A sad goodbye to a man who made millions happy!!!

June 14th, Afternoon- The neighbor of actor Shiney Ahuja’s saw his [ahuja’s] teenage maid crying and leaving distressed.

June 14th, evening- Ahuja’s distressed maid lodged a complaint at Oshiwara’s police station against the actor for allegedly raping her. The girl was immediately sent to Nagpada police hospital for a medical examination. Reports suggested that she was “Physically violated”.

June 14th, night: Shiney Ahuja arrested at his apartment. He was partying with a male friend. When police called him to enquire about the maid’s complain, he allegedly said- things like this happen.

June 15th- The news of the actor’s arrest swarmed all major news channels. The actor accepted his misdeed and suggested it as a case of “consensual X”.

June 15th- The actor’s wife Anupam Ahuja flew from Delhi to Mumbai to be by her husband’s side. She suggested the entire episode as “framed” and his husband’s confession is “Fabricated”.

June 16th and forth: News and media flooded with Shiney Ahuja’s story, analysis, and all sorts of coverage. From quotes of dismayed Bollywood colleagues to wife-in-Shiney-armor, all had their share of say but nothing could help Shiney from spending his current days in police custody.

This is an ideal story of a “gangster” whose “hazaron khwahishein aisi” made him go so weak on “woh lamhe” that he “hijack-ed” the poor maid and allegedly “sin-ed” against her. Now “har pal” his “zindagi rocks” at “Metro’” court & police custody.

“Conspiracy” she cried: There is a mixed reaction to this incident. Industry expressed shock and sworn Shiney is a good man. The good man stated it was consensual sex and “things like this happen”, the maid said she was raped. The medical reports show proof of physical violation but the actor’s wife says her husband is a shy and introvert person, incapable of committing a “crime of passion” like this. And the media is shouting “TRPs” and increased “TRPs”.

So, what is a story without a twist? No sooner, the wife on warpath cried, “Framed” and “Fabricated”, stories of a probable design started making rounds, giving the case a completely new twist. It even bought a new character to conspiracy- gambler boyfriend of the maid. Hmm, what doesn’t kill you makes a good masala potboiler.

So, is it a crime of passion or a well-planned act or a plot against the actor? Well, who knows other than Shiney Ahuja himself and the maid. Both seem to play a whodunnit game for some more time.

When it rains, it pours too. So, what will be the outcome of this all-new controversy? Ummm few guesses-

1. Shiney Ahuja will shift his residence from Oshiwara’s Tarapore towers to someplace else and the event will die its slow death. [Definitely possible]

2. Mrs. Anupam Ahuja will come back to live with her “lonely” husband” [Possible]

3. Out of court settlement [possible]

4. The parties will keep on changing their statements again and again much to the mediocrity of media and readers [Highly possible]

5. Ahuja’s sinking Bollywood career would further demolish, take a pause, and maybe is resurrected. [Emraan Hashmi will get a contender, eh! Rest we hope for best]

6. Labs report may stink fishy and the entire case will be reverted. [Always Possible]

7. Oh yes, most important the guilty party will be identified and punished or may the non-guilty party gets the punishment [Always Possible]

8. Mahesh Bhatt might make another “autobiographical” movie. [Quite Possible]

9. Shiney’ soon to be released movie with Ms. Zeity Printa will be a hit. [Possible]

10. More twists in tales will come. [Possible]

Whatever the consequences will be, the damage is being done. Even if it turns out a matter of a consensual case or Shiney comes ‘shining clean’, things are not going to be the same again, Not only for Shiney and for his famous maid but also for all people around. Imagine what kinds of difficulties bachelor brigade will face and the overgrowing tantrums of maidservants. Gosh.

On a serious note, whatever the result will be, one thing is sure. Celebrities, actors, socialites or business barons, should never allow their success or arrogance to get the better of sense and act as if they are over and above the law. Moreover, when they do it, they must accept the consequences and not accelerate unnecessary public sympathy. They should not come back crying, saying that they are been made the victim of their popularity and their cases are overhyped.

However, rape is a serious crime.

Channel Rape

The word molestation, gang rape, and physical exploitation have become the latest national pastime. I am neither joking nor making light of the situation. Switch on the television and you will find news flooded with increased incidences of rapes and gang rapes.

After the Surat gang rape case, many more such cases came into light. In one case, an auto driver kidnapped an adolescent girl and transported her to a different city where he with a gang of people tortured her for 18 days until she eloped to save her life. In the second case, a man misguided a foreigner woman to his vehicle, lured her for a free lift, and took her aboard. Later he along with his friend physically abused the girl in the moving vehicle for two long hours.

