Lingering fumes

2

The word paradox for its meaning evokes curiosity more than anything else. And the Bhopal Gas tragedy-the worst ever chemical disaster-explains it better than anything else. While the tragedy left behind sufferers who were gifted complications to live with, for the rest of their lives, there are many who gained from the tragedy as well. First those who gained from the tragedy: Justice RS Pathak who brokered the Bhopal agreement on St Valentines day in 1989.Only 3000 people were taken to be dead and 1,20,000 were accepted as injured in the agreement. A full and final compensation of 470 million $ was agreed upon and Justice Pathak later went to the International Court of Justice. Only 3000 dead? What about the remaining 13,274 people whose relatives were subsequently awarded compensation by the courts. Where did they come from? Also 5,73,000 people have been compensated for the deformities....

mentally challenged or mentally advantaged?

9

The realisation came when my colleague Manoj Sharma came gushing with excitement to office one day. He had finished doing a story on Ira who swam across the upper lake in Bhopal. It was a world record of sorts. Ira is a seven-year-old 'mentally challenged' girl and she had to be pushed into water, literally. Not heard of a 'mentally challenged' girl swim such a distance before, hence the record. Couldn't help recollect the day I had jumped into the upper lake while doing an OB during peak summer, trying to tell the world, that it was the only way to beat the heat. I had fixed my moment of glory that day. Before jumping into the lake had placed young divers there so that I could be pulled out the moment I splashed myself into the water. My heart sank before taking the plunge and I was pulled....

With Uma Bharti in Bhopal...

8

Political obituaries unlike post death obits are written to deride at the subject. While the latter generally talks about the positive side of the person who is no longer available in flesh and blood, the former focuses on reasons why he or she walked away into oblivion. Also there are some suggestions on how the subject could have spared the pain of writing the obit. But political obits have a positive side as well. They can, at times, coerce the person who is written off to bounce back with a much stronger resolve. Uma Bharti, the sanyasin from Madhya Pradesh falls in this category and so it was hardly surprising when she marched along with some 5000 plus supporters in Bhopal daring the state government to arrest her for attempting to kill Halke Raja during the Bada Malhera by elections. Of course the government could not arrest her.....

Over to criminals and their lawyers

13

What do you do if you come to know that someone who killed a girl for refusing to serve him a drink has been set free for lack of evidence? Sit at home and pray that you never meet such a person in your life. For some one who can pull the trigger on being refused a drink can get indulged in this pastime of his on the slightest provocation. Stray thoughts but the gun could surely come out if you did not let him overtake your car or if you reacted at his misbehavior with someone who's with you? It could be anyone. And conversely if such thoughts have occupied some mind space of yours what do you do when you meet such a person? Allow him to do whatever he wants to do? Giving him the road could be easy but what about the second fear?....

Netaji breathes his last again

4

For those of us born in free India the role played by the Indian National Army in influencing the British to leave the country depends upon the history books we read. But even before the interpretations made by historians could make any influence, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a hero for me. For being someone, who could dare to think of taking on the mighty British Army. Heroes do become immortal through their deeds and actions but still a day comes when they meet their physical end. The fact that we don't know how Netaji met his end is saddening but what is worse is a deliberate attempt to keep his death a mystery forever. How else could one explain claims of Netaji living an ascetic's life in some remote corner popping up time and again and the media lapping it up, every time? The latest claim comes from Seji....