Author: admin

The Supreme Court (SC) has analysed section 113B of the Evidence Act with, “If it is found that the husband had harassed the woman for dowry, or treated her cruelly, the court shall presume that he had caused her death.

But Shashi Tharoor doesn’t belong to the ‘cattle class’. A husband belonging to ‘cattle class’ may find himself behind bars and his family may face harassment for years but Shashi Tharoor belongs to different class, the ruling class.
Besides retaining his portfolio, Shashi has even been appointed one of the spokesperson of Congress Party and the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar-Tharoor slowly gets pushed into inside pages of newspapers.
Domestic violence, a politically soft term for ‘wife beating’ has certainly played a role in Sunanda Pushkar-Tharoor’s death. Shashi Tharoor’s version doesn’t match with the statements given by his staff and the injuries on her person points to domestic violence.
In fact, more details have emerged in Sunanda Pushkar case. The ‘few injuries’, ‘not related to her death’ are over a dozen on both her hands and arms and a ‘minor bruise’ caused by a ‘blunt force’ on her cheek.
There are witnesses, including Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari, who have confirmed that the couple fought bitterly for 72 hours – most of the time in public. They were fighting over Shashi’s ‘affair’ with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. Sunanda had obviously hijacked her husband’s e-mail and twitter accounts, had come across the incriminating tweets and mails. She posted some more on his account and created a mini-scandal.
She took the fight to Mehr Tarar, accused her of being a Pak Spy – an allegation that could have cost a Minister in any other country his job – and scheduled a talk with several TV channels.
All hell broke loose!

The marriage of convenience

In an obvious reference to IPL controversy, Sunanda also talked about taking ‘the crimes of her husband on her head’. Marriage itself seems a part of ‘cover-up’.
Continue reading “Sunanda Pushkar-Tharoor died before spilling the beans…”

by

Vijay Tendulkar’s ‘Sakharam Binder’ was among the plays that hit the headlines as ‘controversial’ when it was banned in mid-seventies.
I considered this an over-reaction of an insecure government that provides Z plus security to politicians who recklessly offend sensibilities but bans thought provoking books, plays and films. I have a grouse as the same government refused to give the censor certificate for my historical fictional play set in emergency period ‘Nehru and the Tantrik Woman’ but I won’t go into that.
Dr Rajesh Nahar, an Oncologist based in USA who has left a flourishing career in medicines, like Madhuri Dixit‘s husband Dr Sriram Nene, for a career in acting plays the protagonist. ‘Sakharam Binder’ has been played by actors as versatile as Nilu Phule, Amrish Puri and Kulbhushan Kharbanda!
It was Rajesh’s choice of the play that I was tempted to meet the cast as they rehearsed in a basement of Filmalaya studio. But I had also seen how classics have been murdered in the recent years. Sanjay Leela Bhansali had murdered ‘Devdas’ and also some other murder attempts I don’t to mention now.
Rajesh zeroed on Yogesh Pagare, who has spent two decades in theatre and TV as an actor, writer and director to direct ‘Sakharam Binder’.
Yogesh is directing a Hindi movie ‘Ek Tha Hero’, to be released in mid-2014, and was game to direct Vijay Tendulkar’s play. Rajesh Nahar is good at several languages though it doesn’t matter as this play is in English.
It was he who brought Sharbani Mukherjee in the picture.
Sharbani is a part of the huge family tree of Sashadar Mukherjee which has branches like Joy and Deb Mukherjee, Kajol and Rani Mukherjee among many others.

Sharbani started with a role in ‘Border’ and also did ‘Mitti’ with Salim Akhtar who made the debut film of Rani Mukherjee, and has done a dozen films including two Malayam films.
“Tanuja too has done films in different languages,” Sharbani tells me as I observe the similarity in charisma around her and other Mukherjee girls. It will be a pleasure to watch her on stage.
Continue reading “Mohan Deep on ‘Sakharam Binder’ (Now in English)”

by

Arvind Kejriwal is the aam aadmi who repeats the promises of the communists from sixties that they didn’t keep. Political pundits are skeptical but the youth, which has not witnessed the betrayal by the communists, seem hopeful for a change. He may have sung Pradeep’s ‘Insaan ka insaan se ho bhaaichara’ but has inspired filmmaker Anubhav Sinha to post Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s, ‘Hum dekhenge / laazim hai je hum bhi dekhenege / Who din ki jiska wada hai / Jo loh-e-azal mein likha hai.’
But I remembered Sahir Ludhianvi ‘s ‘Woh subah kabhi to aayegi’
Two great poets! Both echo similar thoughts. I love the poets but don’t know whether we can trust the politicians.
Arvind Kejriwal travelled by Metro and, once upon a time, George Fernandez stepped into a BEST bus to get down at Azad Maidan to give his speech to the Municipal employees. George had got down from a Mercedes at Metro and his chauffeur followed the bus for one kilometer. He was a socialist who could be comfortable with BJP and corruption.
Yogendra Yadav has confirmed that the AAP is indeed socialist.

Here are the two poems:

Continue reading “Kejriwal, Faiz and Sahir”

by