime mysteries, without leaving anything to doubt. Tracing phone call records, tracking them, crossing state borders in pursuit if criminals, the sincere khabaris, enquiring in the neighbourhood and talking to the relatives etc. Sometimes they have to face threats from politicians and influential rich people who are involved in the crime, directly or indirectly. I must say I’m very impressed.

In a country like India with its huge population crimes are bound to happen. The kind of crimes that I see on these programmes are spine chilling and horrifying. The worst thing is that they are all true stories. The dramatization is done beautifully and believably. It deals with different types of crimes – theft, robbery, fraud, kidnapping, murders, failed love affairs, extra marital affairs, property disputes… the list can go on and on endlessly. The actors, most of them, look like real police officers in their uniforms and mannerisms. Here, you will not find any police officer with his shirt buttons open, like they show in movies. They all look smart and crisp like true police officers specially the Crime Patrol ones. To top it all the anchors Anup Soni of Sony TV and Sushant Singh of Life OK are doing a very good job.

Last week they showed the repeat telecast of 16th December gang rape case on Sony TV and tears rolled down my eyes as I watched it. As we watch more and more of these serials, they not only makes our hearts bleed but  there is a lot to learn from each and every one of them. When the lesson learnt is good there’s no harm in it. But some bad elements of the society may take wrong lessons and inspirations which is unfortunate. The aim of Crime Patrol And Savdhan India is to alert and educate us on all possible crimes. If it happens the other way they are not responsible for that. After all, it’s up to one’s own self what one wants to absorb from the given lesson- to be a good citizen and be happy or be a criminal, leave behind some or the  other trail and end up behind the bars because getting caught is for sure, sooner or later. Make the right choice because as you sow, so shall you reap.  Never hold others responsible for it.

What Is Intelligence Without Wisdom?

This time the Indian Election scene was no different than a Bollywood masala movie. There were self proclaimed heroes, heroines and villains who were at loggerheads with each other. Accusations and counter accusations and lot of mud slinging happened all throughout, till the elections got over.The results were announced on 16th as the nation waited in front of TV sets with a baited breath, though even a child knew what would be the outcome. Everything happened as it was expected to happen and everybody is rejoicing BJP’s clean sweep of the polls.

People of India were disgusted with scam ridden Congress governance –  a foreigner running our country, her immature son and the so efficient and well read Manmohan Singh being ineffective and reduced to a puppet. They were desperate for a change and change happened in the form of Modi.  Admiring the good work done by him in Gujarat people wanted such work in all the states of India. Now Modi will be under severe pressure to perform and deliver whatever is expected of him. I only hope he’ll not crush under the huge burden of the country’s hope and expectations. What people have to keep in mind is that no change or good will happen overnight. So, they need to be patient, understanding and reasonable enough to give Modi sufficient time to prove his worth. More than anything what needs to change is peoples’ attitude and mind set towards everything. Each citizen needs to understand and execute his duty properly so that the government can function smoothly.

In this election the worst happened to Aam Aadmi Party… from being the most hailed party to the rejected status now. Their party symbol, the broom which was meant to sweep off corruption in the country did a boomerang and in the bargain they got swept away like dust on the floor. I feel Kejriwal himself is to be blamed for this. When he was first seen on a public platform people had a lot of respect for him, he being an IIT graduate. The fact that he was seen under the chatrachaya of Anna Hazare and later ditched him to form a political party, went against him. Who had heard of Kejriwal before he was seen with Anna? Anna had always said that he doesn’t want to be a part of  politics and his favourite chela did exactly that leaving Anna red faced. Since people were looking for a change  they voted for AAP and Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi. His biggest mistake was joining hands with the congress which left people open mouthed. Here was a person who was bringing out details of corruptions in the congress party and later went on to join the same party , seeing the carrot hanging in front of him. All big talks, morals and values vanished in thin air when it came to acquiring power.  Kejriwal being Kejriwal, the most confused man in today’s politics, promised so many things which he realized were too difficult to implement, only after he became the CM. But, had he stuck on and continued and done a few good things, he would not be in the position that he is in today. If he wanted to clean the system as he was claiming all the time, he should have stayed in the system and done it. How can you do it when you are powerless? When you have power in hand you can use it to do good for the society and eliminate bad at the same time. But all he did was to resign in a haste and leave all those who had voted for him, nowhere. So people got angry and used his own symbol, the broom, to teach him a lesson in politics 🙂  Now it’ll take a tremendous effort for The AAP to resurface after biting the dust so badly.

So, my heartiest congratulations and all the best to Modi and his people. Hope they will do what is expected of them. A small advice to Kejri Bhai.. you are an intelligent person but intelligence without wisdom is like a well without water. So, watch Modi for a term, learn how to run a government and come back as a better politician and a wise man. May be you will become the next big politician our country would be proud of.

21 May 2014

Lo and behold! Kejriwal the confused soul has done it again! Today the AAP chief was sent to judicial custody in connection with the Gadkari defamation case, for refusing to pay bail bond and opting to go to jail instead. Obviously this is seen as a publicity stunt by others, to attract the attention of people. He was seen apologising to the people of Delhi for his resignation saying that it was misinterpreted by all. Does he think that this is the last resort- ek akhri dav khelke dekh leta hu??

