Kohl Lined Eyes

A bird trapped in a room fluttering with fear, or an eagle keen to soar with blood on her claws?
The stoic face revealed nothing. The kohl lined eyes remained expressionless. The eyes had witnessed a ghastly killing. At that point did they widen in horror? Or did they narrow with hatred. Perhaps the vision blinded with shock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yu2tQ6zBo

Did the hands shudder while buying a butcher’s knife? Fingers which might have ruffled the young man’s hair at some point, did they quiver while shoving him in a sports bag?

Did those black stilettos worn at the press conference realize they were treading on a grieving mothers heart?

When she bought a perfume to remove the emanating stench, she did not realize that it will never go away.

And as for drama, there was that too. The girl’s lawyer organized a press conference to inform that the young boy was not hacked into 300 pieces but only 5 pieces. And in all his wisdom he thought that the fewer number made Maria a good girl.

The wannabe who was so desperate for a small role in a television serial that she was ready to sleep with the boy who she later disposed off in a sports bag is now being offered lead roles in movies. How ironical!

Then we have Mr. Ram Gopal Verma who loves to drool over human loss, vicariously feasting on human grief satisfying his creative cravings. Immediately after 26/11 he had visited The Taj, the scene of death and mayhem. He wanted to make a film based on the terror attacks. Now he wants to play with the emotions of parents who wait for some sense of closure. Similarly a certain nobody called Kamal Khan had announced a movie on the Arushi murder case depicting the parents as killers, even before judgment had been pronounced.

Forget RGV, the intellectual twitterati are finding humor in the case. A newspaper from Mumbai has published a distasteful war of repartee's. I don’t find this wrestling of intellectual superiority funny at all.

Suhel Seth tweets: “Now that the devilish Maria is free, she could endorse some brand of knife!!!”

To which Pritish Nandy quickly replies: “Lesson#1 for @suhelseth: Do not call any woman devilish simply because you can’t handle her.”

Seth suggested that Nandy try casting Maria in one in one of his films but “just make sure there's no couch...she'll take Bobbit to another level!”

Nandy replies: “Maria can only be cast as Maria, as of now. And she has shown that her surgical skills are far better than Lorena Bobbit's.”
Firstly it was Jerome who allegedly hacked the young man and Maria was an accomplice. These Bobbit jokes are not helping the cause anyway. Do we not feel anything for the hapless parents of the murdered boy? The judge has ordered Maria Susairaj to pay Rs. 50,000 and Emile Jerome Rs. 1 lakh to Neeraj Grover’s parents as fine. Why insult Grover's family with any amount?

The only silver lining in this gory murder case is that a section of media is providing a voice to the victims (Priyadarshini Mattoo, Ruchika Girotra, Jessica Lall) and highlighting the injustice done.

What is unfortunate is that we love to reduce everything to tabloid level tamasha. Am I indulging in the same crime of sensationalizing the issue? I hope not. The aim is to sensitize and not sensationalize.

One man’s tragedy need not be another man’s entertainment.