I do know that this blog, risque in all senses of the term, may not exactly make me popular. Well, something within me says though, that it MUST be attempted. Yes, I am referring to the Sonam saga!
While it was getting unravelled, I was in the Himalayas. Hence the intensity of the danger, may be, I can understand absolutely intimately. The treks and trails are so tough-n-dangerous that neither a supari-killer nor a pistol nor a hatchet is required, believe me, if you are keen on finishing off someone!
Sure, many of the horrendous details of the case I would not know then. One IS quite cut off from such uglinesses, and, yes, one enjoys that grand feel the Himalayas provide in abundance, despite the obvious dangers constantly lurking around you everywhere!
Now, happily and safely back in Pune, with that story constantly being thrown in to your face ( I am sure the frequency must be much less now!), I have been thinking 'through', rather than 'about', it. Nothing seems to make sense to me. Many, much much too many, doubts cloud my mind.
May be, I am too avid a reader of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple and Vyomkesh Bakshi and Narayan Dharap, and types. Somehow though, it confuses me that the so-called double-dealer, the much vilified Sonam is not allowed a single word. It is all the police version, as reported by the media. Forget her legal denying it in the court.
Logically and/or psychologically, if she were indeed such a scheming vamp, would she commit such an obvious crime for which she clearly would be caught? Crime fiction tells us that she would be far more calculating, right? What possibly could be the motive which according to crime narratives drives the characters. NOTHING seems so very attractive about the so-called paramour, Raj, whose mother and sisters were crying their hearts out. They appeared very simple people, not possibly up to much artifice. Neither of the friends of either co-accused ever mentions any 'shadi' and the 'second mangalsutra', et al
Sure, I have not gotten in to all the finer details. The very contours of the roughly known narration appear very curious to me. Makes me wonder if "hawala" money or some business deals/interests etc is involved in the murder for which she is being scapegoated
I find it equally curious that the dead husband is being projected as a saint, if not a god! His mother, unlike the so-called lover's poor mother, always appears on the screen with fancy danglers in her ears, and in good drapes! In the initial videos, she repeatedly says that punishment must be given to whosoever has done it! Indeed, is it business interests of either family that are the real culprits? Otherwise, the Oscar for excellent acting must go to Sonam this year.
Sure, it cannot be a love triangle. In many of the marriage videos, she appears very happy, participating actively in the rituals, too. That Raj fellow appears more an insignificant use-n-throw cog in the wheel, too. There IS something more to this mystery. Of course, I have not bothered to read the details, as I find the entire circus disgusting.
I think, the media are encroaching much too much in to private lives, and unthinkingly. With the tidbits thrown in by baseless gossip and the police, who, may be, want to keep their agenda under wraps, the media have already decided the plot, the culprits, the victim. Roles are too nicely-n-neatly distributed to appear authentic!
Simple details like the dead body being carried away so far from the scene of crime, and that, too, in such a hilly terrain are difficult to unravel as the place has a proper secure bridge,too. Accountability and/or authenticity, in brief, does not seem to matter much to the media. Incidentally, the victim, too, was video-shot chatting with the perpetrators.
Without any fancy feminist positioning, one constantly gets the gnawing suspicion that there is something much more to this media trial. God alone knows what truths would tumble out during the actual court proceedings. Hope the media would report those aspects of their own current clumsy reporting of scandal-mongering. They sure would, I suppose, but only if some other screaming headline were not to obsess them then.
Pratima@ Truth will be, and is, out, however much the powerful and the monied might try to push it under the carpet!