Of Love, Greed And Revenge - A True Life Story

Preeth and Preethi met each other by fluke of chance at a cafe inside a Technology park in Bangalore where they both worked in different software companies. They were soon blindly in love.
They were as unlike each other as a peahen is to a peacock. Preethi was practical, logical and a go-getter with a calm demeanor. Preeth was boisterous, temperamental, impulsive and prone to wild moods. Preethi fell for Preeth for his wildly care free attitude and typical north Indian good looks, while she herself was short, diminutive and a little short of pretty.
A year after their marriage, their relationship floundered. Preeth got a placement in the Noida offshoot of his parent MNC company, while Preethi continued her job at Bangalore. Preeth was still in love with Preethi, this time with an eye on the lucrative salary that she drew as assistant manager at a mediocre company, in-spite of having just a year's experience in the field. To him she was a source of easy money, in addition to the hefty salary that he himself drew. When Preethi brought her parents to Bangalore to look after her toddler daughter and to keep her company in an increasingly alienated world, Preeth fell all the more spurned. He called her many a times a day trying to  persuade her to join him in Noida and warned her in no uncertain terms to keep away from her parents. To him, they were the devil incarnate. Torn between the vows of marriage and her comparatively happy life at Bangalore, Preethi managed to take a month's emergency leave from her company and flew to Noida to join Preeth, leaving her daughter in the care of her aging parents.
When she arrived at Noida, she was surprised to be met by repeated, sometimes threatening demands from Preeth to mutually subscribe to a one crore flat in Noida payable over a period of twenty years. Being the rational and thoughtful person she was, Preethi refused. Firstly, she didn't want to stay at Noida, and secondly to her the idea was foolish, their married life still being in infancy. After a stormy month together, she returned to Noida with her parents. She rejoined her company and the status of her communicator at office read - "Finally glad to be at my workplace".
Her co-workers noticed she was subdued and frequently late at work, which was not her norm. The reason was she had late night calls from Preeth and they argued heatedly into the late night hours.
Preeth, at Noida, was meanwhile undergoing a metamorphosis. He was on the verge of paranoia. His hatred for Preeth and her parents, who to him were mere parasites, reached unbearable levels. The only thought on his mind now, day and night, was Preethi and her parents and an unexplained urge for revenge.
One night, a day prior to the festival of lights, he packed his bag and a kirpan (a Sikh ceremonial dagger) that he found in his father's collection of memorabilia. He was not a Sikh, but at that moment, that was the only weapon he could get hands on at short notice, that could destruct . He felt the edge of the kirpan, and satisfactorily noted that it was still sharp since the last time his father had got it polished.
Preethi meanwhile was just returning from office with a heart shaped mud oil lamp painted a deep red, in her purse, that her friends had gifted her that day, along with ceremonial Diwali sweets. Early morning that day she had adorned her hands with the deep reddish brown "mehndi", the temporary tattoo that Indian women decorate their hands prior to an auspicious event. She was not to realize that the red fetish she had was going to have ominous overtones that night.
That same night Preeth was on the 3 am flight to Bangalore, a place which now he loathed, which to him was now Preethi's new home. He arrived at Preethi's rented flat at dawn. He was greeted by Preethi's parents, but they felt something was amiss when they looked at Preeth's blood red, sleepless eyes. Preeth barged in without a word, found Preethi at the kitchen and a loud altercation followed. Preethi's parents sensed something was amiss and carried the toddler kid to the open garden four flats below.
Preethi was stabbed five times in her stomach with the kirpan. Preeth had lost all sense and rationality. He just wanted to finish his torment and tormentors once and for all. Preethi screamed and lay bleeding. Preeth, felt a strange mixture of nausea and relief sweep him and he calmly waited for the police to arrive, to turn himself in.
****
"Education does not make an educated man...", the old man commented, to no one in particular. He was a Bangalore old-timer and had just read the Preethi Arora murder story in the next day's morning newspaper. "Well, these things happen all the time," commented his wife. "Especially with these software people".
"Yes that's true", said the old man and soon forgot the sordid news story he had just read and turned to page 3 to glance at the day's TV schedule for the Friday night Bollywood blockbuster.

