No One Killed Jessica

On April 29, 1999 a shot was fired from a .22 bore pistol whose loud reverberations lasted over a decade. The shot that killed a vivacious, aspiring model Jessica Lall was fired in the presence of more than 100 'socialites' present at a party in New Delhi. Yet, accused Manu Sharma walked free in 2006 prompting a newspaper headline that read "No One Killed Jessica".
In the ensuing decade, Venod Sharma, father of the accused and a high profile congress leader, paid millions of rupees to silence witnesses. It was not until the Tehelka Magazine did a sting investigation and Star News aired the footage that justice was finally served.
"No One Killed Jessica" faithfully follows the case to emerge a winner.
Almost everyone knows the story. Yet, the film makes some interesting departures to keep the momentum going.
Vidya Balan soars with the unglamorous, distraught and hunchbacked portrayal of Jessica's sister.
Director Raj Kumar Gupta makes direct comment on the society we live in, its voyeuristic tendencies and the judiciary's disregard for justice. Everyone knows the extent of corruption and rot in the system as symptomised by the acquittal of Manu Sharma, but the question as always is who would bell the cat if the police and judiciary do not.
Gupta's film on a true incident bodes well for Bollywood, which is normally not too keen on reality, and the concept of justice itself.

LR SHAJI
EDITOR

An enchantress leaves this world... and her memory lingers...

An amazing woman who celebrated life in all its glory has just moved on! Kamala Das alias Kamala Suraiyya (Madhavikutty) - the well known writer from India has kept her pen down forever today morning in Pune at a pvt. hospital.

Madhavikutty was an enchantress who kept generations of malayalam readers under her spell by her novels and short stories... whereas her other half Kamala Das was the empowered English poet of international acclaim who just fell short of being a nobel laureate though was shortlisted thrice.

35 years back, she took the world by storm by experimenting with her autobiographic fiction - 'My Story'. Three decades back the style adopted in her story was futuristic which has become the norm of autobiography writing today...

Kamala Das is a personality beyond any definition... she had an extremely creative mind... who reinvented herself by taking extreme viewpoints... by celebrating womanhood at a very early age.. taking very bold liberties with her writing... by playing the naive and innocent to an audience... by believing in the beauty of love... Was she a feminist. She's always written about women empowerment and her stories stems out of femininity. but her outlook towards life and universe were more all encompassing based on the image of Radha-Krishna where men and women merge and complement one another to create a perfect world...

Kamala Das has become a cult figure for women writers... she defined the thought process and attitude of a generation of women and set a bench mark for the writers to excel..

Her musings and her interviews are as interesting as reading her stories.. she professes that her life is one long journey in search of love... I hope she finds her soulmate in her next incarnation if this life has not allowed her to fulfill her dreams...

Yes, the persona of Kamala Das is immortalised with her delicate but bold voice and letters...

Shaaji Ramachandran

WE-ME

To me you are like a favorite book,
that was santched away, half read,
A song that I wanted to memorize but,
faded away before I could catch the tune..
You are like the favorite toy that I had ,
lost but never found...

I try to fade away the memories....... of mornings spent together and evenings.. slowly melting away into gloom... but they come back at odd moments... making my eyes spill over and over again...


You are like the Blind God on top of the hills.. to whose temple I could never find the way....
You are like the Mohur... that fell into my beggar's bowl...
Although I never realized the value , was mazed to see it in my dirty bowl...
Then I lost it... dont know where...

Glorified names I call you, even when you twitch your lips in mockery...
I am happy to be the dog, that was fed once and forgotten...
I still wag my tail in gratitude...
You are you and I am me... when I read “ME” upside down, I see “WE” but you could never see the logic....
I am still me and you.. you... There never were two word so apart in meaning....


I go on and on.... you never notice the monotony....
I am still me and you.. you... There never were two word so apart in meaning....


note: this is my new poem,post your comments...

shaajiramachandren

Reading Paulo Coelho

Reading Paulo Coelho is an experience.. It transport the reader to a different plane altogether.. His work is at the same time popular fiction and non fiction ; philosophical and mystic ; like the panchathanthra stories or Esope's tale, it talks about life and its virtues.... the journey called life each one of us takes.. the experience.. the turbulence.. the inner fears and doubts.. the values.. and the light at the end of the tunnel.

