Justice calling!!

Ruchika Girhotra case is off media these days.

A 14 year old girl gets molested and commits suicide after 3 years. Reason being, her family is tortured by the molestor to such an extent that the father and brother have to sell all their property, leave job and migrate to the outskirts of a nearby hill station and make living by filling earth...

Yeah, it sounds like a hindi film story, but this is what happened to Ruchika Girhotra some 19 years ago, and the culprit is not only moving free shamelessly; but despite of the case being escalated to the Home Ministry, no firm action has been taken as yet.

This case has left me pondering over many things...

We all know that we are not living in a corruption free country. There is red tapism, bureucracy, bribery all around us. People commit gruesome crimes and roam freely all their lives.

And this is also a similar story, nothing new. But i don't know, for some reason this particular case has left me astounded and scared and worried.

A 14 years old girl goes to tennis court everyday after school to practice. An Inspector General of Police who also happens to be the head of Haryana Lawn Tennis association, calls the girl to his office on one such practice day and molests her. The girl and her friend save themselves that day and run back home. They do not tell their parents out of sheer fear. The next day the IG calls them again. This time they refuse, and tell their parents, and a police compalint is lodged against the IG.

Thats the crime i guess the minor girl committed.

This incident changed the life of Girhotra family. What happened to the family and Ruchika after that can be read through the link above.

Today after 19 years since the incident happened, the case has been transferred to CBI once again...The CBI inquiry is on, and hopefully the family will get "justice".

I don't know what kind of justice would it be. For a family who has lost their daughter, spent a good 19 years of their lives in harrassment, uprooted from their own city, their job, struggling all these years to fight the Indian Judicial system...what justice can they be promised now??

This case has scared me, has made me feel even more insecure in these surroundings. A common man's life in this nation of ours is so very insignificant. The dirty nexus of powerful men at the top can screw whosoever they want to. Its like total gundaraj. It seems money and powerful is the mightiest of all. Common man can only fight and fight for justice...which if comes, would be after a lifetime of struggle and not sure if its severity would match that of the crime the victim has been subjected to!!

This particular incident happened to the educated middle class family, who are aware of their rights, of the law proceedings and can afford to fight a case for so long. The plight of other such incidents which happen to the poor in the remote areas of the country, can be well imagined.

Given the fact that the case has recieved immense limelight, and has reached the highs of Home Minister as well; one can expect positive result in the near future. But my question is: Would any kind of punishment, less than a death sentence, be close to enough to give some relief to the traumatised Girhotra family? Justice has already been denied to them for so long. Anything less than that, would be an insult to the whole case. In the name of justice, it would be nothing but justice denied in the true sense of the word.

Thanks to the media power and Aradhana Prakash, the other young girl who was with Ruchika on that dreadful day of Aug 11, 1990 who is fighting the battle for the past 19 years now. Hats off to a true friend and a responsible citizen.

This case reached the home ministry and now CBI is looking at it again. It would be major dissapointment if Rathore- the main culprit is given any punishment less than a death sentence for the gruesome series of crimes he has commited in this case.

[Abha Rathore - SPS Rathore's wife, who is a lawyer, is supporting her husband and is defending him in the court. Some day I want to do a research on the physcology of such "females" who defend their spouses in cases of molestation and rape]

Life etcetra....

आज बड़े दिन बाद, ऐसे ही बातों बातों में....अपने इंजीनियरिंग preperation के दिन याद आ गए.....चेहरे पे मुस्कराहट आ गयी १ बड़ी से और मन एकाएक ताज़ा सा हो गया...:)... और उस समय की मनःस्थिति भी याद आ गयी....आज जब पीछे मुडके उस समय के जीवन पे नज़र डालती हूँ...तो i feel that there was something about that time that made life appear quite simple and good ...and i wonder why??...there was so much of anxiety, uncertainity.....tension... कि पता नहीं exams clear कर भी पाएंगे या नहीं..... but still....there was something about that period that makes it so memorable....i guess that is because...
ज़िन्दगी में इतना focus किसी उद्देश्य को पूरा करने का उसके बाद शायद कभी नहीं आया...... tension थी, load था, और थोडा डर भी था but साथ ही साथ काफी peace भी था. ये पता था की क्या चाहिए, और ये भी की अगर दिल से मेहनत की और अपना काम पूरा कर लिया, तो फिर चाहे सफलता मिले न मिले, मन को शान्ति रहेगी की इससे अच्छा नहीं कर सकते थे. पढाई की तरफ १ अलग ही रुझान था. 1 disciplined सा नियमित जीवन था, जो more or less entrance exam clear करने के ओर ही घूमता है. (ये बात और है की तब ये discipline/ dedication इतना appreciate नहीं किया जाता था, because it was overridden by the anxiety to pass in it.). A little more drilled attempt at thinking and i feel the main reason was that, during that phase 80% control over the things was in our own hands. Result use to be directly proportional to the amount of hardwork/ commitment you put in. Since this equation was fairly applicable to most of the situations then, so somewhere we had this hope that correct amount of hardwork and dedication would certainly lead to good results. In other words, situation ke variables are in your hands, you have to play with them to maximize the results....:)

