friends or fiends??

Last Saturday, the American student of the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Trombay area of Mumbai had gone for a party with her hostel mate, identified as Annie Brown .They were accompanied by Brown’s five male friends at the popular Cafe XO in nearby Deonar suburb of northeast Mumbai. Later, the victim was invited to the home of one of the accused, at Andheri West. She fell unconscious in the flat.
The suspects allegedly took advantage of the situation and raped her.
Two of the absconding accused in the TISS rape case were nabbed by the Mumbai police on Friday. The two accused had reportedly escaped to Jamshedpur after the incident. Five out of the six accused in TISS rape case are now in police custody, but police are yet to bring into custody the one remaining accused. The victim had gone partying with her hostel-mate, Annie Brown, and five of Browns male friends on Saturday. The group ate and drank at Deonar Cafe XO, where the victim was allegedly forced to drink beyond her capacity, after which she and the five boys proceeded to Andheri. There, the group crashed at the Seven Bungalows flat of a friend - the sixth accused. The girl soon fell unconscious and was allegedly raped by the six boys. The boys had decided at Cafe XO itself that they were going to sexually abuse the girl once they reached Andheri. That is why they kept insisting that she drink some more

This incident has been in the news for more than a week. Horrifying though it is, I did not concern myself much with it. Not until updates started pouring in. Rather disturbing updates. Three of the six accused hail from the same town as me, Jamshedpur. And by virtue of the fact that it is a small town, I know them.
I have memories from a cricket match with one and of an out of town inter school competition with another one. All of them belong to well off and cultured families. They study at premier institutions, and keep their grades up. One of them went out with my friend for a long time. One had a sister I was friends with. One had a shop I went to all the time. They are as normal as anyone of us. Yet now they are infamous. Their names and pictures flashing on national television is like a mockery of all that I thought I knew.
It is ridiculously unnerving to realize that we actually knew these people. Or so we thought. All of a sudden all that we knew, shared, everything seems to have been memories of another lifetime. All of them come from non dysfunctional, normal Indian families. At least two come from joint families; one has three siblings, all sisters.
We Indians thump our chests about family values, traditions, morals et cetera. We heap scorn upon westerners for their "yours, mine and ours” concept. We claim "ATITHI DEVA BHAVA”, guest is god. How then, do we explain what happened? How is this incident reflective of the of our strong value system. We claim to be champions of morality, and yet half a dozen can shock us out of our senses, and hang our head in shame.
The names of the few I thought I knew will live in infamy forever. And this realization makes me wonder. Are we not educated enough to discern right from wrong? Are we not mature enough to understand the impact our actions will have on us and on those we love? Are we not smart enough to know where to draw the line?Do we really know our friends???


even though this is my personal stand, please do read http://tarushagarwal9.blogspot.com/ and http://shinyontheoutside.blogspot.com/2009/04/rant-17-crying-shame.html before you form an opinion.