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.

The bane of the modern world...

Today our capital city, Delhi was rocked by a series of explosions. Five bombs exploded in the duration of an hour in different parts of the city, and four others were defused. The areas targeted were largely up market commercial centers, popular shopping destinations, especially in the pre festive season.

Terrorism rears its ugly head again, providing another chilling reminder to the grim reality of the modern world. On one hand we have the LHC, the success of which would probably shed more light on the humble beginnings of our planet, and on the other, we have the terror attacks, heralding the impending doom of mankind. We have scores of policy makers debating the moral ethics of scientific experimentation, while they should really be talking about global initiatives to combat terrorism. Each attack brings large scale condemnation from the world leaders, but they need to realize that actions speak louder than words, and they need to act before the terrorists do.

Each attack however makes one thing clear. The terrorists are the scum of the earth, the most dehumanized of mortals. They are worse than the basest of creatures, using their “skills” not for self preservation, but mass destruction. Is he human, who refuses to believe in the sanctity of life? Is he human, who sheds the blood of innocents to display his might? Is he human, who disregards and devalues each and every morale and norm of social beings? Is he human, who uses his intellect to dispassionately plan the cold blooded execution of unsuspecting fellow beings?

The worst terror attacks around the globe have been the acts of religious extremists, particularly Muslims, who term it jehad and claim it to be the will of god. But does that mean that we can become prejudiced against each Muslim? Is each follower of Islam or each turbaned man a terrorist? Prejudice weakens us in our fight against the plague of terrorism. We need to keep an open mind and strengthen ourselves with knowledge and awareness. The first thing that we need to do is however, recognize the fact that a terrorist is not fit to be called a human; he belongs to no country, no religion. He is a dehumanized being, who has lost his moral conscience and his ability to reason. By denying terrorists an identity, social or otherwise, we can undermine their ability to inspire terror.

I think that terrorism can most effectively be combated by preaching the value of coexistence. Religious tolerance can empower us against those who commit heinous crimes in the name of god. Religion is an external system which provides support and moral courage to us. Religion is an individual’s system of faith, to each his own. I believe that for an atheist, his faith in the non existence of god is his religion. We need to understand and respect the religion of everyone around us. Each time we find a fault with someone else’s system of faith, we need to make an effort to learn more about it, as judgment without knowing is prejudice n knowledge empowers us to rise above it. The terrorist outfit which claims responsibility for today’s serial blasts in Delhi proclaim themselves as jehadis, following the will of Allah. The Holy Koran however makes clear distinctions between jehad and fasad. The terrorists misinterpret the holy text and reproduce only the sections which fit their heinous purpose, often out of context. It is up to us to choose whom we believe, their twisted words or our rationale. Each sane person should, I believe, be able to question the way of the terrorists being the way of god, whom we regard as our Savior.

The aftermath of these terror attacks is often widespread chaos and panic. Also those who bear the direct brunt of such attacks become aggressive. Leaders, political and religious alike, call for peace, calm and harmony. But life soon resumes its usual pace. While these attacks disrupt our sense of ordinariness, we are becoming increasingly quick to recover and return to our states of normalcy. While this moral courage is hailed as the never say die spirit, it raises a question in my mind – are we becoming immune? Is our existence in this modern world taking us further away from humanity? Is a terrorist attack not horrifying enough to jar us out of our reverie of a materially secured existence, for which we spend our lives in the mill? The answer is ……