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whims And Fancies Of The Rich And Mighty

In July 2012 a person from Kerala made news for paying 12 lakhs to acquire a number for his vehicle, which had zero as the last two digits and left people wondering about the strange fancies of the wealthy people of India. Again in October 2013, either not wanting to feel left behind or just  feeling inspired, another person from Tamil Nadu, a taxi company owner paid a hefty sum of 33.93 lakhs for a fancy number, 20002000 !! Let’s not forget Vijay Mallya’s penchant for yachts, vintage cars and making calenders with skimpily clad match stick figured girls. How much he spends on these calenders had made news in those days. And then came the news of Mukesh Ambani’s gift to his wife Neeta, the 27 storied Antilia. Twenty seven stories doesn’t sound like one family residence but a housing society!! This gift of love is said to be having six stories exclusively for parking vehicles, three helicopters pads, countless lounges, elevators, powder rooms, guest rooms, ballroom, swimming pools, gym and a full fledged theatre to watch movies with a wine room, snack bar and entertaining space to make movie watching better than the one at an actual cinema hall. Now it is topping Forbes list of the world’s costliest homes.

While the public was still digesting the news of the twenty seven story house Nita Ambani  hogged the limelight with her saree which is supposed to have cost forty lakhs !?!   It is said to be the reproduction of Raja Ravi Verma’s eleven paintings and took one year to take the final shape at Chennai Silks with over thirty people working on it.  It has pure gold embroidery with genuine gem stones and weighs eight kgs!!  It has made ti the Guinness book of world record as the costliest saree.

There are many more such examples of which these are only a few outrageous samples. We middle class people cannot digest such larger than life doings of the rich and the mighty. Isn’t it absolute madness spending in lakhs for a number on your vehicle or a saree?  When lakhs and lakhs of people in the country are striving to make two ends meet, such display of wealth looks disgusting. While people grow old dreaming of a shelter of their own, how must they be feeling when they see buildings like Antilia? Reading about the details of the house in itself so tiring and I wonder if the four or five members of  the family who live there, get to go to all the parts of the house even once in a year 🙂 Why does anybody need an overly huge house even if one is filthy rich? At the end of the day all you need is ONE bed to relax and sleep in.  And given the fact that these are very busy socialites one cant help wondering if they ever get to enjoy the home theatre and this and that.  🙂

All said and done there’s something positive in Ambani’s extravaganza, only if you are willing to take a note of it.  Antilia is taken care of, by a staff of 600 people who are busy in the upkeeping of the house. That means Antilla is the reason behind the running of 600 households in Mumbai. Isn’t that absolutely amazing? Going overboard in one’s display of wealth is one thing and providing employment to hundreds of people is another thing, specially in a country like India where uemployment is a major problem. Same thing goes for the saree episode also because it gave thirty odd weavers work for a year without any gap.  I’m sure this has boosted the morale of all those involved in it’s making and given them a hope that as long as long as people like Ambanis are there, they don’t have  to worry about their rozi roti.  May be, its not as bad as it seems to us. But I still think that the money for those fancy numbers for  the vehicles was not worth it because it didn’t do good to anybody except making the man who spent for it, happy.  I think there is no dearth of such whimsical people and we may get to hear about many more crazy things they do, very soon. 🙂

The Monkey Business

While writing about government quarters I had mentioned about the intelligence of monkeys as I get to see them invading my garden quite often owing to the variety of things they get here.  This gives me an opportunity to observe them closely and I must say I’m both amazed and amused.  Time and again they have proved that they are our ancestors.

Today as I was enjoying some monkey tricks going on in the garden I got hold of the newspaper and there was some news about monkeys that caught my eye. It said the Chinese Air Force has created a battalion of ……. yes, monkeys!! The Peoples’ Liberation Army, it said, has created a group of monkeys to help protect one of the air bases from a huge flock of birds that cause problems for planes during landing and taking off. Earlier, the army had tried all possible things to get rid of these birds like firecrackers, firearms and scarecrows, all in vain 🙂 That’s when they thought of employing the monkeys. Guess what! It’s working and working very well. The monkeys are said to be responding to their masters’ whistles as obediently as any military cadet would!! They have been successful in chasing away the trouble shooter birds .

This particular news reminded me of the time  when my husband was posted at the Army Headquarters,, Sena Bhavan in Delhi in mid nineties. He used to tell me that people working in Sena Bhavan building were a troubled lot because of monkey menace, the small sized and red faced monkeys. Everyday when people came down to the place where their vehicles were parked they would find the scooter seats torn, the side view mirrors of cars meddled with and of course scratches here and there, sometimes attacking people.  These monkeys would come and sit on the window sills at lunchtime and keep making noise asking for something to be given. When the monkey menace became too much, bigger monkeys called the langoors (the ones with black face and long tails) were hired to control and drive away the small monkeys that were troubling people.  Here also, the languor was successful in doing his job 🙂  In fact all government office buildings many other places had this problem it seems and everywhere the langoors provided the much needed relief. But I heard recently that the New Delhi Urban Development Ministry has issued a notice asking to stop the use of langoors for this purpose, may be under pressure from the animal lovers and activists.

If the above incidents show the intelligence of monkeys and their capability to execute the orders given by their trainers, my friend who lives nearby told me about an incident where she got to see the emotional side of monkeys. This friend of mine also has a nice garden lined with trees. ( in Jabalpur cantt almost all houses are like that)  So, one day she saw a group of monkeys sitting unusually quiet. Surprised, she just stood behind the mesh door and watched them.  After a while she realised that one of the monkeys, probably the mother, was hugging a baby monkey which was dead. The mother was not ready to leave it’s baby and was cuddling it all the time while the other monkeys in the group looked at it sympathetically as though they were saying ‘ we understand your grief ‘. This went on for almost three four days with the mother clinging to her baby all the time and not putting her down for a moment also. Her friends would go hopping from tree to tree while she sat watching them. After a few days, probably hit by the hard reality that her baby would not come alive again, she let go of it and went away. When Shashi told us all about this we were all speechless and overcome with sympathy for the mother.

So next time you come across monkeys don’t just shoo them away. Treat them with a little more respect. In a country which worships Lord Hanuman isn’t it sad that these monkeys are stoned and tortured?