In addition, there was another story of a man acting fresh on his house cleaner, a boy who raped his girlfriend and MMSed it to folks. Many more piteous and sad incidences take place every day. We are a country, where on one side we worship woman in form of goddess Durga & Kali, on other hand curses, abuses our wives, daughters, and sisters, and allow our citizens to rob the pride of a woman. That too not just by rape, but also through eve-teasing, domestic violence, body trafficking, discrimination, foeticide and infanticide, and whatnot.

Long live democracy!!!

Relevant read

Khoya Khoya Chand

Nepal agitation

T

For the uninitiated, the term-curry bashing means hunting down the Indians and beating them.
With over 20 such assaults reported, Question is who is next or how many more and how long?

Is it purely racist lobbying or mere an opportunistic robbery attack? Is it a cultural outcome of global recession or a sheer incident of degrading human values? Is it another blow on faith on our government or a fad that will pass soon? Is it that jingoism has found a new target or a new buyer in media?

Or is there more than what meet the eyes?

In recent years, Australia has become a preferred destination for Indian students seeking to study abroad. Especially after the 9/11 fiasco that lead to tightening of guidelines in USA. Nearly 97000 Indian students are studying in Australia which is a good percentage of Asian population in Australia.

Plight is that most such assaults go unreported, out of fear. Fear of further brutalities, fear of loosing opportunities and fear of fear per se. Indian students do not fight back like African, Chinese or Korean students. Some Indians claim that they are treated as the cash cows with the high entry fee they pay and slaughtered when required. [Well, I may not fully agree with that though]

If it is for recession than it must not be ignored that India is the 4th biggest export market for Australia and talk of free trade treaty is on. But only if that’s the sole underlying reason.

Xenophobia could be a strong contender though. This could also be contributed to the herd mentality of people who forms their own ghetto and do no assimilate. But have you ever pondered why they don’t?

What will be the outcome of this fiasco? Will Indian parents stop sending their children abroad for the fear of racist attacks? But then where would they find a place free from discrimination on this earth?

On our own national turf, home hoodlums periodically target a ‘chosen’ race to keep the electoral votes rolling. Then why is there so much of hullabaloo on Australia bashings? Or why blame UK for that matter? Racism is one big religion in our home turf. India a home to more than 100 languages, where after every 5 kms a new culture could be found, cannot help struggling good deal of racism and various other discriminations. From the skin texture to caste to language to gender to even physical disability, discrimination stands tall with its ugly head up.

But we can’t start disliking a country as a whole if such disgusting events happen there. Can we? The greatest woe of India is that it is so entangled in home discrimination that it has turned blind eye to the world discrimination. Guess what would the combined effort of Sri Ram Sena, Bajrang dal or the anti Hindu brigade have done for the country in its response against the discrimination minted to ‘their’ countrymen abroad.

There is no denial that despite our proven expertise, India is still treated as the “third world country”. Why? Because may be we are too busy to make India unsafe for Indians.

May be to combat such misanthrope some of the Mumbai dreams migrated to Australian skies. We thought that instead of having a forgetful and unrewarding death in Mumbai, its better to migrate to ‘Down under’ but we forgot “as we sow or let sow, so shall we reap”.

It takes a racist to catch a racist. It is like wearing black on white skin to make it look more beautiful especially on social events. But the same color black in social terms is far from beautiful and becomes inferior and undesirable.

Discrimination has splendored ugly personalities. From Apartheid to Marathi Manus Brigade to deriding reference of calling North east populace as “chinky”, people from UP-Bihar as “Bhaiyyas”, Africans as “Niggers”, treating Dalits still as untouchables, handicaps as social taboo, the list is endless. And why just India; around the world discrimination has gifted many dirty offenses to mankind and co-existence.

Open your eyes and you may find Pauline Hanson and Thackeray within. After Germany and Italy, Australia is soon going on the way of Hitler and Mussolini. Interestingly, a little colorless birdie chirped that Mr. Kevin Rudd is learning Cantonese language.

Brain drain is a bigger issue, bigger than being one of the most common topics for academic debates, elocution and works. Deep in my heart I believe that brain drain has important links to solve such acts of aggression. Can we create opportunities in our own geographies rather than running behind the ones created elsewhere? Why do I need to go to IIT only to be the world class engineer? Why can’t the similar quality be awarded to me at my local engineering college or new opportunities created?

It is high time for government of India as well as big industrialist like Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Anil Ambani or IT czar like Narayan Murthy, Azim Premji to open world class higher education institutions in India. This will surely help Indians who opt for studying in foreign countries irrespective of high cost involved, who may opt for getting admission in these to be opened institutions.