Paulo Coelho influence and inspires the reader thru' his work.. It's absolutely amazing to experience a writer who could take you thru' the labyrinths of human mind and affect your thoughts and influence your attitude.. And you reach a state of mind from where there is no turning back..

When I read 'The Alchemist' almost a decade back, I was awaken to the inner spirit which could guide me thru' my journey in search of my treasure.. Isn't it too romantic an idea to think that the whole universe manifest together to make you realise your destiny. It says if you keep your senses in sync, you could never miss those signs and clues it leaves along the path to guide you thru' the right one.....

'The Pilgrimage' is a prelude to 'The Alchemist' about a similar journey to experience life.

'Brida' taught me about the gift I might be possessing and the astral life which connects me to the universe and the people I meet.. It's reassuring to feel that the bonding I feel for a person could well be 'cause of him or her being my soulmate and a part of my universe..

Zaheer talks about the lonely journey each of us has to take in this life.. and no matter how confident and up close you're with another person, you never could fully understand an other being or be in sync.. Each one of us is unique and holds a whole universe within ourselves.

You could never put Paulo Coelho in a conventional box of popular fiction. While he's widely read, Paulo Coelho is way above the likes of popular story tellers (like.. I wouldn't name anyone here.. as I feel what I discuss here transcends all strata of story telling..)

The invisible thread that binds all Paulo Coelho works is mostly spirituality, inner light, the introspection or self search and the journey each one of us takes.. It tells us to leave logic and reasoning out, as life all about the experience and only about the experience.

In his latest novel 'The winner stands alone', Paulo Coelho tries to combine the world of glamour and power and money which rules the scene of today's life and popular fiction with the mystical inner self.. It definitely is a transgression from the Paulo Coelho mould.. but in no way is less important..

If you talk about not being mediocre and stereotyped in life, why not try the same philosophy in your own writing as well.. Paulo Coelho refuse to be stereotyped, when he ventures into a totally different world and try his hand in pulp fiction.. Even then the essence of a Paulo Coelho story is retained in all its glory! and that's the beauty of it!!

Shaaji Ramachandran

Real IPL Player

The fake ipl player has packed bags and boarded his flight back home.. And the real play continues...

IPL fever is catching up faster than swine flu in other parts of the world... South Africa is under its spell now... and its nice to see the 20-20 format becoming a rage now.. this format could give fifa premier league a run for its money...

If you watch 20-20 game, you could see that its more of a ladies game than anything else.. as you could see the celebrities and the hangers-on being the focus of the game.. when a shilpa shetty or a preity zinda moves into the backdrop with their teams, a katrina kaif and mandira bedi emerges into the lime light.. the game is all about glamour and money... when you take a hard look at the team owners, it's interesting to see that its either owned by women or androgynes...

The game is the right platform for homogeneous convergence. You could see players of all nationalities, race and age bond together in the spirit of great sportsmanship and team display.. And boy! it's a treat to watch veterans like Gilchrist, Hayden, Kumble, Symonds and Muraleedharan ruling the roost along side young emerging Indian players like Kamran Khans, Manish Pandeys and Rohit Sharmas..

And as in many other vistas, this definitely is an Indian success saga.. The emerging India putting its signature on yet an other spectrum in the world arena... Proving time and again that we're a nation to watch out for!

Wishing all teams and viewers a wonderful season of 20-20 cricket ahead in the Twenty20 Worldcup tournament coming up next month in London!

Shaaji Ramachandran

End of an era

Here ends another era! Velupillai Prabhakaran is now done and dusted with.. He's now part of a bloody history like Saddam Hussein and Veerappan.. These are a few personalities who had affected or inspired millions of people in Southeast Asian countries at various degrees in the past few decades..