And then when I compare life after all these entrance exams and college to my life now; i realise why it is called "real" world..:)
Everything else is same, the hard work, sincerity, commitment, will to succeed....the only thing which has changed is...the equation...which has now become an in-equation...:)....the control of all the variables in this real world is no more in our hands solely. There are external factors which are totally outside our control, which determine the result of our actions- more or less depending on the situation....
And this situation might be anything.....your promotion in this current job, your fight to get a new one, a hearbtreak...anything for that matter...:)
Thats why, life in those student days seems so simple and joyful now...:))
An arguement against this can be, that as we grow, as our horizons expand, everytime we might not be the best judge of what is right for us, hence eventually, all the internal/ external variables work together, to result in what is best "for us" in that situation.
But then, when a part of such situations in life, its not very easy to understand the above theory...:)...

Anyways, hope the best happens to each one of us...and we all soon learn to live with these in-equations...:)
And my engg prep days remind me of my organic chem teacher, sardaarji we use to call him; a super gentle person, who had the habit of using plural for everything. १ बार उन्होंने १ student को बोला....."आप कल अपने "fathers" को बुला के लाइये".... होनहार बालक बोला...." sir कौनसे ??..सिविल lines वाले या neeti nagar वाले" ...:D

ये post लिखते हुए कोई गाना नहीं सुना...फिर भी ये गीत चिपकाने का मन है यहाँ....:)

Three idiots!!

I saw 3 Idiots last week on X-Mas day. An amazingly entertaining movie which will keep you laughing out loudly, throughout. Theatre mein taali baja baja ke hanse hum.... A great plot, super direction and applaudable performances by the whole cast makes the film watchable at least twice. The director has been quite successful in keeping the tempo of the movie consistent throughout the movie. Highs and lows have been so well timed that it surely could not have been better than this. So, basically a super movie to end 2009 with...:)

Kind of movie, jiski DVD khareed ke rakh lo, aur revise karte raho samay samay per...:)

Anyways, i would have dedicated this whole post to the movie itself, had i not seen Mr. Chopra, the producer of the movie, shouting like mad at media some time back on national television. Watching him mis conduct himself forced me to think....ki ye kya hai bhaiyya...kuch bhi...kab tak bevkoof banaoge public ko.....

3 Idiots is based on 5. Some 1 (A super hit book by Chetan Bhagat released in 2004).

Anyone who has read the book can easily say that the storyline of the movie is 70% 5. sum 1. The basic plot is same, the message has been kept intact, 70% of the situations have been copied wihtout any changes, basically the soul of the movie resonates the soul of the book.

But apparently the makers of the movie including Mr. Aamir Khan think otherwise. It was shocking to see the star defending the producer and director by saying that the movie is just 3-5% based on 5. sum 1...:O

I am amazed by the fact how blind and unethical can people become when given some money and power....It was a disgrace seeing the producer of the movie shouting at the media when questioned about the storyline. The producer went to the extent of saying that CB is using Aamir's name to get publicity!!!

Someone please go and tell these people that the youth of India is intelligent enough to exercise their own judgement in deciding who is copying what. I seriously doubt if a person like CB even needs Aamir Khan to get publicity. Dear Mr. Aamir and Mr. Chopra, Kindly open your eyes and realise that your audience is not foolish and there is a huge world of Blogs/ internet/ print media out there which people resort to more often than your movies and hence are aware enough to to understand whos copying whom.

The three idiots (Raju Hirani, Vinod Chopra and Aamir Khan) should be sent flowers saying "get well soon" and at least be true to the profession which earns you bread and butter.

Chetan Bhagat may not be a legendary writer, but then what is his is his. You can't just take credit of his work and then slam him publicly in media. Thats just not done.

Anyways, this is just a not so harmful version of how unethical people at the top can get.

Ruchika Girhotra's case is another case which makes me sit down and think...for how long are we going to be The Helpless citizens in our own country?? Where actually are we headed to, as a society...as a nation??

2010 is here, i just hope, wish and pray that the coming year brings justice to all, is more peaceful and happier for all the suffering souls around....

cheers..