Nehru's Tryst With Destiny

I recently completed reading "Freedom At Midnight" by Dominique La Pierre and Larry Collins. I must say I discovered a lot of things absolutely not mentioned in the history books right from third standard to the tenth. Our history books seem to have been written by people with selective amnesia which goes to show how much our education system has degraded. The book is not totally without flaws since it is written by a Frenchman and an Australian two decades back. They have been more than a bit patronizing in the way they have written the book, but can be forgiven for that, as Europeans and Australians can write only the way they think - as Europeans and Australians. The book tells a lot about what happened during partition and the inner story which finds just a mention in our history books as a line or two. The saddening part is that after nearly 65 years, India is still fighting the maladies that has plagued it for centuries - communal riots, poverty, illiteracy and a newer malady - corruption. Why do Indians deserve this? After being guided through the earlier years by visionaries such as Gandhi, Nehru, Menon and Sardar Patel does it still have to be known to the world as a nation of illiterates, of religious bigots and where literary authors have to sell their books by depicting India's poverty in all its glory? I do agree that Nehru's and Gandhi's ideas might not hold much water in a modern world and Indians have indeed taken mostly wise decisions throughout the years, post independence, but still the old demons remain. India is the world's largest democracy, but are our elections just a token public relations exercise as one wiki leaks cable pointed out? Do Indians really benefit from this independence and has it done them any real good? Why are politicians still elected based on caste, class and religion and not on their individual merit? Is independence and democracy just buzz words that has no meaning to the ordinary man out on the farms, out in rural India? Gandhi had preached that every Indian politician and bureaucrat should first learn the ropes of his  trade in the villages of rural India. This might not sound very realistic in a modern world but it is true that most of our doctors and engineers live in the cities and the farmers in rural India have improved their lifestyle just a tad bit, migrating to cities where they believe their future lies. Rahul Gandhi and few of our politicians have lived with villagers in villages for a day or two in what might be a lesson out of Gandhi's book, but was this nothing more than a PR exercise? Has it really benefited the villagers or Rahul Gandhi? India did have it's white revolution(milk), green revolution(food self sufficiency) and technology revolution in the recent years and it's growth rate is enviable. But why can't we still end our past maladies after 65 years - those of communal riots, rural poverty and corruption? And why are basic infrastructure such as quality education, basic sanitation, quality medical care, human rights and rural jobs still a precious luxury for the vast majority of Indians? Gandhi talked about these seventy years back but sad to say our politicians are involved in their own private games and hobbies and know as much of Indian history as an Italian does. Our politicians are the modern day maharajahs - who Nehru and Patel hated so much in their heydays.

The weirdest elections in Indian History

I am apolitical. In fact I think politics only when I read the newspapers or read news on the internet. But some of the events happening around us have involved almost everyone - including the aam aadmi (common man).
Let me give an anecdote that happened on a busy road in the middle of Bangalore a few days back.
I was returning back from the center of Bangalore city after some personal work on my Activa scooter when I was stopped by some traffic policemen who had set up an ambush along a curve of the road.
My first thought was that I was on a one way road. No. Had I inadvertently jumped a traffic signal? No, that was not the case too.
The policemen seemed to be checking expired vehicle insurances. They had already stopped a dozen motorists and were going through their papers. A brash young traffic policeman pointed out to me that my papers were all right - but my insurance would expire the next day. I nodded sheepishly, mumbling something about getting it done tomorrow.
Then he got interested in my registration plates. My vehicle was a Kerala registered vehicle bearing the tell-tale KL letters. "Aah! Out of state vehicle I see", he said delightedly in broken English for my benefit. "I need to see your Road Tax papers from Karnataka Road Transport Office or the No Objection Certificate from the Karanataka RTO!"
I said I did not since I was planning to be in Karnataka for just a few months, which was a perfectly valid reason. The RTO rules do not mandate an NOC or payment of road tax if the duration of stay is short. How else would one motor to Chennai to Goa on a holiday trip in that case?
When I was in Chennai for a short period of 6 months, I had paid the lifetime road tax for the same Activa to avoid being hounded by Tamilnadu traffic

policemen; but Bangalore is different; there are vehicle rolling on the roads from all over India - Delhi, UP, AP, HP, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the like. And the traffic policemen never bother. And Techies are literate - they usually know their rights.
What surprised me was that the brash traffic policeman suggested that I pay a bribe.
I protested saying that I had already paid Tamilnadu road tax, and I couldn't be expected to pay road tax in every state where I go for short stints.
He was unrelenting. "The only option we have is to confiscate your vehicle. And you will have to appear in court", he said with a smug smile.
"Or", he added, pointing to the elderly traffic inspector casually leaning against his bike."You can pay our respected Sir Rs. 300. Just a small nominal fee for you. Kindly request him".
I thought about the strange existing political situation in the country now. A maverick group called the Aam Aadmi Party was counting on its battle against corruption to win the general elections in just a few weeks and all major political parties were engaged in a debate against corruption. How the hell did these traffic policemen aspire to get away with a corrupt act in such times? The AAP was then actively campaigning against all sorts of corruption bottom up and such an action weeks later would have caused the traffic inspector's summary dismissal and probably a jail term too if the AAP came into power! However Karnataka State was then ruled by the Congress, which was expecting major losses in this general elections.
Was this traffic inspector's last attempt at a bribe before he retired or was he just thumbing his nose at the authorities in power or who planned to come in power? Was this his message to say that AAP or not, I am still the man in charge around here.
For me this was a crisis. I either pay the bribe or have my vehicle towed away. And court appearances was unthinkable.
So I handed over 300 rupees to the elderly traffic inspector, who looked at me carefully and handed 100 rupees back. I had bribed someone for the second time in my life!
Is this the beginning of a new era for corruption? Just as there are loopholes to escape the law so there are loopholes to get trapped. No person would prefer to get his vehicle impounded under some arcane law, than paying a couple of hundred rupees to get away scot-free, for example.
Is the Indian way of corruption only going to meta morph into the sophisticated corruption that exists in Gulf countries called "vaasta"? Or the criminal sophistication of the organized Mafia in countries such as Italy?