And why do I talk about these three personas, who are totally diverse in the outset in the same breath. While a Saddam Hussein was a ruler who inspired pride in Arab community, Prabhakaran epitomised the aspirations of a segment of people who were marginalised in Srilanka, whereas Veerappan was an outright outcast who dwelled on illegal dealings representing the dark shades of Indian politics and society..

Similarities are plenty ; all three of them terrorised their respective domains to achieve their objectives.. and had been instrumental in breeding terrorism, arm trade and illegal activities by instilling fear in people and controlling them to achieve their means..

No matter how noble a cause is, if the path you choose to achieve it is spewed with blood of innocent people, the cause is defeated by itself and you would be left with no other option, but to meet with a bloody traumatised end.. The history of mankind time and again has taught us that the place it has kept for such people are nowhere but the trash bin!

While I have travelled extensively in Srilanka a few years back, the images that had stayed with me are largely of a wasted paradise.. the potential of a beautiful country had been laid waste by thoughtless manipulations of both shortsighted LTTE and the arrogant and stubborn Srilankan Govts who were equally responsible for stealing away the 'rights to live' from many generations living there ... what happens to the Srilankan Tamils now.. would they get their rightful place in the country. would they share power and enjoy equal privileges with their Simhalese counterparts now. who will speak up for them.. now who will fight their battles...

If you want to know and get deep into the Srilankan psyche, I appeal to you my readers, to watch the film 'Machan' by Umberto Passolini.. It speaks volumes on the current Srilakan situation in a tragic but comic way!

Finally I think India could play a major role in reconstructing the civil war affected island next door.. I wish India would take upon its shoulders the responsibility of building a new generation of peace and harmony in Srilanka by uniting the Tamils and Simhalese and inspiring them to respect each other. Otherwise we would witness the emergence of an other Prabhakaran and another LTTE in the region and it would continue to be the never ending saga of tragedies...

Shaaji Ramachandran

The people's verdict

The largest democracy in the world has time and again proved its mettle. The emerging picture is of an united India - without so called socio economic divides like rural-urban, poor-rich, hindu-muslim, so on and so forth - voting together for stability and good governance.

This emerging India is more matured and sensible in its thinking and choice they've to make. India has expelled the pseudo leftism practiced by the communist parties of India. The so called apostles of working class has failed to reinvent themselves at pace with the aspiring India. Their obsolete ideologies which they themselves do not practice (what an irony when the leaders of the party languishing in luxuries debate about the needs of the poor India and claim to be anti-capitalist while taking a regressive and anti national stand in nuclear deal of the country) what will happen to a Karat now.. where's Pinarayi Vijayan and his arrogance..

The left parties in India shows more of a Stalinist fascist attittude than the erstwhile Ssoviet Union and Hitler's Germany put together.. It was in display in Singoor at its ugliest form! Left is an ideology which is pro-upper class in reality, while they project a pseudo image of being pro-working class. West Bengal and Kerala has been victimised for decades now by this regressive politics displayed by the left and I hope this mandate would evolve into a mass movement to eradicate them from India..

Credit goes to the Indian voter, who the politicians always thought they could manipulate with their hate speeches, by arousing communal and regional sentiments.. they could not be more wrong !! An Andhra has shown they have come off age of the NTR era by putting a Praja Rajya in its place, which is an unexpected blow to a Chiranjeevi who expected to repeat the NTR era...

Where's a Vaiko who tried to play on the sentiments of Tamils by shedding crocodile tears for the Tamil diaspora in Srilanka. Tamil voters showed their maturity by kicking him out and denouncing any support to any act of terrorism. They refuse to be bogged down by regressive sentimentalism anymore...

And the Indian voter - 'the illiterate and the poor' - voted in favour of a Navin Patnaik and Nitish Kumar and YS Rajasekhara Reddy.. displaying their keen acumen and intelligence to make the right choice and by placing importance to good governance above any petty political campaigns.

This is a victory of the era of Manmohan Singh - whose claim to the top office in Indian democracy is his credentials and competency to hold the post.. and nothing else matters.. And this is the victory of Indian voters who knows what is best for them!!

Shaji Ramachandran