Whatever the reasons are racism as an outcome is highly derided. Whether in India, Australia, UK or any other place under the sun, it bears no right to discriminate people on basis of cast, color or race. Let’s not stoop that low. Let’s not, please!

At the end of the day, as somebody suggested, human race is a curry by another name. Call it Coconut curry, Macher jhol, Rogan josh or Rista. All of them are bashed, beaten & cooked to serve hungry machinations. And mankind seems to say “loving it”.

Relevant Reads:

Curry bashing & Indian tourism

Indian Premier League aka IPL, has stirred many storms in the teacups of Indian cricket and media. From frenzy advertisement to back burner gossips, big buyouts to even bigger controversies, IPL season 2 went out [out to SA] to become a bigger Hit than season 1.

The event didn’t end up being a mere sports event. IT has metamorphosed cricket into a bigger industry with Bollywood, corporate, media et all, openly lurking with ladles to sink their teeth deeper in the hot ‘IPL’ pie. IPL turned into India’ first step in $103 billion merchandising and licensing business.

In a cricket crazy nation like India, IPL was served “nimbu maar ke”. From the innovative 20-20 concept to interesting multi-nation, multiplayer concept to an extra garnish of celebrit-ism to feisty cheerleaders. Everything about IPL rocked, rocketed and created fireworks.

Such was the magnitude of the game that even the little commercial breaks created ripples.
The game has not just given a fresh lease of life to the careers of aging celebrities, but it had also instilled life to some ‘fictitious characters’ making them bigger celebrities, overnight.

Just to recall, what was your main star attraction this season? Was it Kolkata Knight Riders, Shilpa Shetty-her beau-Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indian’ Idea, Zingy Ms. Ziety Printa [oops Preity Zinta] or Katrina Kaif’s Jai ho? Or is it that blogs which created havoc in WebSphere? Or is it the fighting, grumbling, screaming, giggling, teasing aliens like creatures during those short commercial breaks?

Yup, I am talking about the Fake IPL player and even superior Zoozoos.

Zoozoo who? The scrawny creatures promoting everything from Cricket alerts, Musical greetings, beauty alerts, live games etc for Vodafone in those commercial breaks. Oh, but they weren't aliens. They were real human beings stuffed into body suits and white plastic fiber heads. The time when I started scribbling this post, they had 10 commercials on the air, promising to reach up to 30. By the time I progressed writing, I lost count.

Had it not been pihu’ quest, I might have not completed this post. Interestingly, he didn’t like the zoozoo character much and still missed the ‘teary-eyed’ pug that Vodafone launched last IPL season.

Coming back to Zoozoos, though there is nothing much left to reveal about them now, I loved the way it stole thunder right under the nose of big celebrities. From “happy to help” to VAS Zoozoos, another feather in the creative caps of Vodafone, taking the company’s brilliant branding to newer heights and how. This crossover of the Casper and Pillsbury characters have over 60000+ fans in Facebook, numerous videos on YouTube and a dedicated microsite by Vodafone.

And not just that when I opened my Orkut account, I saw pictures of a couple of zoozoos adorning my ‘friend’s name’, emoticons, quizzes on Zoozoos. One such was-which kind of Zoozoo are you? If you are expecting the result in this line, well the answer is “Daring” Zoozoo.

Talking about Zoozoo’ popularity, well they seem to be everywhere. From social networking, wallpapers, ringtones, games to local ice cream parlor to PETA awards.

Zoozoo is definitely a brilliant leap in Indian advertising. It has apparently bought back “Satyajit Ray’s” ‘Ang’ back from the west. For Indian telecom, it is a par excellent idea to catch eyeballs and grab plummeting telecom ARPU.

For some, it was an interesting watch, for some selling skill and for some a good change from usual cola wars during matches. But for me, it is coming of age of triumph of so-called underdogs [concept and execution taking a backseat with celebrity endorsement]. An eye-opener for celebrity hankering endorsers, advertisers who pay fat cheques [from consumer's money of course] to over-the-top celebrities to endorse their products mindlessly [sans story, sans appeal]

Kudos to Team Ogilvy & Mather’s and Nirvana films for espying such a “fresh breath of air” concept, and a profitable one too!!!

I still love to hummmm these beautiful lines from one of my most favorite ad campaign of all times…

Every day I want to fly stay by my side…

Every day I want to dream stay by my side…

Every morning I wish I could just play….

Wish the mornings would just stay…

Cheerz!!!